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Donor Support: General Peace Agreement for Mozambique

Implementations

Donor Support – 1992

According to a news report, as per the General Peace Agreement, Italy took a leadership role in the donor’s conference. The first donor’s conference concluded in Rome on December 16, 1992, in which countries promised $320 million dollars for emergency programs and for the resettlement of war-displaced people, refugees, and demobilized soldiers.¹ It was reported that the money raised at the donor’s conference would be handled by members of the donor community: Italy, the European Community, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the USA, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Britain, Austria, South Africa, Spain, Australia, Japan, and Belgium.²

“Mozambique: Italy reportedly asked to supervise election preparations,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, December 18, 1992.
“Mozambique Peace Accord donor countries named,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, December 23, 1992.

Donor Support – 1993

RENAMO was hesitant to demobilize its combatants from conflict zones as there was delay in the allocation of funding to RENAMO to operate as a political party. At the donor’s conference the year before, Italy and some other donors had agreed to provide funds to RENAMO. On 8 June 1993, RENAMO made an indirect threat to take up arms once again if there was no money to finance its activity as a political party. At the opening session of the second donor’s conference in the Mozambican capital Maputo on June 8, 1993, the MNR’s chief negotiator, Raul Domingos, resorted to a veiled threat of war and blackmailing the Mozambican people and demanded financing and material goods for his movement.³ The donor’s conference ended on June 9, 1993 and the donor countries pledged an additional $70 million to support the peace process in Mozambique. RENAMO received its promised monetary support from the international community.⁴

“OTHER SOUTHERN AFRICAN COUNTRIES; Mozambique: MNR makes “veiled threat” to Maputo donors’ conference,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, June 10, 1993.
Jeroen De Zeeuw, “Understanding the Political Transformation of Rebel Movement,” in From Soldiers to Politicians: Transforming Rebel Movements after Civil War, ed. Jeroen De Zeeuw (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008).

Donor Support – 1994

The peace process in Mozambique was one of the best supported processes at the time. The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Assistance Coordination (UNOHAC) led a massive campaign for the support of the Mozambican peace process. The large-scale coordination of donor activities included several large agencies and organizations along with NGOs and other donor countries, and was generally efficient. Some of the organizations represented by UNOHAC were the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the International Organization for Migration. They also worked in parallel with dedicated international donors such as Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the European Union, and the United States. The number of international NGOs involved in the process rose from 150 to 250 between 1992 and 1994. However, due to the large number of NGOs present on the ground, coordination was often difficult and not all NGOs performed at the necessary level. However, the large international support for the peace process in Mozambique proved instrumental in securing peace and relative stability in the country.⁵

Marc de Tollenaere, “Fostering Multiparty Politics in Mozambique,” in Promoting Democracy in Postconflict Societies, ed. Jeronen de Zeeuw and Krishna Kumar (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006), 75-96.