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Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action
The importance given to CSR and the involvement of the business sector has evolved in recent
years. If this concept was virtually unknown to many companies 6-7 years ago and most felt
they had fulfilled their responsibilities by paying their taxes (Afrisurvey Preliminary Report 2001)
in recent years there has been growing interest and publicity about social investment actions
by companies. For example: a) social investments by companies in Mozambique receive a lot
of publicity in the media, b) there have been seminars on the subject promoted by CSOs and
private companies, c) a monthly electronic newspaper was recently established on this subject
d) in its efforts to reward the biggest companies in Mozambique the consultancy company
Ernst & Young has included a prize for the best performance in social investment, e) specific
training programs, albeit embryonic, are being organized by companies.
The annual reports of 8 of the 10 biggest companies in 2006 all contain information about their
social investments and link them to the concept of social responsibility. Sometimes the
information is included in the annual report and in other cases in specific reports on sustainability.
Some companies, mainly the international ones, 17 have a more comprehensive concept of
social responsibility ranging from ethical issues to aspects linked to the domestic public, their
partners and suppliers, clients, communities affected by their work, government and society
and even environmental aspects. They all compile a separate report on this subject. The
reports of the remaining companies interpret social responsibility as their social investment.
Corporate social responsibility willingness and actions in Mozambique have grown over time.
For companies today involvement in social development activities is seen as a status symbol.
Nevertheless, CSR is undertaken by a small fraction of companies, mainly foreign and large
companies. Their interventions have a philanthropic and patronage 18 perspective with a postprofit
instrumental approach 19 . The limited information, the absence of or unclear mechanisms
to facilitate and promote CSR and limited social pressure are some of the factors that contribute
to this situation.
In 1994, pressured by various actors including CSOs, the government of Mozambique passed
the Patronage Law permitting tax reductions for companies that donate money to social and
cultural development activities. However, the law has never been used extensively for these
purposes due to unclear regulations and mechanisms for its application. Consequently, only
an insignificant number of companies is currently taking advantage of this benefit.
Based on this information from the INOSC07 the indicator received a score of 0.5 reflecting a
weak environment and weak corporate social responsibility awareness.
17
e.g. SASOL, BP and Mcell (this last one Mozambican).
18
18 Machado and Lage (2002) emphasise two main perspectives on how companies develop their projects in partnership with the community, based on various points of interest:
1) Patronage: where the company’s support makes the community dependent and thus creates a vicious cycle that impedes the emanciaption of the community. 2) Emancipatory: where
the company’s support promotes the autonomy and emancipation of the community. This model is more effective in that it seeks the independence of communities.
19
Ashley (2003) emphasizes two main approaches to justifying why companies embrace social responsibility: one is “the post-profit instrumental approach” understood as an activity
that arises from the creation of a competitive advantage by investing in the company’s reputation. The other, “the normative pre-profit approach”, is seen as a business mind-set based
on ethical values, transparency and responsibility resulting in commitments of an environmental, social and political nature.
Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007
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