The World Bank Group’s New Strategy for Mozambique: Empowering Citizens and
Institutions for Shared Growth
Washington, May 30, 2007 - The World Bank Group’s Board of Directors endorsed
today a partnership strategy for its program in Mozambique for the four year
period, July 2007–June 2011. The overall goal of this strategy is to empower
citizens and institutions so they can promote growth and benefit more broadly
from it. The partnership strategy reflects a collaborative approach between the
World Bank Group, government, and development partners to support the country’s
development.
The strategy builds upon the strong economic growth that the country has
enjoyed over the past decade – an average economic growth rate of eight percent
per year. Economic expansion was made possible by overall macroeconomic
stability, sound policy reforms, growth in agriculture, post-war
reconstruction, mega-projects, and strong support from development partners.
For this growth to be sustained and more broadly shared by the poor, however,
the strategy discusses a range of needed investments and reforms.
“Mozambique is making good progress towards its development goals, but it faces
hard challenges. In addition to the serious threat of HIV/AIDS, governance
issues pose a significant risk to growth, especially growth that is more
broadly shared. Our new strategy seeks to help the government improve its basic
functions ranging from planning and financial management to facilitating
private business. This will not only lead to better investments and better
delivery of public services, but it will also encourage greater accountability
for how those public resources are used. These are essential elements for
long-term growth that will benefit all citizens,” said Michael Baxter, Country
Director for Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The strategy encompasses three pillars, that are also aligned with the country’
s own development strategy, or PARPA II (the Portuguese acronym for Second
Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty), namely: (1) Increased
Accountability and Public Voice; (2) Equitable Access to Key Services; and (3)
Equitable and Broad-based Growth.
The World Bank Group’s support will be through a variety of instruments,
including general budget support to the government, project loans, and
financial instruments like loans and guarantees to encourage private
investment. Assuming available financing, the lending to Mozambique is expected
to be about US$155 million per year over the four year period. In addition, the
strategy elaborates a range of non-financial activities such as in-depth
analysis and technical assistance on issues of relevance to Mozambique.
The strategy also emphasizes that Mozambique’s longer-term growth will require
greater collaboration with neighboring countries within southern Africa,
especially related to cross-border issues like water resources management,
energy, transport, trade, migration, and HIV/AIDS transmission. The World Bank
Group will bolster the government’s collaboration with neighboring countries,
in order to take advantage of Mozambique’s strategic location, to benefit from
economies of scale in cross-border activities, and to address common problems.
“The development context is changing in Mozambique, like in other parts of the
world, and we need to adapt. The World Bank Group will not only look for ways
to leverage our support with emerging partners, but we also intend to
strengthen even more our current collaboration with bilateral and multilateral
agencies,” said Baxter.
The World Bank Group has been working with development partners and the
government to harmonize development assistance to make it more efficient and
effective, under the auspices of the 2005 Paris Declaration for Aid
Effectiveness, signed by bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. The
harmonization agenda includes joint analysis of development needs and
coordination of country assistance strategies, which led to the formulation of
the Bank Group’s new partnership strategy. In addition, the development of the
new strategy benefited from discussions with local governments, the private
sector, academia, and civil society.
