Decentralization in Small Doses: Structuring Aspects of Health Inequities in Mozambique

Abstract

Through the use of mini-ethnographies in two municipalities: Maputo, considered a model for “municipal health decentralization”, and Quelimane, where the health decentralization process has been delayed, this article argues that the gradualism in the transfer of responsibilities from the central govern-ment to the municipalities, without a clear road map, contributes to the dilution of state responsibilities towards its own citizens and weakening of accountability mechanisms.