BOMBSHELL: Canada Has Given Millions to Support Authoritarian Mozambique Government

When the average Canadian goes to bed at night, they likely do not think about lands far away. Canada, guarded by two large oceans and a mostly friendly neighbour to the south, has largely been removed from the geopolitical squabbles that plague most of the world. However, that does not mean Canadians aren’t willing to participate in conflicts far from their shores if deemed necessary. International struggles such as World War One, World War Two, the Korean War, and the War on Terror saw Canadian troops fight bravely, with tens of thousands of Canadians laying down their lives for their country.

Since the end of the Cold War, Canadian foreign policy appropriations haven’t been spent on military hardware but rather on aid given abroad to foreign countries. Per the Canadian International Development Platform, Canada disbursed over $100 billion in foreign aid from 2001 to 2021. In 2023, Global Affairs Canada’s international assistance budget was $6.9 billion, an increase from $5.9 billion in 2022.

While most of these funds are granted overseas to numerous NGOs, non-profits, and other humanitarian entities, some are given directly to foreign governments themselves. This brings into question the government of Mozambique.

Mozambique’s Turbulent State of Affairs

Mozambique is located in the southeastern part of Africa, just across from Madagascar. Since achieving independence from Portugal, Mozambique has struggled to develop. It consistently ranks as one of the world’s poorest countries, has scored very low on the UN’s Human Development Index, and has faced famine, civil wars, and natural disasters. This devasting situation within the country has led it to ask for international aid, and Canada, among other developed countries, has given it. One of the areas that Mozambique has asked for aid is education.

Since 2007, the Canadian government has given nearly $250 million to the Mozambique government’s Ministry of Education and Culture. This has been millions, sometimes tens of millions, transferred every fiscal year, with the last payment being disbursed on February 17, 2025, for $5 million. There’s another payment scheduled in 2026 for $5 million as well. Some of the goals of these transfers given by the Canadian government have been to “provid[e] approximately 13 million textbooks,” “building the capacity of teachers and administrators,” and “providing educational materials and services to support girls and vulnerable children.” While these initiatives to help Mozambican children get an education through funding the Mozambique government are admirable, there is just one question: Who runs the Mozambique government?

FRELIMO and its Grip on Mozambique Politics

Since being granted independence in 1975, Mozambicans have been ruled by the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO party. In its first election in 1977, FRELIMO won all 226 seats in the legislative assembly, led by party founder Samora Machel, who became Mozambique’s first leader. FRELIMO, during the Cold War, was characterized as a socialist party that allied itself against the West, joining the Soviet sphere of influence. After the Cold War, the party rebranded itself as aligned more with democratic socialism and less with communism. Beginning in the 1990s, other parties could form and run, however, FRELIMO has consistently won every election with strong majorities in parliament, keeping them in power for decades.

However, in recent years, Mozambique’s fragile republic has taken a more authoritarian turn. In the 2024 elections, FRELIMO candidate Daniel Chapo won 65 percent of the vote in the first presidential election round, avoiding a runoff. In addition to holding the presidency, FRELIMO only lost about a dozen seats in parliament, allowing them to keep their parliamentary majority and govern unobstructed.

These results were challenged by FRELIMO’s opponents as illegitimate, citing numerous election irregularities as well as having the support of international observers who also questioned their accuracy. This resulted in protests where government security forces cracked down hard on those participating, killing many and injuring more. Chapo was inaugurated as president in January, despite protests from opposition parties and other African nations, who did not send representatives, with the sole exception of South Africa.

The actions of FRELIMO represent a broader trend of democratic backsliding in Mozambique with the Economist’s Democracy Index, which claims to look at a country’s civil liberties, political culture, and electoral processes to assess its democratic institutions, giving Mozambique a score of 3.38 in 2024, placing it in the “authoritarian regime” category where it has been since 2018. Freedom House, an American non-profit aimed at promoting democratic values around the world, gave Mozambique a score of 41 out of 100, rendering it a “partly free” society, on the verge of being considered “not free” if it falls below 40. It should be noted that Freedom House does receive funding from the US government and has faced accusations of bias due to that factor.

Education Treated with Neglect

So, with all of this in mind, what has the Mozambique government been doing with the money it has received from the Canadian government?

First, textbooks. One of the Canadian government’s supposed priorities has been ensuring that Mozambican schoolchildren receive textbooks so that they can learn, and, according to the Canadian government, they did. One of the accomplishments the Canadian government touts of the Mozambique education program is that it has “provided 15 million textbooks in 2019, bringing the total to 71.8 million since 2015.” While it is true that books may have been printed, whether they got to the students is a different story.

In Mozambique, there have been numerous stories of textbooks not being able to reach students who need them the most. In 2020, there were reports by local media that books were being diverted from public schools to private schools, being sold in the process. This allegedly has been done by the teachers/principals themselves, even as the books say on the cover “Sale Forbidden.” A local reporter was able to buy two books from a teacher for the price of 250 meticais or $5.60 CAD, posing as a parent.

This is even if the books are making it to the kids at all. In the first half of 2024, only 4,500,000 of a promised 22,000,000 textbooks were delivered to Mozambican students. Students reported having to look over the shoulder of another student to understand their teacher’s lesson, and other books were said to have blatant errors in important subjects such as History, Geography, and Math. Mozambique didn’t even print these books in their own country until very recently and this has resulted in numerous delays that have left many students in Mozambican schools not getting their promised textbooks.

Teachers Removed from Classes to Campaign for FRELIMO

In addition to the lack of textbooks and resources for students, teachers have also been taken away from their students for political reasons. During the 2024 election campaign, it was reported that teachers were being pulled out of classrooms to campaign explicitly for FRELIMO. They were even using school resources such as education ministry cars and schools were shut down as a good portion of their teachers were campaigning.

School staff were ordered to contribute directly to the FRELIMO campaign from staff members being told to contribute what amounts to $23 CAD to School District Administrators ordered to contribute $675 CAD.

Is it possible that these teachers genuinely back FRELIMO? Sure. But these acts of open campaigning during school hours raise questions of impartiality, as well as concerns of abandoning schoolchildren during the weekday.

What Should Canada Do?

With these stories of school mismanagement, abuses of power, and shakedown of teachers, the Mozambique government’s actions would anger many here in Canada. Canadians need to ask themselves: Is this a government Canada should reward with more tax dollars? Is this a government whose conduct represents that of Canada’s? Wouldn’t this money, $250 million since 2007, be better spent somewhere here at home as opposed to the education arm of an autocratic regime? These are just the reported instances of governmental abuse and negligence by Mozambique. What don’t we see? What happens in these classrooms? Do these children learn anything of value so that they can escape poverty? What about other ministries that receive Western funding? Is there graft and abuse there as well?

With a lot more questions than answers, one has to ask—not to Mozambique, but to Global Affairs Canada: Was it worth it?