Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) is the humanitarian organisation of the Norwegian trade union movement. In its work NPA is guided by the values of national and international solidarity, human dignity, freedom and equality.
In January 2004 a Regional office was established in Maputo (Mozambique) with the objective of serving the country programs of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Norwegian People’s Aid Southern Africa has an admistrative office based in Maputo which currently supports country offices on the program and administrative level with regards content and focus in line with the new NPA global strategy.It also plans to develop a regional program. This program will serve as an independent program with its own objectives and activities, but it will receive input from and give feedback to the three country programs mentioned above.
Southern Africa is a pilot case when it comes to NPA’s effort to add value to its work by cooperating on a regional basis. The region is one of the poorest in the world, with challenges in most social and economical sectors as well as political (including relatively poor civil society participation). Two of the countries in the region, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, experience all the challenges above, while the South Africa, considered the main economic force in Southern Africa and in its tenth year as a democratic state, struggles with unemployment, issues concerning land and property ownership and crime. The similarities in the recent history of the three countries, with all of them being governed by former liberation movements, and the close relation both economically and politically, makes it an interesting pilot case for NPA.
In addition the region itself has embarked on regional work and initiated a number of regional bodies that puts up challenges to the civil society; we, both international and national non-governmental organisations and social movements, need to know more about these bodies and initiatives and we need to be able to monitor and contribute in the processes that goes on.
