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Introduction
The Government of Angola, envisaging the acceleration of poverty reduction process, presents here its Strategy to Combat Poverty – ECP. This strategy comes out at a very special moment of peace consolidation and as sequence of the objectives and priorities of Government of Angola existing programme, which advocates the need to promote a broader and sustainable social and economic growth.
Over the last years, the problem of poverty in developing world, has been a constant worry for its respective governments as well as the international community as a whole. In fact, several events regarding poverty have taken place worldwide. Deserve distinction the World Summit on Social Development in 1995, and, more recently, in 2000, The Millennium Declaration Summit. This last one in particular has set up eight millennium development goals which are: (i) Eradicate Poverty and Hunger; (ii) Access to universal primary education; (iii) Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment; (iv) Reduce Infant Mortality; (v) Improve Maternal Health; (vi) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (vii) Promote a Sustainable Environment; and (viii) Global partnership for
Development. Next to the MDGs there has been stabilised reachable targets by 2015, with one distinction to the commitment to halve the number of people living under a dollar per day.
The combat of poverty comes up on the scope of the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), as a vital strategy for the affirmation of African continent in the international context and for the reduction of existing disparities between Africa and the developed world. The NEPAD programme establishes the need of assuring the accomplishment of MDGs as a tool to reduce poverty and inequalities and the promotion of development and economic growth for Africa.
On the regional context, the eradication of poverty comes up as a top objective on the SADC agenda. The Regional Strategic Plan on Growth Indicators, elaborated in 2003 by SADC, identifies strategic interventions for execution of the objective of poverty eradication which includes namely: the redistribution of natural assets, the construction and maintenance of infra structures, the promotion of knowledge and health care, and the expansion of regional markets and promotion of investments to stimulate the economic growth and the creation of employment opportunities for the poor people. On the national context, the ECP comes up as a Government response to the problem of poverty, which is serious in Angola. In fact Angola is rated at 162 position out of 173 countries on the Human Development Index. In spite of the apparent progress on the economic front, the level of human development is still very low. According to the results of the 2000-2001 survey on the head of families’ expenditures and incomes, the poverty incidence in Angola is of 68% of Angolan citizen that have in average a monthly consumption below Kzs 392 (in 2001) which corresponds approximately $1,7/day. The extreme poverty incidence corresponds to a monthly consumption level of $0,7/day of a population of 28%.
It is a desire of the GoA to reduce substantially the poverty incidence over the next decade, setting targets according to the MDGs, the NEPAD programme and SADC, a reduction of 50% of proportion of people living with less than a dollar a day by 2015. The accomplishment of this target will require continuos and vigorous effort on the side of GoA as well as all the partners of the Angolan society. The international community will also play an important role on the knowledge sharing, experiences and on the cost sharing to cover the lack of funds for the implementation of a programme of this magnitude and urgency.
The ECP is already on the GoA programme for 2003-2004, that now on a context of peace, emphasises emergency actions, aiming at national reconstruction, reinsertion of demobilised, displaced and refugees into the Angolan social and economic context. Apart from the consolidation of peace process, it is the task of the government to guarantee the normal functioning of the state administration in all Angolan territory, expanding the health
basic services and the ones of education to all population, specially those in extreme need, rehabilitating basic economic infra structures to revitalise the national economy and the promotion of a sustainable and inclusive process.
The GoA has identified ten top priority areas for intervention as strategic to combat poverty such as: (i) Social Reinsertion; (ii) Security and civil Protection; (iii) Food Security and Rural Development; (iv) HIV/AIDS; (v) Education; (vi) Health; (vii) Basic Infra structures; (viii) Employment and Professional Formation (ix) Governance; and (x) Macroeconomic Management.
In the actual post war context, the social reinsertion of demobilised, displaced and refugees are an objective of utmost and maximum importance for peace consolidation, national unit and promotion of local development. The interventions on the ECP scope, aim at creating conditions for the resettlement of population into their areas of origin, or in those determined as being more appropriate and the promotion of economic, social and cultural drive of these places.
In a complementary way, it is essential to guarantee the security and protection of citizens. The clearance of mines and other unexploded ordnances which are spread all over the national territory is a fundamental condition to allow a complete free movement of people and goods, in the rural areas in particular, which has been seriously affected by the armed conflict even though constitutes one of the main destination of displaced population. The food security and rural development are equally proper aspects of social reinsertion process. The revitalisation of the rural economic will help to keep people in the camps and will drive, gradually, to a reduction in external agricultural products dependency. The rural sector is one of the strategic areas of future development of Angola, given its potential of jobs creation and income generation in the family lives and its importance in reduction of commercial dependency, and consequently the vulnerability of internal market. In the context of more people and goods mobility and economic dynamism, it is fundamental to prevent the dissemination of HIV/AIDS, which has alarming proportion in the neighbouring countries. It will be also necessary to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on people living with AIDS, giving them access to primary health care and the necessary nutrition and social reintegration.
Education is a key element of human development, which augment individual opportunities in the society. Education is also essential for economic growth, because it increases the quantity and quality of human resources available for the process of production. The main objectives in the education area includes to reach basic universal education and the eradication of illiteracy, in the way of guaranteeing an opportunity to all population to develop the minimum capacities to combat poverty.
The health of the population is also an important element of human development and constitutes a necessary condition for economic growth. In fact, to be able to participate in the productive process and benefits from the opportunities out of the economic growth, individuals need to be in a good health condition. The main objectives in the health sector are to guarantee a suitable basic health care, with the necessary quality, to all population,
having women and children as target group. The continuation of prevention effort and the combat to large illnesses with big expression in Angola and the HIV/AIDS pandemics will be vital to guarantee a prosperous future from the economics and social standpoint.
Development of basic infrastructures is fundamental to assure basic dwelling conditions to all population and for the creation of basic conditions of the economic growth process. The improvement of road network will allow better access to markets and reduction in costs, will facilitate the communication, and mobility, in special for the rural zones population
which depends in agriculture. In parallel, the provision of water, sanitation and energy are essentials for human capital development for the increase of national production. The construction of social housing will allow the accommodation of families living in a precarious housing conditions, in the urban and rural spaces, giving them a better dwelling conditions and dignity.
Employment and professional formation plays an essential role in contributing to reduction of poverty index given that contributes directly to the activities which generates incomes which contributes for the sustainability of individuals and their families, and promote human capital values which leads to a sustainable national economy growth. The quality of governance of state institutions is very important to guarantee public services provision for the needy people and for the economic and social process orientation, guaranteeing the observance of fundamental norms and principles. The actual programme
includes policies to promote good governance in every way, including: The reinforcement of the judiciary system capacity and efficiency, protection of citizen rights and freedom and imposing the accomplishment of contracts; the public institutions reform as to better response to the people needs, initiating the simplification of all bureaucratic procedures: the decentralisation and deconcentration of public administration to those levels close to the communities; and the modernisation of the planning process and the public finances management.
The macroeconomic management constitutes an important complement to the
developments described above. A sound macroeconomic climate is fundamental to
guarantee the trust of investors and create proper conditions for business activities and as a consequence, generates more jobs and sources of income for the population. Investments converge to an economics context characterised by low inflation, interest and exchange rates stability, transparent fiscal structures and encouraging private sector initiatives, efficient public management and judiciary systems defending free initiatives and of private
property. The actual efforts of stabilisation should be definitively stressed, in the way that the conditions for the economic activities are definitively consolidated and give support for an economic and social growth and sustainable.
The ECP implementation and fulfilment of its objectives depend greatly on individual and collective commitment. The GoA considers that the success of ECP demands a joint effort of all society. The ECP has been elaborated jointly with many government institutions at central as well as provincial and municipal levels. Civil society representatives as well as rural communities in particular and international co-operation agencies were consulted over the process of conception of the ECP, and their valuable contributions were at the base of elaboration of this document. The monitoring and follow up of ECP will be done essentially through the GoA economic and social programmes with a continuous communication with the beneficiaries through a participatory diagnostic. The evaluation of economic, social and human impact of the
strategy will have to be done through specific studies taking into account the statistical information which is being already produced with a crescent regularity and quality by the appropriate Angolan entities.
The ECP constitutes a reference tool for definition of sectoral strategies and programmes in the phase of post conflict that Angolan is going through. The strategics and sectoral programmes should, consequently be adapted to the national reconstruction objectives, of economic stabilisation and of structural reform of public administration, with the view of reducing the depth of poverty incidence. However the ECP is an indicative instrument which should in turn have to be adjusted to the specific local conditions, without putting at
risk its fundamental principles and values. By putting emphasis on the urgent problems resolution (the starting conditions) the ECP also launches the basis for the elaboration of the Development Medium Plan, which will cover the period of 2005 to 2009, and for formulation of the structural development strategy in the long term, which is by 2025. Finally it is important to underline that the ECP does not restrict itself to the notion of document as introduced here, but more than that it is a process which this very document triggers off. A process that will entail consultations, dialogue, reflections and continuous learning, conscious that there are no definitive solutions, each country should strive its own way, discovering, acting and carving its unique itinerary and direction conducing to poverty elimination and development.
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