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Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action
national workshop to discuss the results emphasized, that although the overall environment is
not openly hostile it is also not comfortably sympathetic and favourable.
On the whole civil society does not participate actively in political life. As regards political
competition, the group that discussed the environment dimension in more detail concluded that
political competition is aggressive and anti-democratic.
As regards the rule of law and the law, the NAG and the national workshop concluded that there
is a widespread disregard for the law, considerable ignorance of the main laws, widespread
corruption, a not very efficient or effective bureaucracy, weak decentralization, and a variety of
constraints on the exercise of individual liberties.
The legal environment, namely, the bureaucracy for registering CSOs, is excessive and not
very efficient. Advocacy activities are formally permitted but in practice there are problems that
vary according to each region.
There is no evidence of violent and explicit intolerance but there is little tolerance for certain
groups. People have an intolerant attitude particular towards socialising with people who are
homosexuals or are HIV positive.
However, it must be recognized that public and private institutions are still very underdeveloped,
rudimentary, sharply focussed around polarized political power and without mechanisms for
the effective representativity of citizenship.
Political reform is still very centralized, and the absence of a broad critical mass reduces the
citizen’s range of choices and effective impact on the exercise of political power. This continues
to act more in accordance with its dependence on international entities than in effective
partnership with its own civil society.
Among other factors, the absence of a culture of efficiency, of a decentralized public
administration, of transparent and participatory budget execution, of strong and effective private
institutions restrict effective action by social actors.
This study shows that the relationship between civil society and the state is fragile in terms of
mechanisms for mutual accountability and transparent and effective monitoring. The interaction
between civil society and the state is superficial and informal. Indeed, Mozambican society on
the whole resorts to informality, both as a way of getting around state regulations and also
because public institutions are frequently unable to provide the necessary basic services.
Civil society receives virtually no public funding, and most of what it does receive is due to
pressure by donors and the state’s international partners. But there are no clear and transparent
rules about the modalities of state support for CSOs. Relations end up being established in an
ad hoc manner, in informal ways and without the clarity of explicit and transparent criteria. The
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Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007