Cholera remains a threat to public health in many developing countries, including Mozambique. Although the disease is easily preventable by practices of hygiene and sanitation, cases are reported in the country every year, as for example in the Lago district in 2015. This qualitative research project set out to explore in what ways the promotion of hygiene and sanitation practices on district level in Mozambique is carried out. Therefore, actors, messages and channels involved in these communication processes were explored via a field study in Lago and a review of relevant literature. Subsequently, the results of the field study and literature review were analysed by applying the concepts of one-way and two-way communication which are part of public relations theory. This analytical framework allowed the researchers to fill a gap identified in the existing literature about hygiene and sanitation promotion, which did not seem to include communication theories linked to public relation practices when it came to hygiene and sanitation promotion in developing countries as a method to prevent cholera. It has been found that the one-way communication approach towards the public was successful in handling the recent cholera outbreak of 2015, however, the approach is not substantial and should be improved into a two-way communication approach, which would allow the local population to express their needs in hygiene and sanitation, as well as their capabilities to implement change in these matters. Simultaneously, a lack of resources within the district authorities involved in hygiene and sanitation promotion seems to encourage one-way communication towards the public from their side, as two-way communication would demand further resources for research into the above mentioned needs and capabilities of communities.

The majority of the rural population in developing countries sustains their livelihoods through small-scale family farming on subsistence level. However, agricultural productivity is far from its potential and food insecurity and high absolute poverty rates are widespread challenges in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), including Mozambique. Global actors, such as the World Bank (WB), frequently publish policy guidelines, strategy papers and reports, all aiming at tackling the focal problem of low agricultural productivity and claiming to be dedicated to the overall goal of economic, social, inclusive and sustainable development. But as agricultural productivity rates in many developing countries remain low, and food insecurity rates have been high for several decades, the adequacy of global policy guidelines for local structures, conditions and needs is questionable. The aim of this study is therefore to analyze the suitability of and identify possible discrepancies between global strategies – that claim to raise agricultural productivity and food security – and the local level. A strong emphasis is placed on a people-centered, local grassroots perspective. To gather data, a five-week field study in Lago District, Mozambique, was carried out, following an abductive approach and using semi-structured interviews on household level, and with a variety of other stakeholders from the public and private sector. The Logical Framework Approach was applied to structure the findings from the WB report and from the field work, with the aim to create a basis for the analysis and comparison of that data, which provides an answer to the research problem of the suitability of global policies on local level. Additional analytical guidance is provided by the concept of human security and a gender perspective. Conclusions from the study demonstrate that the neoliberal point of departure and the different understandings of small-scale farming underlying the problem and objective of (low) agricultural productivity rates identified by the WB, are not coherent in comparison to the local situation identified in Lago District. The development interventions suggested by the WB rather tend to be an obstacle for sustainable rural and agricultural development, as well as local food security/sovereignty, poverty alleviation and inclusive economic growth in the context of Lago District.