[{"bbox": [96, 154, 1133, 239], "category": "Text", "text": "editions of PAANE. This programme aimed at: supporting and strengthening the role of civil society in the development process of Mozambique; strengthening mutual accountability between civil society, citizens and public authorities; strengthening representative and participatory democracy; structured dialogue; etc."}, {"bbox": [96, 256, 1133, 484], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite these efforts, and the knowledge and existence of spaces for citizen and civil society participation, their participation is still limited. The latest 2020-21 EU Mapping Study of CSOs pointed that the enabling environment is positive when CSOs engage and collaborate on the improvement of social services (education, social protection, health, humanitarian action). Yet, CSOs report limitations to denounce human rights abuses and corruption, when journalists report on conflict contexts, and when political participation and freedom of expression are considered to challenge the political order. The study identified three key challenges that affect CSOs: (i) obstructed and shrinking environment, (ii) reduced evidence-based advocacy and discrediting formal spaces for participation, (iii) and credibility linked with independence and internal governance and capacity weaknesses."}, {"bbox": [96, 501, 1133, 815], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU is committed to support Mozambique on its development through supporting both national authorities and civil society. With regards to civil society, the *EU Roadmap for engagement with Civil Society in Mozambique for the period 2021-2027*,² aims to address existing challenges in line with the Mozambique Human Rights and Democracy Country Strategy 2021-2024, the EU MIP 2021-2027, and the Gender Country Profile 2021. The Roadmap identifies six objectives for the EU engagement with CSOs: 1) Strengthening an enabling environment for civil society; 2) Shifting towards a more structured dialogue with CSOs; 3) Promoting women's rights, gender equality and women and girls' empowerment, and fighting sexual and gender based violence; 4) Expanding civil society engagement on environmental and climate action (growing green); 5) Channelling and promoting the voice of youth and developing capacities on digitalization and entrepreneurship (growing youth): and 6) Strengthening domestic accountability and peace building (Governance, peace and just society). The latter three objectives are clearly in line with the new 2021-2027 Mozambique MIP priority areas."}, {"bbox": [96, 832, 1133, 1003], "category": "Text", "text": "The country has a Gender Policy and Implementation Strategy (revised in September 2018), a National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Premature Unions (2016-2019) which is currently under review, a National Plan for Preventing and Combating Gender-Based Violence (2018-2021) and a National Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2019-2022). The Five Year Government Plan (2020-25) seeks to promote gender equality in all areas and ensure the protection of the most vulnerable with an emphasis on gender-based violence, child protection, as well as premature marriages, trafficking and sexual abuse"}, {"bbox": [96, 1021, 1133, 1335], "category": "Text", "text": "In this context, this Cidadania Activa is designed as complementary to other key ongoing initiatives under implementation with the support of the EU in Mozambique which address civil society participation in public policies, namely “Voz PoBa”, “Decentralisation for Development – D4D”, and “Programa Melhorando a Resiliência Climática Local em Moçambique (MERCIM)+”, and others in the pipeline, such as “Support to Democratic Governance in Mozambique”, “Component on CSO engagement of the Resilience for the North (ResiNorte) programme” and “Tolerância Zero! à violência baseada no género”. Other partners’ actions will also be considered, such as Finland’s upcoming civic engagement programme in the North. Cidadania Activa will also be complemented by actions funded under the CSO thematic programme, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) and the NDICI Rapid response pillar. Complementarity will be specifically sought with respect to policy sectors and geographic location, in order not to duplicate, but to further expand civil society opportunities to participate in public policies."}, {"bbox": [85, 1368, 339, 1397], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 1414, 1133, 1526], "category": "Text", "text": "The recent external assessment of the ongoing PAANE II conducted in the framework of the formulation of this Action complements the findings of the civil society mapping studies in Mozambique³, which describe an evolving situation where CSOs' acting space is increasingly shrinking. EU long-term support to civil society in Mozambique contributed to strengthening the capacity of national CSOs, with good results on the establishment of collaborative"}, {"bbox": [85, 1579, 1142, 1624], "category": "Footnote", "text": "² Subscribed by Austria, Belgium, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The document also benefitted from inputs from Canada and Switzerland."}, {"bbox": [85, 1624, 670, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ The 2016 and the 2020-2021 EU Mapping Studies of CSOs in Mozambique."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1142, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 21"}]