Mozambique Fact Sheet

Programme Paper Mozambique Fact Sheet

5 June 2009

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Mozambique Fact Sheet

Mozambique

Lord Malloch-Brown’s visit to Maputo on 9 and 10 June comes at a time of good and consistent relations between the UK and Mozambique. This is due in part to Mozambique sharing borders with Commonwealth countries, the search for a settlement in Rhodesia in 1979-80, and its role as a Front-Line State to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

Diplomacy

The UK Embassy took over from the UK Consulate General at independence in what became Maputo. As Mozambique was surrounded by Commonwealth countries, the UK played an important role during the Cold War in encouraging it to become non-aligned. The relationship was helped by President Samora Machel’s support of the Lancaster House talks in 1979 on Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) that led to Zimbabwean independence in 1980. President Machel visited London twice in the early 1980s and his successor, President Joaquim Chissano, visited three times.

The UK provided military training for Mozambique in the late 1980s to assist the country’s military actions against Renamo rebels. The UK also played an important role in convincing the Reagan administration in the US not to provide covert military support to Renamo. Britain continues to see Mozambique as playing an important role in facilitating a sustainable solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe of recent years. Regionally, Mozambique’s President Guebuza is Deputy Chair of the SADC Peace and Security Organ and is due to take over the Chair in August 2009.

Politically, the UK’s strategic interest in Mozambique declined in the mid- 1990s after the end of the Cold War and the civil war, and after South Africa obtained majority rule. Mozambique is regarded as a stable and predictable partner by the UK and was admitted to the Commonwealth in 1995 as its 53 rd member. In addition to the British High Commission and DFID office in Maputo, there is a British Council office – the only one in Lusophone Africa. Mozambique opened its Embassy (later High Commission) in 1988 in London because of the importance attached to UK aid. Prior to this, the Mozambique News Agency (AIM) had maintained a presence through the Mozambique Information Office. There have been a string of high-level visitors to London

www.chathamhouse.org.uk 2 Mozambique Fact Sheet including the Prime Minister in 2005, the Foreign Minister in 2003, the Frelimo Secretary General Armando Guebuza in 2003 and President Chissano in 2001. President Guebuza visited the UK as a Guest of Government in December 2006 and former President Chissano won the Chatham House Prize in 2006. Mozambique’s Minister of the Environment, Alcinda de Abreu, is scheduled to visit the UK in July 2009.

An equally impressive number of high level UK officials have visited Mozambique. HM The Queen made a state visit in 1999 and the Princess Royal has visited three times, most recently in 2001. Senior British political figures who have visited include former Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 and Gordon Brown who visited three times as Chancellor of the Exchequer, once with the Secretary of State for International Development. During the 1980s and 1990s senior Conservative government visits included then Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, Malcolm Rifkind and Lord Soames.

Aid

DFID is one of the largest donors to Mozambique. The UK regards Mozambique as a strategic development partner and a rare governance and development success in Africa. British ministers regularly cite Mozambique as an example of success of British humanitarian policy. In 2005 Mozambique was chosen by then Chancellor Gordon Brown as one of the first counties to benefit from his International Finance Facility (IFF) for debt relief. He launched this initiative during a visit to Mozambique in January 2005.

The UK has a five-year rolling programme currently worth £60m a year of which 75% is direct budget support. Aid contributions have increased from £47 million in 2004/2005. DFID also has programmes in health, education, infrastructure, and combating HIV Aids. It also supports key processes of government including public financial management and tax collection. There are also a number of programmes with civil society which aim to strengthen voices for democratic accountability.

Trade

The value of direct trade between the two countries is modest – UK exports totaled over £15 million in 2007 and UK imports were valued at over £9 million. UK linked companies now operating in Mozambique include BP,

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Shell, PWC, KPMG, Land Rover, Unilever, Port of Liverpool, CDC, Lonrho, Barlows, British American Tobacco, Rio Tinto, ED&F Man and BacTec.

Mozambique’s main port at Maputo was concessioned for an initial 15-year period to a consortium led by Britain’s Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. Crown Agents’ office in Maputo was opened in 1988. In 1996 Crown Agents signed a Customs Reform Project, and this heralded a significant expansion of their work in Mozambique. In 2003, this project was extended until June 2005. The purpose of the extension was to assist Mozambique in preparing for integration into the Central Revenue Authority.

Conclusion

Mozambique in the 1970s through to the 1990s became a priority country for the UK’s southern Africa diplomatic initiatives for Zimbabwe settlement (in 1980) and South Africa. With the end of apartheid this policy shifted to aid and trade. Under the Labour government, Mozambique has become recipient of increased UK aid and British Ministers see it as an important success story.