Improving Debt Management in Mozambique

When the Debt Management Section of the Commonwealth Secretariat approached Elahi Rizwan earlier this year about a possible short-term assignment in Mozambique, the latter did not only agree -- he volunteered to undertake the work free of charge under the Commonwealth Service Abroad Programme (CSAP).

The Commonwealth has been assisting Mozambique in the area of debt management since the late 1990s. This has focused on enhancing the country’s debt recording and management capacity including the introduction and implementation of the Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management System (CS-DRMS) in the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Mozambique, as well as the provision of training in various aspects of debt management.

Mozambique is one of 11 Commonwealth countries to have benefited from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and completed the process in 2001.

However, following the decision by G8 countries in 2005 to cancel the debt of the world’s most indebted poor countries, Mozambique has also become eligible for additional debt relief under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

This Initiative is intended to help this group of countries advance towards the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals which are focused on halving poverty by 2015.

Mr Rizwan, a Canadian national, has had a long career building capacity in debt management. He was a CS-DRMS regional adviser for six years in the South Pacific and has also worked in a number of other developing countries.

He spent four-and-a-half months in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, working with staff of the Public Debt Department of the Ministry of Finance to review the debt database and assisting them in inputting the debt relief data obtained from the various debt relief initiatives, including MDRI which became effective this year.

“It is very important that the debt data reflects the true picture. Only then can this data be used for further analysis to support the development of a debt management strategy,” said Mr Rizwan.

A large part of Mr Rizwan’s work involved training and coaching his Mozambican counterparts. “Rather than collective workshops, this process required one-on-one training as there was a disparity in absorptive skills of the people,” he stated.

Jose Maurel, Adviser and Head of the Secretariat’s Debt Management Section, said: “Our debt management programme puts a lot of emphasis on capacity-building and skills transfer. The consultant was very successful in providing on the job training to his counterparts. The fact that he is fluent in Portuguese was an added bonus.”

Follow-up support will now be provided by the staff of the Debt Management Section as well as the CS-DRMS Adviser for the region, Jason Kamweru, who is based at the Macro Economic and Financial Management Institute for Eastern and Southern Africa, one of the Secretariat’s regional partners in debt management and which jointly funded Mr Rizwan’s stay in Mozambique.

Launched in 1985, the Commonwealth Secretariat capacity-building programme in debt management has so far benefited 54 countries, including a number of non-Commonwealth states. One of the programme’s better-known offerings is the CS-DRMS 2000+ software which is now used by 75 institutions around the world.

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 298, 16 August 2006

Secretariat Links:

• Country Profile: Mozambique

Related Websites:

• CSDRMS Website