Local Governance and ICTs in Mozambique

Transcription

1 Local Governance and ICTs in Mozambique Nairobi, Kenya, 3-5 September 2005 Gertrudes Macueve 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 1

2 Outline of the presentation Country s Profile Overview of the ICTs in Mozambique Governance Needs assessment and Research Priorities 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 2

3 Country s Profile (1) Geographical localization: southeast Africa Neighboring Countries: Tanzania, Indian Ocean, South Africa and Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe Area: 801,590km2 Population: 19.3 millions (2005) unevenly distributed through the 11 provinces and inside them Rural: around 70% Politically: stable Illiteracy ( ): National - 60%: Urban: 30%; Rural: 70% Economy: LDC HDI: 171th AND the last among the 14 SADC countries (UNDP 2004) 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 3

4 Country s Profile (2) Mozambican Government s Concern: Poverty reduction(1) PARPA (Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty) is the blue print for: Policy changes and programs to accelerate broad-based economic growth, bring good governance and create economic opportunities for families to leave themselves to poverty. Central objective: Absolute poverty reduction through the adoption of measures to improve the capacities of, and the opportunities available to all Mozambicans, especially the less privileged. Specific objective: Poverty reduction from 70% in 1997 to less than 60% by 2005 and less than 50% by the end of this decade. 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 4

5 Country s Profile (3) Mozambican Government s Concern: Poverty reduction (2) Its action plan emphasizes policies to stimulate investment and productivity, in order to sustain broad-based annual GDP growth averaging at least 8%. In concrete terms, PARPA is based on six priorities aimed at: promoting human development and creating a favourable environment for rapid, inclusive and broadbased growth. The fundamental areas of action are: Education Health Agriculture and rural development Basic infrastructure (roads, energy, water, etc) Good Governance and Macro-economic and financial sectors management. 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 5

6 Overview of the ICTs in Mozambique (1) Source (Chemane 2002) ICTs are new to many Mozambican citizens and organizations. The expansion of ICTs in Mozambique is still largely limited to urban areas, primarily Maputo and the provincial capitals. However, urban areas and communities are changing significantly because of the introduction of digital equipment, cell phones, and internet. Very poor in ICTs infrastructures and the respective skilled personnel 3 people in 1000 use computers 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 6

7 Overview of the ICTs in Mozambique (2) The government has identified priority projects that correspond with the identified priority areas, to name few Source: Chemane (2002) The National ICT Policy was approved in 2000, and its respective Implementation Strategy launched in The Policy sets out objectives in the priority fields of fighting: poverty and illiteracy and developing human resources; providing access to information and knowledge; contributing to improve health, education and governance; promoting economic and business development. The Implementation Strategy of ICTs, is a key reference point for people and organizations interested in the use of ICTs for development in Mozambique. 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 7

8 Governance (1) Evolution 1) (independence) - Local government in Mozambique replacing the colonial administrative structures and constructed a new system of governance at the national, provincial and local levels: centralized system/everything decided at the centre of political power in Maputo creation of law to promote greater popular participation and accountability of the district assemblies and their executive councils and provide for close coordination between the cabinet and provincial governments in the decentralization of administrative and financial power districts. 1) ) Decentralized system 2) Creation of municipalities 3) Multiparty elections 2) ) after 20 years of abolishing traditional authorities the government recognised them 2) Public sector reform 3) ICTs for government: 03/09/2005 laws Pre-Project and Workshop projects 8

9 Governance (2) E-governance Inside ICTs projects we have e-governance that are running 2004/2005 creation of the e-government strategy for Mozambique 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 9

10 So what? Mozambique is characterized by having high levels of poverty; it is implementing anti- poverty strategies; is undertaking governance reforms and has ICTs projects taking place. However, we do not know to what extent all this initiatives contributed to the poverty alleviation in general and in particular, how do they have empowered the less privileged people (in local/rural area) to participate in the countries decision making or to develop themselves? 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 10

11 Needs assessments and Research Priorities The impact of the existing ICTs projects in the local population; Constraints of the population to be empowered through using of ICTs Government constraints to build a de facto link between ICTs and poverty alleviation in general and with governance in particular; Actions to be taken to materialize ICTs potentialities 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 11

12 Availability and effectiveness of the current infrastructures to materialize the broader plans Local needs in terms of ICTs for poverty alleviation Monitoring and Evaluation of the current ICT projects (particular challenges and opportunities) 03/09/2005 Pre-Project Workshop 12