Provision of Technical Assistance Personnel in Mozambique: Between ‘Doing the Work’ and a ‘Hands-off’ Approach

This is one of three country reviews in the wider study “Provision of technical assistance personnel: What can we learn from promising experiences?” Other reviews are Vietnam and the Solomon Islands. The wider study is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht, the Netherlands, is the executing agency. The Mozambique case offers an examination of a variety of TA personnel practices in an environment which is willing to change, poor on capacity to lead the development process and overwhelmed by a large number of development partners. According to the OECD-DAC, Mozambique is the world’s eighth most aid-dependent country. More than half of total public spending and about two-thirds of public investment depend on aid.