LATEST NEWS
How well do Mozambican legislators represent their citizens concerns?
August 2, 2022
On 26 July 2022, CPGD's Carlos Shenga participated in webinar on the theme of 'African MPs: Out of Touch MPs or Put Upon Servants?' hosted by the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa (IDCPPA) at the University of Cape Town and Democracy in Africa. Joined by other panellists, Anja Osei (Konstanz University) Robert Mattes (University of Strathclyde) Edalina Sanches (University of Lisbon), the webinar explored both descriptive and substantive representation of Africans by their MPs. Carlos' presentation provided an in-depth longitudinal analysis of how well Mozambican legislators represent their citizens' concerns. In addition to highlighting aspects of descriptive representation, he also focused on policy preferences, and provided new insight into how well civil society is able to incorporate inputs to the legislative process. You can watch the webinar recording on IDCPPA's YouTube Channel.
Why are youth concerns marginalised in development planning?
March 18, 2022
Mozambique, like many African countries, has a young and fast growing population, with two-thirds of citizens under 25 years of age. This Policy Brief explores the enabling environment for youth development in the country. It reveals that there are limited structures or programming that specifically target youth affairs. It recommends that youth issues should be more explicitly embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and that the government, developing partners and NGOs should tackle youth concerns in their programming by establishing youth advisory positions and formal mechanisms to mainstream and monitor youth concerns in their work.
Energy poverty and energy transition
in Mozambique
February 17, 2022
As part of achieving universal energy access by 2030, the Mozambican government expects to double domestic electricity access to 64 per cent by the end of 2024. Whilst quantifying electricity access is important, how households obtain access to electricity and the subsequent reliability and affordability of the supply is equally relevant.
This journal article on The dynamics of urban household energy poverty and energy transition in Mozambique, published in People, Place and Policy as part of the POLARIZE project, provides an in-depth qualitative evaluation of the lived experiences of Mozambicans based on household interviews conducted in Beira, Maputo city, Matola and Nampula city.
How has Mozambican's commitment to democracy changed over time?
Electricity Access in Mozambique
Tracking SDG16 progress in Africa
Lessons from qualitative data collection in Mozambique
How are freedoms changing in Mozambique?
July 19, 2021
Commitment to democracy is a multidimensional construct that includes a preference for democracy and a rejection of authoritarian regimes. Evidence from Afrobarometer public opinion surveys between 2002 and 2018 show some variation in Mozambicans' commitment to democracy, but the levels remain relatively low. These results have implications for democratic consolidation, as societies with low levels of commitment to democracy are less likely to consolidate their democracy. Factors behind these levels include, among many, low levels of citizens' access to information (formal education and news media) and their disinterest in public and political affairs. But the way the elections have been carried out contributes significantly.
For more information see these previous articles: Commitment to Democracy in Mozambique: Performance Evaluations and Cognition and The Effect of Electoral Violence on Electoral Participation in Africa.
May 27, 2021
Mozambique is a resource-rich energy hub, yet rural community access to electricity remains low, and urban centres suffer poor service quality. Aging transmission infrastructure, consumer growth, erratic generation, and extreme weather events exacerbate power cuts and oscillations that disrupt household and commercial activities. This paper, published as part of the POLARIZE project, assesses electricity access in Mozambique by taking a critical policy analysis of investment, service reliability and social sustainability.
December 22, 2020
With a decade of action remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) CPGD has released the first edition of what will be annual progress reports tracking the status of SDG16 on peace, justice and strong institutions in Africa until 2030.
The SDG16 in Africa: 2020 Report uses V-Dem data, disaggregated by polity, geopolitical region and community for the year of 2019, to assess how African polities are performing to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
October 14, 2020
This Research Note explores some of the unexpected issues that arose during qualitative research data collection for the project ‘A political-economic analysis of electricity grid access histories and futures in Mozambique’ (POLARIZE). It considers differences in the locations where the fieldwork took place (the cities of Beira, Maputo, Matola and Nampula,) gender of respondents and authority collaboration, and it reflects on the strategies that the researcher adopted to overcome fieldwork challenges.
August 20, 2020
Data from V-Dem shows how different types of freedoms have changed over time. Since adopting the democratic constitution in 1990 and conducting the founding multi-party election in 1994, many types of freedom in Mozambique have seen a dramatic change. The main exception being the freedom to openly discuss political issues in private homes and in public spaces which remains low and, from 2016 to 2019, declined. The freedom from torture also shows lower levels compared with other types of freedoms. Although it improved after democratisation, it declined in 2018 and improved in 2019. Of the selected freedoms, freedom of religion appears to be the most respected.
Does Covid-19 put democracy in Africa at risk?
Analysing government performance in service delivery in Africa
What issues do voters want political parties to address in Mozambique's 2019 election?
May 4, 2020
This Policy Brief analyses the risks of Covid-19 pandemic emergency measures to democratic standards in Eastern and Southern Africa. It is based on data from the Pandemic Backsliding Risk Index which tracks government responses to Covid-19 and uses V-Dem data to factor in the general risk of democratic declines. The data reveals that of the thirteen countries assessed in Eastern and Southern Africa, at least nine imposed measures that bring a high risk of pandemic backsliding by limiting freedom, the role of the legislature, the role of the judiciary and enforcing pandemic measures abusively and arbitrarily.
February 7, 2020
CPGD's Working Paper 12 - Analysis of government performance in service delivery in Africa and factors influencing results - has been published in the Africa Journal of Public Sector Development and Governance, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by the African Management Development Institutes’ Network (AMDIN).
August 28, 2019
This Compendium analyses and compares voter turnout and party competition of all Mozambique national legislative elections longitudinally from the founding multiparty election in 1994 to the most recent in 2014. It does so using official data from electoral institutions at district level. It investigates the levels of voter turnout; how voter turnout changed from election to election; the levels of party competition; and how party competition varied over time.
July 11, 2019
What do Mozambican voters want political parties to address regarding the economy, health, politics, public services, infrastructure and agriculture in their 2019 election manifestos?
Find out from our infographic series based on the findings of a nationwide study of 30 focus groups conducted by CPGD in partnership with NDI.
June 10, 2019
How might long and short-term factors influence the way Mozambican’s vote in the October 2019 election? CPGD Briefing Paper 7 considers the long-term influence of voters’ party identification, the short term influences of performance of the president and trust in the incumbent and opposition parties as well as voter intention to try to predict the outcome of the election. While the Paper's evidence suggests that the incumbent party Frelimo and its candidate, Filipe Nyusi, has a good prospect of being re-elected, that evidence is discussed considering other accounts. The paper also reflects on ethnic cleavage and the role it may play in the forthcoming election.
May 20, 2019
What factors affect government performance in delivering public services? CPGD Working Paper 12 analyses government performance in service delivery in 35 countries in Africa using Afrobarometer public opinion data. The evidence shows that the government act of providing services in Africa tends to be shallow and that performance is mainly explained by three factors: the status of the economy, corruption and, to some extent, the effectiveness of the media.
February 28, 2019
This study evaluates the rule of law covering more than a decade of performance of Mozambique electoral democracy using Afrobarometer public opinion data and an initial exploration of expert opinion data from the Worldwide Governance Indicators. The report provides a valuable baseline study to monitor the performance of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) in Mozambique. The study reveals that demand and supply of the rule of law in the country is widespread but low and declining. Mozambicans are likely to demand for the rule of law and view that they are being supplied with the rule of law in 22 (63 percent) out of 35 indicators. However the likelihood is of shallow levels and levels declining over time.