A sociedade civil no processo de desenvolvimento humano: o caso da contribuição da UNAC no bem - estar dos seus associados

Abstract

In this work we analyze the contribution of União Nacional de Camponeses (UNAC) in the well-being of its members. We first reviewed the literature on Mozambican Civil Society (CS) and identified two distinct opinions. The one that argues that CS is weak and has no autonomy of its activities and the one that argues that CS has autonomy in its action strategies. One of the dimensions of this autonomy is to consider the expansion and enjoyment of substantive freedoms for the most vulnerable parts of society. We started from this to do our analysis. We seek to know to what extent the most vulnerable strata of society benefit from the autonomic capacity of SC. Therefore, we took the case of UNAC for analysis and elaborated the following starting question: how does UNAC contribute to the well-being of its members? Our theory is Alaine Touraine's social movements. Our methodology is qualitative and the semi-structured interview is the data collection technique. The main results show that UNAC, in its activities, presents a substrate equivalent to the role of the subject referred to in social movements. And it contributes to the well-being of its members by guaranteeing the enjoyment of substantive freedom fundamental to the productivity and security of peasants. In Education, in the technical area, UNAC trains peasants in agro-ecological and sustainable production, associativism and leadership; in Health, it trains farmers in nutrition; in Justice, it grants legal assistance and facilities in access to justice. In terms of income, the peasants interviewed are practitioners of subsistence agriculture, UNAC grants them arable land, seeds, agricultural tools and cultivation techniques. It holds fairs for peasants, individually or collectively, to sell their products and defray their expenses. With these results, we confirm our hypothesis that UNAC contributes to the well-being of its members by guaranteeing them the enjoyment of substantive freedoms such as: Education, Health, Justice and Income