by Bayano Valy – SANF 06 No 110
The recent visit to the United Kingdom (UK) by President Armando Guebuza capped a year full of achievements for Mozambique.
Guebuza’s visit to the UK in early December yielded US$500 million from the British government – US$410 to be staggered over the next five years as direct budget support to the Mozambican government; and US$90 million as support for education over the next decade.
The money will go a long way to help the country in its number one priority fight against poverty; Mozambique has a real Gross Domestic Product per capita of US$1,640.
The crown on the head of Mozambique’s achievements was taking legal ownership of the giant Cahora Bassa dam. The dam provides electricity to several countries in southern Africa.
Cahora Bassa dam was the last major Portuguese investment in Mozambique that did not fall into Mozambican hands in 1976 when the ruling Frelimo party, under the leadership of the late president Samora Machel, nationalised all property belonging to the former colonial master and its citizens.
Under a deal signed on 31 October altering the ownership structure of the operating company, Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), Mozambique is to hold 85 percent of the HCB shares, and Portugal the remaining 15 percent.
The whole transaction cost Mozambique US$950 million – US$250 million to be paid by the HCB and US$750 million by the government.
The share transfer also means that Mozambique can concentrate on the business of seeking funding for the proposed M’panda Nkua dam downstream on the Zambezi, which when implemented is likely to boost the region’s capacity to generate power.
Mozambique also saw its parliament and its cooperation partners approve the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), commonly known in the country as PARPA (Plano de Acção para a Redução da Pobreza Absoluta).
The strategy paper aims to reduce the levels of poverty from 54 to 45 percent by 2009 – about two million people.
It is essential that international partners endorse the document since they will fund some of the activities highlighted in PARPA.
PARPA has “six priorities for the promotion of human development and the creation of an environment favourable to rapid, inclusive and wide-ranging economic growth”, namely education; health; agriculture and rural development; basic infrastructure; good governance; and macroeconomic and financial management.
The PARPA document puts the district at the centre of Mozambique’s development and outlines concrete actions that have to be taken concurrently to improve the lot of Mozambicans.
Unlike the first PARPA, the drafting of the document brought together the government, the donors and civil society through a participatory process – this is a method that seeks to inculcate a sense of ownership of the process.
Guebuza made good PARPA’s pledge by allocating about US$280,000 to each district – this sum will be increased in 2007. The rationale for concentrating the anti-poverty efforts in the districts is “to create conditions for them (districts) to overcome poverty through a process of ‘appropriation’.”
Each district draws its own budget and uses the money as it sees fit.
During 2006, the central bank, Banco de Moçambique, also introduced a new family of meticais, which have three fewer zeros than the old denomination. This is part of a six-month process that runs from 1 July until 31 December 2006 during which both the old and new meticais notes will be simultaneously in circulation.
The introduction of the new metical is, in the words of an analyst, “a strong indicator of the growing sense of self-confidence among Mozambicans. It is also an eloquent example that aptly epitomises the political, economic and social transformation that gives credence to the accolade of being an ‘African success story’, a phrase that is used to describe Mozambique’s achievements.”
The country’s National Human Development Report 2005, which focused on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), indicated a continuing upward trend in Mozambique’s Human Development Index (HDI).
The performance of the HDI is expressed as a figure between 0 and 1, which means that the nearest to 1 a country value is, the better the HDI.
Mozambique’s HDI climbed to 0.428 in 2004 from 0.414 in 2003. Life expectancy has also improved from 46.4 years in 2003 to 47.2 years in 2004.
Furthermore, the report also charts a roadmap Mozambique has to follow to attain the eight MDGs by 2015. The overall conclusion is that in some areas Mozambique needs to “pull up its socks”, so to speak, to reach the MDGs, whereas in other areas the country is on course to attain them.
The report was produced for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) by three institutions working in partnership: the Higher Institute for International Relations (ISRI), the National Statistics Institute (INE) and the Southern African Research Documentation Centre (SARDC).
The country remains divided at the centre by a natural boundary: the Zambezi River. Currently, cars and people are transported across the river at Caia, in the central Sofala province, by a ferry-boat which is moored at the height of the rainy season when anyone wishing to travel north or south in Mozambique must take the long route via Malawi.
However, by 2009 this scenario will change as the bridge over the Zambezi would have been completed. Construction works have already begun. The bridge is estimated to cost US$80 millions and will span 2.3 kilometres, 16 metres in width with two lanes and two sidewalks.a
In January, Maputo was the venue for the formal launch of the Africa Forum by 29 African former heads of state and government. The Forum is a body to promote democracy and good governance in Africa.
Heads of state and government that step down at their own volition are invited to be part of the body and thus “contribute to developing and maintaining a positive image of Africa in the international arena.”
At the occasion, Guebuza said the former leaders were “our libraries, our encyclopaedias. Each of you brings rich experiences of struggle and of building nations out of the ashes of division, stereotypes and hatred, promoted by those who never wanted to see our people united in brotherhood.”
Former Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano, said that as former leaders “we’ve the duty to put Africa first. Our first priority and obligation is to Africa and the people of Africa.”
The network of former heads of state will work towards supporting the implementation of the aims of the African Union and of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
During the year Mozambique also passed into law a new Commercial Code, which intends to create a favourable business environment for businesspersons ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area in 2008.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry also started the “Made in Mozambique” campaign seeking to promote the consumption of Mozambican goods and to boost the production of quality goods as a means to prepare local industry to compete in an integrated SADC.
Retired army general, Jacinto Veloso, penned a book, Memórias em Voo Rasante (Memories on a Low Flight), in which he tells his readers how he deserted the Portuguese army to join Frelimo in the struggle against colonial domination on a low flight to Dar es Salaam, United Republic pf Tanzania.
Veloso’s book is instructive in that it opens a window to the rationale behind Mozambique’s signing of the Nkomati Accord with apartheid South Africa; Mozambique’s positioning in the international arena at the various stages of its formation as a nation-state; as well as why it took some painful decisions in its internal policies.
The ruling Frelimo party also held its ninth congress which debated eight issues on the nature of the party; national unity; changes; role of the party in organising society and the State; social and economic development and the struggle against poverty; values and moralising society; combat against crime and corruption; and Mozambique in the region (SADC and Africa in general).
The congress re-elected Armando Guebuza as the party’s president and Joaquim Chissano as honorary president. It also elected a new secretary general, Felipe Paúnde, who was the governor of the northern Nampula province – the role of secretary general is more of an administrator.
