Reflections on electoral participation
following Mozambique's 2024 election
January 30, 2025
This Policy Brief looks at issues and methods in electoral participation in Mozambique, following the country's most recent election that took place in October 2024. It explores the effect of electoral violence and other electoral malpractices within electoral legislation on electoral participation using official election data on Mozambique’s legislative elections, which have occurred simultaneously with presidential elections, since 1994. The brief concludes with policy recommendations on how to enhance electoral participation.
How Does Legal Culture Matter for Climate Mobilities in Urban Mozambique?
October 24, 2024
This new journal article, co-authored by CPGD's Researcher Amélia Macome looks at climate mobilities in an unplanned settlement in Maputo, Mozambique. It explores how legal culture influenced residents’ decision-making processes as they navigated climate-related risks in their daily lives. The case study uncovered a nuanced ‘ecosystem’ of land laws, comprising two official systems – formal and informal. Despite their contradictory substantive content regarding land rights, these systems functioned symbiotically, allowing residents of unplanned settlements to mitigate the effects of climate risks.
Freedom from Political Killings in Mozambique 1930-2023
October 23, 2024
Footnote: V-Dem Survey question: Is there freedom from political killings? Clarification: Political killings are killings by the state or its agents without due process of law for the purpose of eliminating political opponents. These killings are the result of deliberate use of lethal force by the police, security forces, prison officials, or other agents of the state (including paramilitary groups).
Response categories: 0: Not respected by public authorities. Political killings are practiced systematically and they are typically incited and approved by top leaders of government; 1: Weakly respected by public authorities. Political killings are practiced frequently and top leaders of government are not actively working to prevent them; 2: Somewhat respected by public authorities. Political killings are practiced occasionally but they are typically not incited and approved by top leaders of government; 3: Mostly respected by public authorities. Political killings are practiced in a few isolated cases but they are not incited or approved by top leaders of government; 4: Fully respected by public authorities. Political killings are non-existent.
This graph observes Mozambique’s ‘freedom from political killings’ using the 2024 V-Dem data where a score of 0 corresponds to ‘not respected by authorities’ and a score of 4 meaning that they are ‘fully respected by authorities’.
This graph is presented in the context of a critical moment in the country following the 9 October 2024 general elections and the recent assassination of two opposition party officials (on 19 October 2024) who were allegedly compiling evidence to submit a legal case about election irregularities. The V-Dem data shows that, during one period of multiparty rule (1995-2014), political killings were ‘mostly respected by public authorities’ – that is, political killings only occurred in a few isolated cases and were not incited or approved by top leaders of government. During the period of multiparty politics between 2015-2023, freedom from political killings reduced and were only ‘somewhat respected by public authorities’ - that is political killings were practiced occasionally but they are typically not incited and approved by top leaders of government.
More information about V-Dem data can be found here:
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New book on community energy and sustainable energy transitions
May 24, 2024
This new open access book engages with the difficulties of delivering community energy in practice, building on practical experiences in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique. In the context where many people still lack access to electricity, community energy can be an alternative to advance universal energy access and build resilience in sustainable energy transitions.
Exploring emerging election issues
March 19, 2024
What are the implications of: (i) the 2019 national election voter registration on political representation; (ii) the ‘civil-society-ization’ of electoral management on electoral integrity; (iii) the extended time period to count results on electoral transparency; and (iv) opposition political parties action in guaranteeing electoral truth? These emerging issues are discussed in the policy brief ‘Questões Eleitorais Emergentes’.
Inaugural Conference of the International Network on African Energy Transition
November 20, 2023
CPGD participated in the inaugural conference of the International Network on African Energy Transition, which took place at Luiss University, Rome on 16-17 November 2023. The conference, organized in partnership with Eni, saw the participation of universities, research centers and institutions from across Africa with the aim of establishing a network to create and share knowledge on the continent’s energy transitions. The network will create synergies with African, European and international universities and institutions, such as the European University Institute, the International Monetary Fund, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Atlantic Council, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others. We had the opportunity to present our research, undertaken as part of the CESET project, on Mozambique’s off-grid regulation and its role in facilitating community energy access as part of the country’s energy transition.
Integrating gender and social inclusion in Mozambique's off-grid energy sector
September 22, 2023
As part of our involvement in the CESET project, CPGD Researcher Lorraine Howe participated in a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion workshop hosted at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, alongside Mozambican colleagues from the National Institute for Statistics (INE), Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) and the BRILHO programme. The roundtable discussion was an opportunity to engage with world-leading researchers and practitioners working on the gender-energy nexus to better understand how gender is a central component of sustainable energy transitions and how we can better implement gender-responsive energy policies to achieve real-world impacts. It also provided an opportunity to showcase the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Seal (GESIS) we have been developing for Mozambique’s off-grid energy sector. GESIS is an incentive-based system for energy operators to improve gender equity and social inclusion within their institutions as well as in the communities they serve. To find out more read the GESIS White Paper.
LATEST NEWS
Trends of academic freedom in Mozambique
June 23, 2023
To what extent is academic freedom respected? To what extent do scholars and university students publicly criticize government policies? V-Dem data for Mozambique from 1962 (the year of establishment of the country’s first higher education institution) to 2022 reveals that academic freedom was very low during colonial (1930-1974) and one-party (1975-1989) authoritarian regimes. It increased with the adoption of the 1990 democratic constitution; and continued increasing from 1995 - the year of establishment of the social science faculty and private media, civil society organizations and with opposition parties gaining momentum. But it declined from 2010s. Lack of public universities autonomy from dominant power; and subversion of “freedom of scientific creation” in particular and of freedom of expression in general may explain the decline.
Mozambican attitudes towards social, economic and political issues
May 31, 2023
In partnership with the National Democratic Institute, in mid-2022, CPGD employed a nationwide public opinion survey to analyse Mozambican’s attitudes towards a variety of issues, including: the country’s economic conditions, poverty, climate change, youth concerns, issues that influence voter choice, preferred means of communication about politics and policies, and electoral campaign reform. This report summarises the key findings and makes recommendations for political parties ahead of the 2023 municipal and 2024 general elections. It also complements our recent policy briefs on Mozambican’s concerns about climate change and Advancing Legally Resilient Standards to Public Infrastructures.
Advancing Legally Resilient Standards to Public Infrastructure
Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
March 27, 2023
Mozambique is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and, in line with the latest IPCC report, is facing severe weather and climatic events with increasing frequency and intensity. Severe tropical storm Freddy, which impacted the region in February-March 2023, is yet another example of how public infrastructures -such as schools and health facilities - are often destroyed or severely damaged due to poor quality or lack of resilient standards.
This policy brief analyses the extent of public infrastructure damage from recent extreme storm events in Mozambique; reviews how the government and donors have responded; and raises policy recommendations for government and opposition policymakers on how to adapt to these impacts. This presents an opportunity for political parties ahead of the 2023 municipal and 2024 national elections to advance resilience standards in the country.
Mozambique's off-grid energy regulation: opportunities for impact
March 16, 2023
As part of the Community Energy and Sustainable Energy Transition (CESET) project in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique, CPGD conducted a study assessing the opportunities and challenges for the uptake of off-grid energy projects in Mozambique. It was conducted in the context of recent regulatory reforms following the approval a new regulation for access to energy in off-grid areas in December 2021. Based on key informant interviews with energy operators, donors and implementing partners, the study finds that the regulation sets the foundation for off-grid energy uptake through increased confidence and investment in both the off-grid energy market and government institutions. However, challenges remain such as the transparency of roles and responsibilities of key government institutions and having appropriate resources in place. Based on the findings, nine policy recommendations are presented. The open access report is available for download here and a Portuguese language policy brief here or via the links below.
How is climate change affecting Mozambican citizens?
November 10, 2022
Over the past year, 59% of Mozambicans have been affected by extreme heat; the same percentage affected by storm-related events . This is affecting people’s health, agricultural activities and livelihoods through loss of food, housing and income. It therefore comes as no surprise that 82% of Mozambicans are very concerned about climate change and how it will impact their life and livelihoods in the future. Our policy brief, based on a nationwide public opinion survey, outlines recent experiences of climate change; how citizens have tried to cope with it; their concerns for the future and the actions that either have been taken or, in their view, should be taken to address it. It concludes with policy recommendations for how citizen’s concerns and experiences of climate-related impacts could be better incorporated into national development planning and implementation.
Africa needs context-relevant evidence to shape its clean energy future
How well do Mozambican legislators represent their citizens concerns?
October 24, 2022
Aligning development and climate goals means Africa’s energy systems will be based on clean energy technologies in the long term, but pathways to get there are uncertain and variable across countries. Although current debates about natural gas and renewables in Africa are heated, they largely ignore the substantial context specificity of the starting points, development objectives and uncertainties of each African country’s energy system trajectory. Here we—an interdisciplinary and majority African group of authors—highlight that each country faces a distinct solution space and set of uncertainties for using renewables or fossil fuels to meet its development objectives. For example, Ethiopia is headed for an accelerated green-growth pathway, but Mozambique is at a crossroads of natural gas expansion with implicit large-scale technological, economic, financial and social risks and uncertainties. We provide geopolitical, policy, finance and research recommendations to create firm country-specific evidence to identify adequate energy system pathways for development and to enable their implementation.
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.