UNDP Funded Training Trainers Project in Civil Society Organizations’

The intervention has included training of trainers at central level, familiarization trainings both carried out in 2007, and technical assistance to CSO’s to pilot policy research and advocacy using internationally recognized tools such as citizen’s report cards (CRC) and public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS), which is an innovation in the history of civil society in Mozambique. The component also entails the creation of national capacity to support CSO’s in applying those tools and their wide dissemination.

Many CSO’s are now known for their role in research and advocacy, pushing for improvements in public policies for more responsiveness by government to comply with their socio-economic agenda in the context of PARPA II, addressing needs of the most vulnerable.

The institutionalization of participatory dialogue mechanisms such as Community Consultation Institutions (IPCC) at district and lower levels and the Development Observatories (DO) at central and provincial levels are evidences of the level of acknowledgement CSO’s have earned as active participants of the development process in Mozambique and, of Government’s commitment to receive and actively respond to citizen’s feedback on policy impact. This move is as positive as challenging for CSO’s, where high level of commitment and willingness to participate in the development process is affected by their weak capacity to make a meaningful and sustained contribution particularly in policy dialogue.

The Capacity Building for CSO’s in Evidence Based Advocacy Mozambique project funded by UNDP and implemented by Khanya-African Institute for Community-Driven Development (Khanya-aicdd), was to conduct a training of trainers workshop in Maputo to build capacity of a pool of qualified national individuals from all different provinces of Mozambique to support the use of Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) for policy monitoring and advocacy tools and then, to hold provincial workshops to familiarize CSO’s and other interested stakeholders with the tools that are used to produce the evidence required for sound policy monitoring and advocacy/dialogue with government.

The project was implemented between August and December in 2007. The Training of trainers was conducted in September 2007 in Maputo and the provincial workshops were conducted in November 2007 in Nampula province for the northern Region covering Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Zambezia and Nampula. The second provincial workshop was held in Chimoio in Manica province for the central region covering the provinces of Tete, Sofala and Manica. The initial training of trainers in Maputo was taken as an opportunity to train people from Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane provinces.

Stella Pinto UNDP Assistant Resident Representative and Head of Poverty Reduction and HIV/AIDS Unit in her speech on the occasion thanked all the institutions such as Khanya and G20 who were involved in the facilitation of the training and she emphasized the need for government policies to have a positive impact in people’s livelihoods. Although she reiterated that CSO’s were in a good position to open dialogue with government and so they should take advantage of the open door policy that government had and so influence government to review and reform policy accordingly.

Altogether, the project trained 71 members from different civil society representatives in Mozambique, of which 30 trainers and 41 trainees; and UNDP allocated USD 80,000.00 last year to support the initiative.