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Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action According to Afrobarometer (2003) only a quarter of the Mozambican population believes that its elected representatives are concerned about resolving the people’s problems (24%) or hearing their opinions (26%). However, 58% of Mozambicans believe in the state’s capacity to resolve the general problems of the people. Mozambicans express different levels of satisfaction with the government’s performance for different areas. There is positive performance in education (66%), improvements in the health system (58%) and in conflict resolution (52%). There is relative satisfaction with efforts to fight AIDS (45%). However, Mozambicans are more critical about economic performance. Less than a quarter of the people interviewed believe that the government has made an effort to create jobs (23%), control prices (22%) or reduce social inequality (20%). It should be recalled, with reference to figure 2.2.3, that the effectiveness of the government of Mozambique is classified as 44% compared to 74% for effectiveness of the government of Botswana. 3.2.1.6 Decentralisation The decentralisation challenge has two dimensions: one related to the citizen’s decision-making power and the other related to access to public resources. In both cases the degree of decentralisation is weak and embryonic. There is a lot of talk about decentralisation and citizen participation, but in practice mechanisms for effective access are weak. This observation is clearly illustrated by the two charts in figure 3.2.3. The first chart shows the proportion of direct citizen power compared to the delegated power of political parties. Direct power is understood as the group of state bodies and legislative power where the citizen has the power of direct vote. For example, Mozambicans vote directly for the President of the Republic, and for the Mayors of a third of the districts of Mozambique (33 municipality mayors). Figure 3.2.3: Depiction of Citizen Decision Making Power and Distribution of Public Budget Expenditure, Mozambique 2007 Figure 3.2.3a: Citizen’s Direct Power and Delegated Powers Figure 3.2.3b:Current Expenditure and Investment by Decision Making Capacity, Mozambique 2007 Direct Power 4% Power delegated to parties 96% Central 67% Provincial 30% District 3% Source: Francisco, 2007a Source: Francisco, 2007b 50 Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007
Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action In most cases, however, the citizen delegates his/her political power to representatives of the political parties as deputies, or to other collective and individual entities that are responsible for appointing government leaders and public administration executors. As regards the citizen’s access to public funds, the second chart shows that the sub-national percentage of public budget expenditure is very small. Less than 35% of the 2007 state budget was allocated to decentralized responsibilities in provinces, districts and local authorities. The government recently started to allocate a percentage to districts, the so-called “7 million Meticais”. However, this is only about 1%t of the general budget, apart from the fact that its decentralization comes from the provincial not the central budget. 3.2.2 Basic Rights and Freedoms This sub-dimension examines to what extent civil rights are guaranteed by law and in practice. The indicator has a score of 1.7 that should be interpreted as meaning that although basic rights and freedoms are guaranteed by law, there are isolated or occasional violations of civil liberties. Table 3.2.2 summarizes the scores of the respective indicators. TABLE 3.2.2: Indicators for evaluating Basic Rights and Freedoms Ref. # Indicators Score 3.2.1 Civil Liberties 1 3.2.2 Information Rights 2 3.2.3 Press Freedom 2 Source: ILE2007, WB2007, Freedom House 2007, Transparency International, 2007 3.2.2.1 Civil Liberties The constitution of the Republic of Mozambique establishes the right to and freedom of association for all citizens as long as they do not have a military or para-military purpose and do not promote violence, racism and xenophobia. The possibility of holding authorities accountable, as well as other rights directed towards equality of opportunity, is also contemplated in the constitution even though their practical application is much more limited. Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007 51
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