Health in Mozambique

Health in Mozambique has a complex history, influenced by the social, economic, and political changes that the country has experienced. Before the Mozambican Civil War, healthcare was heavily influenced by the Portuguese. After the civil war, the conflict affected the country's health status and ability to provide services to its people, breeding the host of health challenges the country faces in present day.

Mozambique faces a number of ongoing health challenges including both infectious and chronic disease. Limited access to quality food and water, high levels of poverty and inaccessible health services influence health and prevalence of disease among people in Mozambique. Through national and international organizations, public programming, clinical work, and education, Mozambique is working to remedy these risk factors and to improve the health and wellbeing of its population.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative^[1] finds that Mozambique is fulfilling 78.5% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income.^[2] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Mozambique achieves 95.2% of what is expected based on its current income.^[2] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 80.8% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.^[2] Mozambique falls into the "very bad" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 59.5% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.^[2]