Good afternoon. The government has unveiled two new initiatives this week: the long-awaited Local Economic Development Fund and a new tracking system for medicines. All governments like to announce shiny new projects that they claim will improve people’s lives; however, in the case of the Mozambican government, it does not have a good track record of making those projects work.
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President Daniel Chapo admitted as much when he made a comment about unspecified “past mistakes” in announcing the launch of the fund. This was presumably a reference to the disastrous so-called “seven million” development fund launched under previous president Armando Guebuza. Instead of being used to finance worthwhile development projects, most of the money in that fund was lent out to members of ruling party Frelimo, who were not forced to repay the loans, so that the vast majority of the money was stolen.
