What has Changed with Peace? Local Perceptions of Empowerment in Mozambique

Abstract

Democracy promotion and economic liberalisation have been two pillars of contemporary peacebuilding practices. Whereas several studies have discussed the implementation of such reforms, much less has been written about their long-term effects, including repercussions in terms of changing people's perception about their own power and ability to influence political spaces. Addressing this gap in the literature, this article analyses local perceptions of change following the peace accords in Mozambique. The analysis is based on interviews and focus groups conducted in Northern Mozambique in 2012, as well as on two surveys on democracy conducted by the Afrobarometer project in 2002 and 2012. This article concludes that whilst democratisation has contributed to people's empowerment by creating formal spaces for participation, economic liberalisation has instead contributed to the reverse; in failing to tackle poverty, it has negatively affected the very spaces for empowerment created by democratisation.

Keywords::

• Mozambique
• peacebuilding
• democracy
• development
• poverty
• empowerment
• civil society

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to Prof. Andreas Feldmann for his feedback on the first draft of this article. I am also thankful to the reviewers and editors of the journal for their comments and suggestions during the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ The 2014 elections were far more complicated and the country currently faces a situation of political instability due to Renamo's rejection of the results.

² The expression means ‘openly assume the position of civil society’.

³ The Development Observatories, originally called Poverty Observatories, were created in 2003, first at the national level, and from 2005 also at the provincial level, to help evaluate and monitor the implementation of the poverty reduction strategic plans in Mozambique. They constitute the most direct mechanism of dialogue between civil society and the government.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roberta Holanda Maschietto

ROBERTA HOLANDA MASCHIETTO is a Doctoral Researcher in Peace Studies, at the University of Bradford. Her research focuses on empowerment promotion in post-war Mozambique.