BLADE

Who drives Mozambique’s development car?

In a country such as Mozambique aid donors have more influence than they like to admit.

Joseph Hanlon and Teresa Smart have written a book which I hope creates discussion and debate, not least of all in Norway. The Oslo Government is a strong promoter of both budget support and the Millennium Development Goals. The authors are critical of such a focus in promoting development. Just to give you a couple of quotes from “Do Bicycles Equal Development in Mozambique?”:

“It does appear that neither the donors nor the nomenklatura really want government in the drivers’ seat. The Frelimo Elite prefer to be sitting in the back of a luxury car chauffeured by the donors, while the donors see the government as a taxi driver going where the donors direct.”…

Hanlon and Smart admit to not having all the answers, but they argue for a more active developmental state.

“Mozambique does not need to wait for foreign investors to fly in. The people who can develop Mozambique are already there. But they need training, long-term support, and credit – which the developmental state can organize and provide…..use domestic resources and people, and stop holding out hands begging for aid and foreign investment.”

Jan Speed

Norad launches English version of 2008 Results Report

'Development assistance-no shortcuts to good results' is the title of the 16-page document that summarizing Norwegian development assistance in 2008. According to the report, Norwegian development assistance achieves results, both positive and negative, via many different paths and channels. The report presents a description of Norway’s partners and their results in Mozambique, Nepal and South Sudan. 

Mega-Projects but minor benefits for Mozambique

(Photo credit: Fred Hoogervorst - Panos pictures)

Charles Mangwiro, Panos London

Mozambique encourages foreign investment. But with a third of jobs going to ex-pats, how do locals benefit?

Lazaro Alfredo Mathe is only 20 years old and he already has a wife and three children. He supports his family with the little money he makes selling tomatoes at the nearby vegetable market in his homeland, Chibuto, some 250 km north-west of Mozambique's capital Maputo. Under different circumstances, Mathe might have been in college, but he is illiterate. "I don't speak Portuguese," he says in the local Shangana language, "my wife can help with the translation." 



Attacked by Western NGOs

Damisa Moyo, author of ”Dead Aid – Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa” was recently in Oslo. She told of Western reactions to her book and about the need for African governments to be forced to take responsibility for their own development.

Here she talks to Bistandsaktuelt’s journalist, Are Føli.

Download Moyo170409

 

 

Groundviews: a citizen journalism initiative from Sri Lanka

In a country that is increasingly under fire for clamping down on media freedom, citizen journalism initiatives, like Groundviews, are important sources of information on issues related to war, peace, democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka. 

This site represents a pioneering effort in Sri Lanka to create a channel through which citizens in civil society can be heard.  

Content includes thoughts on life in conflict zones, impending humanitarian emergencies, and information on security and ground conditions.