The Observatório do Cidadão para Transparência e Boa Governação no Sector da Saúde (Citizen Observatory for Transparency and Good Governance in the Health Sector) – OCS is a collective private legal entity and non-profit organisation endowed with rights and obligations under the law, enjoying executive, financial and patrimonial autonomy, governed by its articles of association and other applicable procedures and regulations determined by the law.
The organisation was established by a heterogeneous group of Mozambican health professionals, social scientists and researchers interested in contributing towards the deepening of public participation in debates related to the health sector, as well as the upholding of human rights and building of mechanisms for the training of a critical and well-informed citizenry on public health services in Mozambique.
The main objective of OCS is to contribute towards the promotion of public policies and initiatives based on transparency, access to information, citizen’s participation, accountability, ethics and probity in the management of public goods in order to foster behavior-based quality in public service which, in essence, has a positive impact on human development as well as in the sustainability of the Mozambican population.
The OCS takes a stand in relation to the country’s political agendas of health but seeks to objectively analyse beforehand what has been happening in the health public sector, starting from governance processes, public participation, to the actions of the main health actors.
The OCTS gathers evidence which supports all its position taking with regards to processes, actions and results in the health sector. As such, it seeks to progressively establish an adequate observational tool and promotes regular meetings with groups of professionals, users, managers, community-based organisations, researchers, and investigators to deepen national themes on population health for taking an informed position.
Apart from researching on the present and examining the recent past, the OCS seeks to establish scenarios on the future and learn through a continuous comparison between the “desired”, “forecast” and the “observed”.
The guiding principles of the OCS are translated into: non-discrimination, social justice, transparency, public participation and democratic rule of law.
The OCS bodies comprise the Assembly General, the Executive Board and the Fiduciary Board.