03 IMF (World Bank, 1989). By 1996 the Food with the economic crisis in 2016 coverage Subsidy Programme reached 92,300. did not increase, and the programmes However, an internal audit found that two- became increasingly reliant on funding thirds of recipients did not exist. Following from international development and the reregistration of recipients, coverage financial institutions (UNICEF & ILO, 2021). dropped by two thirds. Nevertheless, the Food Subsidy Programme continued to be kept up by donor-funded budget support, monitored under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper indicators (Castel-Branco, 2021a). At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mozambique had three main social assistance programmes, covering just over 600,000 households. The first was the Basic Social Subsidy Programme (PSSB), which provided an unconditional Following the adoption of the Social cash transfer to poor, labour-constrained Protection Law and National Strategy for households. These included households Basic Social Security, coverage increased headed by the elderly, people with fivefold, and government approved the disabilities or chronic disease and children. further expansion of social assistance to The monthly cash transfer ranged from Mt a million Mozambicans by 2019 and 3.3 540 to Mt 1,000, depending on household million by 2024 (RdM, 2016). Government size. also foresaw the expansion of the state bureaucracy to meet growing demand and improved the quality of services. However, The second was the Productive Social Action Programme (PASP), which involved participation in labour-intensive public Figure 3: The evolution of social assistance coverage in Mozambique 1990- 2020 16 Fast-tracking Financialization - International Financial Institutions’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Mozambique