This International Seminar reflected on the Citizen Engagement Programme (CEP)’s contribution to field of social accountability and citizen participation in Mozambique and beyond whilst promoting a debate on future agendas that could capitalise and build on the programme’s legacy.
A number of key themes were addressed that have emerged from social accountability work in both the education and health sectors, as well as other fields where similar initiatives are being undertaken in Mozambique and in other African countries and continents.
These included:
- Social inclusion, gender and power dynamics in social accountability processes
- Strategies to promote engagement of supply-side public service providers
- The role of formal/state-created community participation mechanisms in social accountability processes
- Capacity building in social accountability as a process of strengthening relational aspects, beyond technical content
- The challenge of measuring the impact of social accountability initiatives such as CEP.
Video interviews with CEP participants
During the seminar we interviewed participants in the CEP programme and asked them what key lessons emerged for them from their involvement in the programme and the international seminar, and what this could mean for future social accountability programmes in Mozambique.
Interviewees in order of appearance:
Nilza Caclida Massitela (Vukoxa), Francisco Matavele (Organização para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade – OCSIDA), Amélia Usene (Facilidade), Jonas Pohlmann (DFID Mozambique) and Salvador Forquilha (Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos – IESE).
Interviewees in order of appearance:
Albertino Atanásio (ANDA), Rajú Lourenço (Programme Management Unit, CEP), Jeremy Holland (Oxford Policy Management), Avelino Paulino Muligeque (Watana), Amélia Usene (Facilidade), Jonas Pohlmann (DFID Mozambique), Michaque Fernando Ubisse (Vukoxa Associção Humanitária de Apoio à Velhice), Nilza Caclida Massitela (Vukoxa) and Fletcher Tembo (Making All Voices Count – MAVC).
Blogs by Speakers at the Conference
We invited two speakers at the Conference, including Keynote Speaker, Fletcher Tembo, to share their reflections or a summary of their speeches:
- Can African philanthropy support post-aid social accountability work? by Professor Alan Fowler
- Social accountability futures: six anchoring points by Fletcher Tembo
More about the Citizens Engagement Programme (CEP)
The Citizen Engagement Programme (CEP) was an empowerment and accountability initiative whose main objective was to improve the quality of service provision in the health and education sectors by increasing the participation of citizens in policy-making processed and public service management across four provinces in Mozambique (Gaza, Manica, Zambezia and Nampula).
The programme supported citizens and communities to play an active role in monitoring services and engage directly with service providers in drawing up Action Plans to address the problems identified at the facility level, as well as channelling issues that cannot be solved at unit level and require decision-making at higher levels upwards through coordinated advocacy efforts.
Key contacts
