Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Since September 2006, the NIMD Programme in Mozambique has been supporting a project of the Mozambican Association for Development of Democracy (AMODE) to foster local democratic participation in three provinces in the Northern region of Mozambique: Niassa, Nampula and Cabo Delgado. In these provinces, AMODE has organised a series of political debates on various issues such as the inclusion of young women in formal education, the electoral system, the role of political parties in local governments, and the participation of women and youth in politics. Since January of this year, AMODE has set out to organise similar debates in other provinces too.

As the project seeks to promote open debates on involving a wide variety of political actors, representatives of FRELIMO and RENAMO, the two main political parties in Mozambique, but also many smaller opposition parties were invited to participate in the debates - along with religious leaders, traditional chiefs and local government representatives.

In a political context marked by the dominance of two rivalling parties, a weak opposition and low voter turnout during the last elections, the AMODE project may be seen to make an important contribution to multiparty dialogue and grassroots democratic participation in Mozambique.