Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:55:37.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lifting the blinkers: a new view of power, diversity and poverty in Mozambican rural labour markets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2008

Christopher Cramer ,
Carlos Oya  and
John Sender
Christopher Cramer*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom
Carlos Oya*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom
John Sender*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom
*
Emails: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper presents some results from the largest rural labour market survey yet conducted in Mozambique. Evidence from three provinces shows that labour markets have a significant impact on the lives of a large number of poor people, and that employers exercise considerable discretion in setting wages and conditions of casual, seasonal and permanent wage employment. The evidence presented comes from a combination of a quantitative survey based on purposive sampling with other techniques, including interviews with large farmers. The findings contrast with ideas that rural labour markets are of limited relevance to poverty reduction policy formulation in Africa, and the paper concludes with methodological, analytical and policy recommendations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 361 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adato, M., Lund, F. & Mhlongo, P.. 2004. ‘Methodological innovations in research on rural poverty: a mixed method longitudinal study in KwaZula-Natal, South Africa’, paper for ‘Q-Squared in Practice: a Conference on Experiences of Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Poverty Appraisal’, Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, 15–16 May.Google Scholar
Agência de Informação de Moçambique (AIM). 2002. ‘22 percent rise in minimum wage’, AIM Report 232, 20.5.2002, http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim232.htmlGoogle Scholar
Agricultural Census. 2000. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE).Google Scholar
Amnesty International (AI). 2002. ‘AI open letter to the UN Security Council’, 17.10.2002.Google Scholar
André, C. & Platteau, J.-P.. 1998. ‘Land relations under unbearable stress: Rwanda caught in the Malthusian trap’, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization 34, 1: 1–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bardhan, P. & Rudra, A.. 1986. ‘Labour mobility and the boundaries of the village moral economy’, Journal of Peasant Studies 13, 3: 90–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, C. B., Clay, D. C. Mesfin Bezuneh & Reardon, T.. 2001. ‘Heterogeneous constraints, incentives and income diversification strategies in rural Africa’, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of Applied Economics and Management, working paper, WP 2001–25.Google Scholar
Binswanger, H., McIntire, J. & Udry, C.. 1989. ‘Production relations in semi-arid Africa’, in Bardhan, P. ed. The Economic Theory of Agrarian Institutions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Boughton, D., Tschirley, D., Zulu, B., Osorio Ofiço, A. & Marrule, H.. 2003. ‘Cotton sector policies and performance in sub-Saharan Africa: lessons behind the numbers in Mozambique and Zambia’, East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Bowen, J. 1989. ‘Peasant agriculture in Mozambique: the case of Chokwe, Gaza Province’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 23, 3: 355–79.Google Scholar
Breman, J. 1985. Of Peasants, Migrants and Paupers: rural labour circulations and capitalist production in South India. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brück, T. 2004. ‘Coping strategies in post-war rural Mozambique’, Sussex: Households in Conflict Network Working Paper No. 2.Google Scholar
Castel-Branco, C. N. 1983. ‘Trabalho assalariado e pequena produção mercantil na estratégia de socialização do campo’, Dissertação, Centro de Estudos Africanos, Maputo: UEM.Google Scholar
Commission for Africa. 2005. Our Common Interest: report of the Commission for Africa. London: Commission for Africa.Google Scholar
Covane, L. A. 2001. O Trabalho Migratório e a Agricultura no Sul de Moçambique (1920–92). Maputo: Promédia.Google Scholar
Cramer, C. 2006. Civil War is not a Stupid Thing: accounting for violence in developing countries. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Damiani, O. 2003. ‘Effects on employment, wages, and labor standards of non-traditional export crops in northeast Brazil’, Latin American Research Review 38, 1: 83–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Datt, G. 1996. Bargaining Power, Wages and Employment: an analysis of agricultural labour markets in India. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Davis, B., Winters, P., Carletto, G., Covarrubias, K., Quinones, E., Zezza, A., Stamoulis, K., Bonomi, G. & DiGiuseppe, S.. 2007. ‘Rural income generating activities: a cross country comparison’, Rome: FAO, ESA Working Paper No. 07–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elbers, C., Lanjouw, P., Mistaien, J., Ozler, B. & Simler, K.. 2003. ‘Are neighbours equal? Estimating local inequality in three developing countries’, Helsinki: United Nations University/World Insitute for Development Economics Research, Discussion Paper 2003/52.Google Scholar
FAO-ILO-IUF. 2005. Agricultural Workers and their Contribution to Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. Rome: FAO-ILO-IUF.Google Scholar
Fields, G. 2007. ‘Labor market policy in developing countries: a selective review of the literature and needs for the future’, Washington, DC: World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 4362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, B. 1998. Labour Market Theory: a constructive reassessment. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
First, R. 1983. Black Gold: the Mozambican miner, proletarian and peasant. Brighton: Harvester.Google Scholar
Gabre-Madhin, E. Z. & Haggblade, S.. 2004. ‘Successes in African agriculture: results of an expert survey’, World Development 32, 5: 745–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
German Agro Action (GAA). 2003. ‘Situation report Ituri, 1–16 September 2003’, Bunia, unpublished.Google Scholar
Ghose, A. K. 2004. ‘The employment challenge in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 5107–16. 27 November.Google Scholar
Godfrey, M. 2003. ‘Youth employment policy in developing and transition countries: prevention as well as cure’, Washington, DC: World Bank, Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0320.Google Scholar
Hatlebakk, M. 2004. ‘Attached labor in Nepal: a field-study of landlord-labor relations that are misrepresented in the Nepal-LSMS data’, paper presented at the 75-years of Development Research Conference, Cornell University, <http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/75devconf/papers/hattlebak.doc>>Google Scholar
Humphrey, J., McCulloch, N. & Ota, Masako. 2004. ‘The impact of European market changes on employment in the Kenyan horticulture sector’, Journal of International Development 16, 1: 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idson, T. L. & Oi, W. Y.. 1999. ‘Workers are more productive in large farms’, American Economic Review 89, 2: 104–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ILO. 2003. ‘Decent work in agriculture’, ILO-Bureau for Workers' Activities, background paper for International Workers' Symposium on Decent Work in Agriculture, Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Inquérito Nacional aos Agregados Familiares sobre Orçamento Familiar 2002/3 (IAF). 2004. Maputo: INE.Google Scholar
Kaufman, B. E. 2007. ‘The impossibility of a perfectly competitive labour market’, Cambridge Journal of Economics 31, 5: 775–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kevane, M. 1994. ‘Village labor markets in Sheikan District: Sudan’, World Development 22, 6: 839–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, F. 2004. ‘Livelihoods (un)employment and social safety nets: reflections from recent studies in KwaZulu-Natal’, Pretoria: Southern African Regional Poverty Network, <http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000925/index.php>>Google Scholar
Mwamadzingo, M. 2003. ‘Assessing the decent work deficit in African agriculture: priority issues’, ILO, Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa, Discussion Paper 21, Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). 2003. Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. Midrand, South Africa: NEPAD.Google Scholar
Newman, C. & Jarvis, L.. 2000. ‘Worker and firm determinants of piece rate variation in an agricultural labor market’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 49, 1: 137–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Laughlin, B. 1996. ‘Through a divided glass: dualism, class, and the agrarian question in Mozambique’, Journal of Peasant Studies 23, 4: 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Laughlin, B. 2002. ‘Proletarianisation, agency and changing rural livelihoods: forced labour and resistance in colonial Mozambique’, Journal of Southern African Studies 28, 3: 511–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortiz, S. 1999. Harvesting Coffee, Bargaining Wages: rural labour markets in Colombia, 1975–1990. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, P. E. 2004. ‘Inequality and social conflict over land in Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change 4, 3: 269–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Questionário de Indicadores Básicos de Bem-Estar (QUIBB). 2001. Maputo: INE.Google Scholar
Reardon, T. 1997. ‘Using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in Africa’, World Development 25, 5: 735–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogaly, B. 2005. ‘Agrarian capital, wage-workers and space’, mimeo, Department of Geography, University of Sussex.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. K. & Perloff, J. M.. 1993. ‘Who works for piece rates and why?’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 75, 4: 1036–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. & Ghosh, J.. 1993. ‘Trends in rural employment and the poverty employment linkage’, ARTEP Working Papers, Delhi: ILO.Google Scholar
Sender, J. 2003. ‘Rural poverty and gender: analytical frameworks and policy proposals’, in Chang, H.-J. ed. Rethinking Development Economics. London: Anthem, 401–20.Google Scholar
Sender, J., Cramer, C. & Oya, C.. 2005. ‘Unequal prospects: disparities in the quantity and quality of labour supply in sub-Saharan Africa’, Social Protection Discussion Paper no. 0525. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Sender, J., Oya, C. & Cramer, C.. 2006. ‘Women working for wages: putting flesh on the bones of a rural labour market survey in Mozambique’, Journal of Southern African Studies 32, 2: 313–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sender, J. & Oya, C.. 2008. ‘Divorced, separated and widowed female workers in rural Mozambique’, Feminist Economics (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Simler, K., Mukherjee, S., Dava, G. & Datt, G.. 2004. ‘Rebuilding after war: micro-level determinants of poverty reduction in Mozambique’, Research Report 132, Washington, DC: IFPRI.Google Scholar
Trabalho de Inquerito Agricola (TIA). 2001–2. Maputo: Ministerio de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (MADER).Google Scholar
Tschirley, D., Rose, D. & Marrule, H.. 2000. ‘A methodology for estimating household income in rural Mozambique using easy-to-collect proxy variables’, Maputo: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Directorate of Economics, Research Paper Series, Research Report No. 38.Google Scholar
Tschirley, D. & Benfica, R.. 2001. ‘Smallholder agriculture, wage labour, and rural poverty alleviation in land-abundant areas of Africa: evidence from Mozambique’, Journal of Modern African Studies 39, 2: 333–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vail, L. & White, L.. 1980. Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique: a study of Quelimane District. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Waterhouse, R. & Vijfhuizen, C. eds. 2001. Estratégias das Mulheres, Proveito dos Homens: género, terra e recursos naturais em diferentes contextos rurais em Mocambique. Maputo: Universidade de Eduardo Mondlane.Google Scholar
Wells, M. 1996. Strawberry Fields: politics, class, and work in California agriculture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
White, H., Leavy, J., Mulumbi, M., Mulenga, G. & Seshamani, V.. 2006. ‘Rural development and labour markets in Africa: preliminary findings from a research project in Northern Province, Zambia’, mimeo, discussion draft, Brighton: IDS.Google Scholar
Wiggins, S. 2000. ‘Interpreting changes from the 1970s to the 1990s in African agriculture through village studies’, World Development 28, 4, 631–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. 2007. World Development Report 2008: agriculture for development. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Wuyts, M. 1989. Money and Planning for Socialist Transition: the Mozambican experience. Brookfield, VT: Gower.Google Scholar
Wuyts, M. 2003. ‘The agrarian question in Mozambique's transition and reconstruction’, in Addison, T. ed. From Conflict to Recovery in Africa. Oxford University Press, 141–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar