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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 64 Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007
Mozambican Civil Society Within: Evaluation, Challenges, Opportunities and Action absence of clear, simple and more operational mechanisms between civil society organizations, public administration and the government convert the relationship into an informal one, without binding mutual commitments and accountability. This situation needs be faced and reconsidered in order to try and establish effective partnership practices and experience between the dynamic national actors in Mozambican civil society i.e. between CSOs, public sector bodies and the government. The results of the CSI project suggest that the private sector’s attitude towards civil society is predominantly one of indifference. However, a fair number of participants in the provincial meetings with interest groups argued that the indifference is reciprocal in that civil society organizations themselves usually do not to try and exploit properly the potential of partnerships with the private sector. Corporate social responsibility that in its broadest sense can be defined as the commitment of companies to take care of the social and environmental consequences of their activities, has evolved over the last decade. This is due to the growing awareness of companies throughout the world of the importance of operating responsibly from an ethical, social and environmental point of view. The good will and actions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have grown over time in Mozambique. But for many of the companies currently involved in social development actions it has become a status symbol. For the time being this responsibility is exercised by a tiny fraction of companies, mostly foreign and large ones. In practice these interventions still have a philanthropic and patronage perspective involving a post-profit instrumental approach. Until recently corporate philanthropy was an unknown and virtually alien topic in the thoughts and concerns of profit-based companies. But now more and more companies appear to be intent on a proactive social stance in daily life. Social investments are mainly in support of/or complement those of the government and are done directly. Respondents in this study feel that corporative philanthropy in Mozambique is still insignificant and that its involvement with civil society organizations is still insignificant. The private sector is still not a main source of funds for CSOs, although domestically it is the main sector, much more important than the public sector. Nevertheless, a number of partnerships are emerging between some companies, usually large ones, and civil society organizations, also large ones, for work in the social field. Finally, the study recognizes that there is reasonable dialogue between civil society, donors and international organizations. But there is a body of evidence that donors are not very confident about the capacity of most civil society organizations. And few of them receive direct donor support. Civil Society Index, Mozambique 2007 65
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