“Citizenship a responsibility attained through collective action and democratic governance, with rights accruing from this engagement”
(Cornwall and Gaventa, 2000)
“Citizenship is in many ways the concept that brings accountability and participation together. Who has the right to hold to account, and who should be held to account? Who is entitled to participate in public (and private) decision making and who is not? The answers to these questions will tell us something about the different uses of the term citizenship”
(Newell and Bellour 2002)
In January 2008 Ibis-Mozambique started the implementation of a new thematic program with a focus on building citizenship in the Northern province of Niassa in Mozambique. The program is called “Building Citizenship in Mozambique” (COCIM) and will work within the area of citizen’s rights and the relationship between the state and its citizens. COCIM will focus on how civil society organisations through formal and informal bridging mechanisms link the citizen to the state as well as bonding citizens to each other. The program period is 5 years (January 2008 – December 2012), including an inception phase of approximately 1 year.
Why Citizenship?
A view held by many development practitioners and academics is, that civil society is an important element of a democracy, a view that is shared by Ibis. Civil society should not only participate in the development and monitoring of district plans and budget but in general civil society has an important role in the participation and monitoring of governance process.
In the liberal democratic model promoted by Ibis, civil society is locked in a triangular relationship between state and market. In this perspective, citizens mobilize through civil society organizations, and through these organizations, the state is held accountable to its citizens. This understanding assumes that civil society acts autonomously from the state and consists of well-informed citizens capable of keeping checks and balances.
Ibis Mozambique aims to work with CSOs as “agents of change, defenders of rights and democracy” but at the same time Ibis has experienced how the mushrooming of CSOs at different levels of society in Mozambique not necessarily has led to a civil society working as a “watchdog” or as an “agent of change”. Experience has shown that CSOs in Mozambique are highly dependent of either the state or donors.
Civil Society in Mozambique 
Civil society in Mozambique still lacks a fundamental characteristic: the majority of its members have yet not assumed their role as citizens with rights and duties towards a democratic state. If members of civil society do not assume the role as citizens Ibis believes that CSOs will continue being instruments of the most powerful actors.
The existence of a civil society conducive to democracy rests on the assumption that people are de facto citizens; that they have rights and duties, that they are well-informed about their rights and that they have access to articulating these demands. Although Mozambicans formally enjoy the rights of citizens, the vast majority of the rural population in Mozambicans cannot be characterized as active citizens in the traditional western conception:
Strengthening democracy
Based on the above, COCIM will deal with the fragile democracy in Mozambique by focusing on the links between the citizen and the state and the civil society. It is however important to bear in mind that the majority of the rural population can be considered as “citizens in embryo”. This understanding implies that the work with people in the rural areas has to take of and start from a position where common people’s perception and understanding of their own living conditions and challenges are based.
The premise for this approach is, that if you want to cooperate with and move people from powerlessness, ignorance and dependency, you must meet them where they stand and not where you would like them to stand. In this sense, the COCIM program will try to meet the communities where they are by not only providing them with hands on skills to improve their living conditions but also making sure that these skills serve as motivation for real participation and influence in local governance processes.
Building Citizenship in Mozambique 
The COCIM program will be based on lessons learned through Ibis’ work in Mozambique and particularly Ibis’ current work within the field of community communication, education and local governance in Niassa.
COCIM will be facilitated in the province of Niassa and the aim is that by 2012 the Citizenship program will be working in at least 8 districts and 1 municipality of Niassa.
Based on the results from the baselines studies to be carried out during the first semester of 2008, it will be decided where the program should start and a strategy for each individual districts will be designed.
The development objective of Building Citizenship in Mozambique reads:
Within a 5 year perspective (by 2012) the two specific program objectives of Building Citizenship in Mozambique read:
The COCIM program will be a joint venture with input from different stakeholders in the province of Niassa, and amongst others, Irish Aid, Danida and the Royal Norwegian Embassy are allocating funds for the program.
For more information on the Citizenship Program, please contact Country Director, Anne Hoff, anne@ibismz.org.