Scope of the project  

A project agreement to strengthen parliamentary oversight in Mozambique was signed between UNDP and Assembleia da Republica (the Mozambican Parliament) in April 2007. The overall goal of the project includes establishing project management support, monitoring, and evaluation structures; enabling the Parliament to carry out an effective oversight of the budget cycle; integrating the Parliament into the approval and oversight process for major national development programmes; and significantly strengthening the Parliament’s ability to communicate with the public and civil society through improved use of the media and civil society dialogue mechanisms.

 How is this achieved?  

To reach this goal, emphasis is centered on capacity building from a sustainable perspective. Annual Work Plan activities are geared towards improving parliamentarians’ awareness of their role, facilitating their adjustment to multi-party parliamentary culture, strengthening the parliamentary groups’ capacities to carry out their functions, and upgrading the technical capacities of the Secretariat General staff to support parliamentarians in their oversight function, with an emphasis on fiscal oversight.To reinforce parliamentary democracy and facilitate access to proceedings, a special effort is directed at upgrading the Assembly’s communications infrastructures and services.

Why to support the Parliament?  

The Parliament is the highest legislative body in Mozambique. It has been functioning within a multi-party system for a relatively short period, since 1994, and, consequently still lacks institutional resources and adequate administrative capacity to effectively assist the Parliamentarians in their work.

The Mozambican constitution guarantees an important role and constitutional space for the Parliament. However, a number of constraints and limitations impact on its capacity to fully exercise its constitutional responsibilities, as is usually the case in young emerging post-crisis democracies.

These include insufficient professional cadre in the parliamentary administration, absence of clear independence of the parliamentary personnel from the state administration, widely varying skills and capacities of members of the Assembly, and limited public comprehension of the role and importance of the Parliament. Capacitating Parliament contributes to reinforcing the legislative power’s ability to carry out its constitutional mandate thus, ultimately, providing for improved governance and inclusive long term sustainable development of the country.

MDGs supported:

All of them . Special empahisis on Goal number 3, promoting gender equality and empowering women.

Operational structure:  

The project is a joint partnership between the UNDP, the government of Denmark, and the Mozambican parliament. Administratively it sits with the Secretary General who acts as national project manager. Its implementation, however, is supervised and overseen by the 2nd Vice-President of the Assembly and the Permanent Commission (the ruling body of the Parliament) who appoints a representative to the Board.

Results:  

The capacity development efforts of the Parliament supported by UNDP increased transparency and accountability in public administration and fiscal oversight. Noteworthy accomplishments in 2010 included:

• The review process of the electoral law was started. It will be finalized in 2011.
• Technical and financial support was provided for the development of the Strategic Plan of the Parliament, which was an initiative promoted by the President of the Assembly.
• Direct financial and technical support was given to the Commission on Planning and Budget when oversighting the Government expenditure reports and public accounts.
• A national seminar on the roles of the Parliament to fight against corruption was organized for the first time. The debate was lively.
• Public and civil society access to parliamentary activities was reinforced by the operationalization of the own website for the Parliament.
• Also the installation of a visitor's centre at the Assembly was started to be ffully functional in 2011. 
• HIV and AIDS education and information was delivered to the Parliamentarians and to the civil servants of the Parliament.

Duration:  

5 years: initially from 2007 to 2009, with a two years extension from 2009 to the end of 2011

Location:  

National, the Parliament is situated in Maputo City

Donor(s):  
Government of Denmark  
UNDP regular resources
 
Project Code:  56614

Budget and Expediture in 2010:
Budget:  TRAC 1 $460,000   Denmark $393,225   TOTAL $853,225
Expediture: TRAC1 $347,390   Denmark $361,890   TOTAL $709,220

Contacts:   
Niklas Schmidt
Programme Analyst
Tel: +258 21 481 400
E-mail: niklas.schmidt@undp.org  

François Beaulne
UNDP Senior Parliamentary Advisor
Assembleia da República
Maputo, Mozambique
Tel: +258 21 400 826/32
Email: francois.beaulne@undp.org  

Related web articles/documents:

Parliament raised awareness of their role in the fight against corruption  - 21 December 2010 

Parliamentary oversight fortified  - A chapter in the UNDP Annual Report - 2 June 2010

UNDP and The Assembleia da Republica Signs an Agreement  - 21 January 2009