Abstract:
Public opinion and some academic literature claim that Civil Society Organizations in
Mozambique have no autonomy given the fact that for their survival depend on foreign aid (donor funding).
Taking into consideration the research we carried out from 2010 to 2018, we disagree with this categoric
affirmation. In this paper, we argue that despite the fact that dependence on foreign aid is a factor to be
considered among many other constraints related to the context of poverty that the country is going
through, some Civil Society Organizations, such as Forum Mulher appear to reveal some degree of autonomy
that allows it to stand as a relevant actor in the national public arena, thus contributing to the approvals of
laws and public policies that seek to mitigate gaps related to gender equity and women’s rights
