The success of PSAf’s pilot project on monitoring extractive industries in Mozambique has opened new opportunities for the organisation to scale up its work in that country This follows a pledge by the project’s funding partner, the Mozambique Civil Society Support Mechanism (MASC) to support the project for a longer period and on a bigger scale.

At the beginning of this year,MASC -- a local initiative that facilitates coordination between a group of donors and civil society organizations on governance issues – provided funding for PSAf to implement a six months pilot project on strengthening citizens demand for transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. This was in response to problems that most communities were now facing in the wake of a rapid proliferation of mega projects in most parts of Mozambique. The project focused on building the capacity of citizens to enable them to use evidence based approaches to engage policy makers and investors in the extractive industries.

As a result of the project, numerous changes were noted within the mining sector, which were mostly attributed to improved public participation as a result of awareness created by the project.

Impressed by the impact the project was making MASC  extended its support to the pilot project by another six months, up to March 2012.  At the end of the extended pilot project, all the groundwork is expected to be in place for a bigger and longer term project, to be implemented from March 2012 to March 2014 to the tune of USD300,000. 

“Recognising the work carried out to date by PANOS, has also decided to pre-approve a value of at least USD300,000 for the period of March 2012 – March 2014,”  reads part of the announcement by the MASC select committee. 

The success of the MASC project in Mozambique is yet another vote of confidence in PSAf’s work in that country, according to Tomas Mario, PSAf National Coordinator for Mozambique.

PSAf and civil society partners in Mozambique established that the influx of mega mining projects in Mozambique affected the poor and marginalised groups in many ways. The project established that there was still limited understanding of the policies and processes involved.