Pitfalls of national development and reconstruction : an ethical appraisal of socio-economic transformation in post-war Mozambique

Abstract

Mozambique is undergoing intensive socio-economic reforms to reconstruct war

damages and develop the nation. The reforms consist of economic liberalisation through structural adjustment and monetarist economic stabilisation, e.g. government withdrawal from economic activities, privatisation, deregulation, reduction of tariff levels on imports and tax on investments, cuts of expenditure on social services, restrictive credit system, focus on monetarism, increased taxation on individual income, etc. The nature of these reforms, on the surface, leads to morally questionable conditions. There is social chaos and disintegration, high indices of corruption, subtle recolonisation, decline of civil services, etc. At the bottom lie the market ethics and fundamentalist theological discourse by dint of which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund deny historical consciousness, lack institutional memory, vest themselves with unquestionable international authority, dictate and impose policies without accountability for the social consequences. If there is any hope for Mozambicans, it lies in development ethics which relies heavily on the liberation motif, historical consciousness, and African Heritage.