Maputo, 26 Feb (AIM) - Good governance "occupies a prominent position in our national agenda for the fight against poverty", declared Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday.

Addressing an extraordinary meeting of the Mozambican National Forum of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Guebuza said that through his "open and inclusive presidencies" (the term used to describe his tours of the provinces and districts), "we have created the conditions for a greater socialization of our programmes of governance and of the progress and constraints in their implementation".

In President Guebuza's frequent visits to the districts, he said, the government "has opened up to advice from various segments of our society, and we are regularly submitting our governance to popular assessment".

He believed this could "induce greater inclusion and transparency in the management of public assets", and promote a struggle against the obstacles to the country's development.

President Guebuza said this was intimately linked to the government's commitment to decentralization, which brought decision making closer to the people.

"The feeling of ownership that is generated in these participatory processes, as well as the drawing together of the leadership and the people, has the virtue of encouraging feelings of self-esteem and citizenship", the President added. "The conditions are thus created for a fruitful dialogue, and the necessary synergies are derived for us to register still greater successes in the fight against poverty".

Mozambique's "self-assessment" under the APRM has not ended, President Guebuza continued, but would now gain a new impetus from the APRM National Programme of Action, which is to be implemented between 2010 and 2014.

This follows the approval of the Peer Review Report on Mozambique at the 11th summit of the continental APRM forum in Sirte, Libya, last year.

The success of the Programme of Action, President Guebuza said, "will depend, in the first place, on the active participation of the various segments of our society".

He urged all Mozambican citizens "to take ownership of this programme and become an active part in implementing it".
(AIM)