This book uses the concept of empowerment as a means to understand peacebuilding in Mozambique.
In order to do this it first traces the different discourses on 'empowerment' and proposes an
analytical framework based on multiple levels of analysis and a dialectical view of power.
Second it examines how the process of state formation and later peacebuilding have shaped
the spaces for local empowerment to occur in Mozambique. Finally it offers a detailed analysis
of a national policy called the District Development Fund (the '7 million') designed in the
context of decentralization and aimed at reducing poverty in this country. This case study
helps reflecting on the long-term and derivative effects of peace both in institutional terms
as well as at the level of the everyday. The holistic approach to empowerment offered in this
book and its application in the case of Mozambique will be of interest to both academics as
well as practitioners of peacebuilding and development.
