Economic Development and Institutions – perceptions and bottlenecks

On 15 March 2022, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) organizes an event launching a cycle of debates on institutional performance and economic development in Mozambique. The event, entitled ‘Economic Development and Institutions: perceptions and constraints’, is organized under the Inclusive growth in Mozambique programme in partnership with the Economic Development & Institutions (EDI) programme.

The event starts with an overall presentation of the process and methodologies behind the Mozambique Institutional Diagnostic (MID) study, the Mozambican chapter of the Economic Development & Institutions (EDI) initiative, by the Coordinator of the MID study, Prof. Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen. This is followed by a presentation of one of the key studies of the MID, ‘Donor relations and sovereignty’, by Dr Leonardo Simão, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Health of Mozambique, and Dr Johnny Flentø, University of Copenhagen. The event is moderated by Prof. Evans Osabuohien, Covenant University, Nigeria. Prof. Aldo Sitoe, University of Eduardo Mondlane, is discussant of both presentations.

The event will bring together national and international academics, the student community, managers of Mozambican public and private institutions, policy makers and representatives of the civil society.

It will be held in a hybrid format at the Auditorium of Escola de Comunicação e Artes (ECA)
University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM). In-person participation will be by prior invitation, virtual participation is open to all via Zoom.

The presentations will be in Portuguese and English. Simultaneous interpretation will be available to both in-person and online participants.

On the Economic Development and Institutions (EDI) programme

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of institutions on economic outcomes, there is little evidence on how positive institutional change can be achieved. The Economic Development and Institutions (EDI) research programme aims to fill this knowledge gap by working with some of the finest economic thinkers and social scientists across the globe. One of the objectives is to design an EDI Institutional Diagnostic Tool. The methodology relies on carrying out in-depth case studies of a select group of countries, aimed at comprehensively exploring the relationship between the characteristics and functioning of a country’s institutions and its economic development performance and constraints. The goal is to equip analysts and policymakers with a framework that will allow them to identify appropriate and effective directions for institutional reforms, which will support the promotion of economic growth.

EDI is funded by the UK government through UK Aid and managed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM).

About the Mozambique Institutional Diagnostic

The Mozambique Institutional Diagnostic (MID) study was implemented under the EDI programme in partnership with the Inclusive growth in Mozambique (IGM) programme between 2019–20. It was launched at a Launch Workshop of the Mozambique Institutional Diagnostic (MID) on 12 June 2019 in Maputo, and resulted in the presentation of a draft report on 4 November 2020 in Maputo. It will culminate with publication of a book by Cambridge University Press in late 2022/early 2023 on full open access.

The key goal of the MID study was to produce an 'institutional diagnostic that allows policymakers to identify institutional weaknesses that constrain economic development in Mozambique and indicates possible directions for reforms and change.

Programme