ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some contextual elements concerning the trajectories of Mozambique's rural policies and its advocacy coalitions. It presents the Mozambican plans and strategies related to the rural and agricultural sector in the 2000s. These lay on a succession of public policies, sometimes divergent or overlapping, aligned around a general objective of poverty reduction. The chapter focuses on increasing production and productivity, the role of the private sector in providing services and purchasing production, technology packages, and mechanisation has been a constant in recent plans for the rural sector in Mozambique. The economic and political crisis culminated in the 1980s in a political reorientation, established during Frelimo's Fourth Congress in 1983. The unexpected disappearance of Samora Machel, founder of Frelimo and first president of Mozambique, in 1984, accelerated political mutations. Mozambique has become one of the macroeconomic models for international agencies – a 'donor darling'.
