Non-Governmental Organizations

Background

Mozambique was beset by civil war and conflict for over 16 years. During this time with the country severely handicapped aid agencies began to provide assistance through food and finance programmes.

With the peace agreement in 1992 and the first multi-party elections, the participation of international NGOs began to steadily increase. New reforms by the Government ensured that donors had a greater say in the democratisation and nation-building process.

There are over 250 NGOs operating in Mozambique today. They operate across a vast expanse of areas in the social and educational health sectors. Their prevalence is such that new industries, allured by large amounts of international donor funding have been created around them.

Development Challenges

There is immense scope for the work done by local NGOs not only in brining about social transformation but also in understanding the effect of various policies. The following challenges, however, are experienced by donors and local NGOs:

Donors rely on local NGOs as "partners" to faciliate the process, but for most of these NGOs their interest is entirely based on donor funding since there is no local funding scheme which exacerbates the issue of dependency

Local NGOs do not have strong popular roots based on social interests as in other countries and have difficulty in establishing their purpose

Local NGOs are interested in developing their own autonomy and may therefore push their own plan which overlaps with projects devised by others leading to an inefficient duplication of work

The presence of many NGOs creates a secondary economy which is more reliant on business generated through aid projects than through the domestic market

Tax Insights

By way of comparison to other industries in Mozambique, agriculture is suitably better positioned for attracting investments and should do well. In practice the following factors, both favorable and unfavorable exist:

Audit Opportunities

Source:
Governance, Civil Society and NGOs in Mozambique, Stefano Bellucci, UNESCO, 2002
Donor Dollars and Mozambique NGOs, Alexander Costy, 1995
Nexus Commonwealth Network, 2016
Images:
Swissinfo.ch, 2016
Salvationist.ca