Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

Box 2.3: Civil society engagement in the PARPA: the Poverty
Observatory and the RAP
The Poverty Observatory (known in Portuguese as Observatorio da Pobreza,
or ‘OP’) is a consultative and participatory forum for monitoring PARPA
implementation, considering Government and civil society evaluations and
producing recommendations for improvement. First held in 2003, the OP
is coordinated by Government (lead by a Technical Secretariat in MPD) and
brings together high-level delegations of Government, civil society and donors,
comprising around 20 delegates each. In 2005, the national OP met twice to
discuss and contribute to the PARPA II elaboration process, and Provincial Poverty
Observatories were also held in all but one of the provinces to provide genuinely
national consultation for PARPA II. Young people and children also participated
in four of the provincial Poverty Observatories. A fifth national PO was held in
June 2006 in order to launch the PARPA II following its approval by the Council of
Ministers in May 2006.
Civil Society involvement in the PO process has been coordinated through the
“G20” group of NGOs which was formed in 2003 in order to organise more
effectively the civil society input into the second national Poverty Observatory.
The group – now comprising over 20 organisations – represents religious groups,
trade unions, private and financial sector groups and other NGOs, including those
concerned with gender, HIV/AIDS and the environment.
In preparation for the second national OP in 2004, the G20 resolved to produce an
annual participatory review of progress in poverty reduction, the Annual Poverty
Report (known in Portuguese as Relatório Anual da Pobreza, or ‘RAP’), to serve as
the core civil society input into the OP process. The first RAP, produced in 2004,
involved the participation of some 10,000 people and around 100 organisations in
an opinion survey whose relevance, “rests with the fact that it incorporated the
voice of the common people, integrated into a participatory dynamic at provincial
level. Therefore, it is not meant to be seen as a confrontation with official figures,
but rather as a contribution that is rooted in the opinions of thousands of people”
(G20, 2004).
A second RAP was produced in May 2006, with, among its objectives, “to check
on the evolution of increased participation by citizens/civil society in decision
making processes” and evaluate the progress made by the Government in
implementing the seven recommendations emanating from the 2004 RAP. The
2005 RAP also highlights concerns about the proliferation of national plans with
similar objectives (i.e. poverty reduction) but with limited linkages between
them, such as the Five-year Plan and PARPA. It notes that the “time and material
waste in human and financial resources [for producing these plans] is enormous”
and calls for the development of a single and unified medium term National
Development Plan.
The 2004 and 2005 RAP place a strong emphasis on child-related issues, including
the implementation of special programmes for children who do not have access
to schools, the promotion of girls’ involvement in the education system, the
provision of legal support to young people who are detained and the need for
concrete actions to prevent violence against children.
The national RAP is also complemented by provincial versions, developed
by autonomous provincial bodies of the G20, which play a similar role to the
provincial Poverty Observatories (OP). The provincial RAP 2004 for the province
of Maputo presents an interesting case study, with a clear aim of assessing the
performance of the provincial government against commitments made at the
initial provincial OP and increasing demand for accountability, as shown in the
table below:
56 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS