Mozambican Civil Society Within: - UNICEF Mozambique - Home page

Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action
CSOs are usually headed by a high-level public figure and this enables them to attract assistance,
develop formal organizational forms and obtain financial and technical support. However, most
organisations lack the technical and organizational support and resources even to get legally
established so they can benefit from the advantages of being formal. Some of these organizations
have had considerable impact within civil society but their work is still given little consideration
or is not very visible. Finally, various CSOs are merely fighting to survive. And there are many of
them. They cannot state clearly what they are advocating, nor how they act and who their
members are. They are usually represented by just one individual; many have no fixed office,
nor adequate human and financial resources.
Taking into account the critical assessment of the information consulted, instead of the maximum
score that could be inferred from INOSC07, the NAG validated the score of 1.0.
3.1.7 Conclusions on Structure
The analysis and evaluation of the structure of civil society leads to the conclusion that this
dimension is weak at the various levels considered in the CSI: breadth, depth and diversity of
citizens. Virtually all the sub-dimensions show a very weak CSI structure.
Part of the weakness of civil society structure is organizational and the availability of CSO
financial and human resources. But another part, perhaps even more relevant than the first
because it is of a structural and contextual nature, is determined by the institutional environment
that influences the dimension and exercise of power by the citizen. As argued in other studies,
Mozambicans are frequently called to participate in exercising their citizenship right but in practice
their power to influence policies, relevant decisions or even economic and political power ends
up being limited. On the scale of participation for the exercise of power, the citizen usually
remains between the level of ad hoc and informal sounding, information without mutual
commitment, sometimes manipulation or just therapy, but with very little effective partnership
that gives the citizen effective responsibility and power. (Francisco and Matter, 2004).
The assessment of these results by both the NAG and the national workshop of 4-6 December
2007 is that the indicators make it possible to identify areas where attention must be focussed
in future. In particular, the NAG feels that recognition of the weaknesses identified is an important
step towards awareness of the constraints and difficulties faced by CSOs.
The data gathered in this report also make it possible to dispel some incorrect perceptions of
the state of CSOs, namely, their geographical distribution throughout the country and the kind
of organization that predominates in civil society. Contrary to the prevailing idea, the vast majority
of CSOs are located in districts and local communities, not in the main urban centres.
This means that most CSOs are not visible in broad media circles, in influential networks with
the ability to access sources of funds, the best technologies and the mass media. This situation
is a major challenge for three kinds of entities.
Firstly, CSOs with national coverage and in particular the most capable foundations, can use
the results of this study to take action to improve the structure of civil society, expanding networks
and forms of collaboration with grass roots CSOs, both district and community ones.
42
Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007