President appoints administrative commission to run Luanda

President José Eduardo dos Santos relieved Simão Mateus Paulo of his post as governor of Luanda on 16 January and appointed an administrative commission to manage the province for the next six months.

Headed by Francisco Higino Lopes Carneiro, Minister of Public Works, it includes also António Pereira Van-Dúnem, secretary to the Council of Ministers, and Job Catelo Capapinha, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports.

There had been a lot of criticism of Simão Mateus Paulo, especially in respect of refuse collection. The President had given him six months to solve the problem, but he was dismissed before the end of that period.

A presidential executive decree said the decision was a result of ‘the need for central government to intervene in order to ensue a rapid change in the accentuated deterioration of major infrastructure in the city and the reduced quality of the main basic services for the population’.

It stated that the commission is to propose changes in the administrative divisions of the city of Luanda and to reorganise services in the provincial government.It is also to take steps to ensure better provision of basic services such as fresh water supplies, electric power, public transport and refuse collection and disposal.

The members of the commission subsequently visited Luanda neighbourhoods to see the situation and also had meetings with many groups.

Speaking in Huambo a few days later, Higino Carneiro promised that Luanda would be clean within six months. ‘With hard work it is possible to change the face of Luanda in six months,’ he said.

British official visits Angola

Andrew Lloyd, head of the Southern Africa department of Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said in Luanda on 29 January that his country would help Angola. On his first visit to the country to see the political and economic situation, he was speaking after a meeting with Aguinaldo Jaime, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and coordinator of Angola’s economic team.

Angola and Britain have long been partners and are now seeking to relaunch bilateral cooperation. Angola’s future was one of the issues discussed during their meeting of around an hour and a half.

Aguinaldo Jaime said their talks would contribute to a better understanding of the political and economic situation.Confidence in a country, he said, was essential to attracting investments and other assistance, and Angola had a lot of work to do in this respect.

‘Very often people abroad do not have a true perception of what is happening in the country politically and economically. The country is therefore often unfairly judged and even penalised, because people do not know what is happening,’ he said.

During the meeting Aguinaldo Jaime briefed the British delegation on the steps being taken to stabilise the economy and create conditions for sustained economic growth.

Andrew Lloyd said afterwards that he was optimistic about economic progress and, contrary to recent speculation abroad, that Angola was on the right path.

‘We spoke about Angola’s future, the post-conflict era and, especially, the economic sector and the need to increase existing confidence in Angola’s economy,’ he said.

During his two-day stay in Angola, the British visitor had talks with officials on the situation in different sectors.

Government and Unita resume meetings

The Government and Unita resumed bilateral meetings on 16 January, when Minister of the Interior Oswaldo Serra Van-Dúnem and Unita vice-president Ernesto Mulato signed an agreement in which they undertook to solve the outstanding requirements of the Lusaka Protocol. These are the social reintegration of former Unita soldiers and the appointment of Unita officials to posts as municipal and communal administrators.

Oswaldo Van-Dúnem stated: ‘Material difficulties have affected the rate of action taken to solve the outstanding issues. We are counting on the efforts of the international community, which has contributed, but not enough for a country the size of ours which has just come out of a 30-year war.’

He said government bodies were working on the appointment of Unita administrators.With regard to social reintegration, he said one of the problems had been that the exact number of men had not been confirmed. ‘We are ready to solve this,’ he said, ‘and meetings help to exchange views and opinions, so that we can, as soon as possible, solve this problem, which affects not only former Unita soldiers but all soldiers.’

Ernesto Mulato said that another of his party’s concerns was the provision of houses for some of its officials working in health and education. ‘These problems are to have the immediate attention of the technical committees and we believe they will be solved as soon as possible,’ he said.

Under the Lusaka Protocol, Unita is to be given 30 posts as municipal administrators, 35 as assistant administrators and 75 as communal administrators.

Human Rights Watch will continue to have access to economic data

Minister of Finance José Pedro de Morais said on 14 January that the American NGO Human Rights Watch could have access to the Angolan government’s economic data whenever it wanted.

‘The Angolan government provides regular information on the national economy to some financial institutions and international bodies that deal with such material.If Human Rights Watch asks the Ministry of Finance for any information on our economy we shall certainly give it,’ he said.

The Minister was speaking at a press conference he called to provide clarifications regarding untrue claims made in a recent report by Human Rights Watch, which had referred to the alleged misappropriation of US$4 billion of oil earnings and accused the government of corruption, mis-management and insensitivity to the serious social problems affecting many Angolan families.

He said Human Rights Watch showed bad faith and was seeking to draw cheap benefits from the still unstable economic situation.

‘Improper advantage is being taken of the situation in the country.We are a nation that has recently emerged from conflict and is in the development phase. Organisations like Human Rights Watch take advantage of this,’ he said.

‘It is a well known fact that that there are shortcomings in the budget and public finance management system, as well as the national statistics system,’ he continued.‘Recognising this, in 2002 the government approved a Public Finance Modernisation Programme systematising action that was already being taken, with a view to improving budgeting and financial management.’

He added that the government could not be held responsible for estimates of its revenue by sources that were not credible, and recalled that to date no international financial institutions had proved the accusations made against Angola.

Speaking on Angolan radio on 16 January, Angolan economist José Cerqueira described Human Rights Watch’s interpretation as ‘unprofessional and very hasty’, adding that they immediately associated discrepancy with theft.

Angola, he said, was not the only country to show discrepancies in its accounts. During the 23 or 24 years since the external debt started to be covered by World Bank statistics, he said, the combined discrepancy of developing countries amounted to around two trillion dollars.

‘So, were two trillion dollars stolen in the world?The two trillion dollars need to be explained when considering Angola’s discrepancy, because it is part of that total.’

Another wrong interpretation in the Human Rights Watch report, he said, was to assume that the discrepancy had nothing to do with losses.

‘The country is losing that money, which is going to all its creditors, who are able to have a much higher standard of living than they would have if debtor countries did not have such losses. It’s not the individual creditors, since they receive only what is stipulated in the contracts,’ he said.

Cerqueira went on to say that before writing its report, Human Rights Watch should have sought advice from people who understand these matters. ‘An organisation with the international standing of Human Rights Watch should at the very least ask the opinion of specialists who have dealt with this problem before drawing such conclusions,’ he said.

Cerqueira already told the Voice of America in December 2001 that the black holes detected in Angola’s oil accounts were a result of duplication of interest payments abroad, and that the poorer countries were victims of this.

Unjustified foreign exchange losses were a generic problem affecting the less developed countries, he said, and should not therefore be interpreted to mean the misappropriation of foreign exchange.

Brazil to fund fisheries

Brazil is to provide US$50 million to build and modernise Angola’s fishing fleet and to construct a shipyard for artisanal fishing. José Fritsch, Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, announced this in Benguela on 26 February. He said his visit to Angola was a result of the visit of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva last November.

‘I was invited to return with a business delegation,’ he said. He added that an agreement on cooperation in fisheries would be signed after a seminar to be held in Luanda in partnership with Angola’s Chamber ofCommerce and Industry.

The delegation wished to look into the possibilities of establishing partnerships with local companies in Benguela. They went to Lobito, where they visited the Fripesca complex and the Institute of Marine Research.In the Baía Farta fishing area they visited fish processing centres.

Their special interest was the fish processing industry, where the activity of local industries is affected by a lack of capital and the need for partnerships.

Government’s economic team meets World Bank representative

Following earlier meetings with the Ministers of Planning, Transport and Health, Louis Kassekende, the World Bank’s executive director for Southern Africa, had a meeting on 20 January with the government’s economic team.

Louis Kassekende said after the meeting that the World Bank planned to increase the volume of resources for the reconstruction phase in Angola, adding to the US$125 million being spent on projects since March 2003. He said he was satisfied with the implementation of the projects, which are expected to be completed by June this year.

There are two essential components of post-conflict programmes, the analytical part, which includes the question of transparency in resource management, and financing the rebuilding of facilities and support for demobilised soldiers.

‘It have no doubt that in view of the extent of implementation of the programmes, relations between Angola and other donors will certainly be strengthened,’ Louis Kassekende said, expressing his belief that Angola would soon pass from the post-conflict phase to a more privileged relationship with international institutions.

The World Bank official was briefed on the economic situation in the country, government priorities, the stability of the national currency, low inflation rates, measures taken by the government to improve transparency and the growth of external reserves.

Aguinaldo Jaime, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and coordinator of the government team, said these were aspects the international community needed in order to boost financing for the country. He said the 2004 budget had already been approved and resources from the international community would be welcome, since they would release resources for other priorities.

Speaking to the press the following day after a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, Louis Kassekende said he believed there was no obstacle to the holding of an international donor conference, since the efforts the Angolan government was making were evident.

‘It is not easy to implement post-conflict policies and programmes successfully as Angola is doing in the areas of the resettlement and social reintegration of thousands of Angolans,’ he said.

The main purpose of his visit, he said, had been to have consultations with the government on the implementation of economic and social programmes, the demobilisation of former soldiers, population resettlement and combating poverty.

Mecanagro plans to assemble tractors and agricultural implements

The national agricultural mechanisation company, Mecanagro, plans to install assembly lines for tractors and agricultural implements this year, so as to increase its capacity for preparing land and making full use of local labour.

Carlos Alberto, chairman of the Mecanagro administrative board, announced this at a press conference on 18 January. He said the agricultural implements assembly line would be built at the Mecanagro headquarters in Viana, on the outskirts of Luanda, with the help of the Portuguese company Galucho.

Studies were still in progress on where to assemble the tractors, he said, but it would probably be in Kwanza Sul Province. Both projects, which would shortly be submitted to the Council of Ministers, would cost an estimated US$12 million.

Carlos Alberto went on to say that Mecanagro planned to prepare 60,000 hectares of land for crops this year, for which it needed US$6 million, while it needed another US$9 million for water projects and making tertiary roads.

Last year, he said, the company had prepared 38,000 hectares of land in the provinces of Bengo, Benguela, Bié, Malanje, Moxico, Kwanza Sul, Huíla and Luanda.

But because it had only 140 tractors, it was unable to extend its activities to other provinces.In order to attain 412,000 hectares of mechanically ploughed land throughout the country, he added, 500 more tractors a year would be needed until 2006.

‘Only with the gradual introduction of mechanised agriculture can the country achieve high agricultural yields and an acceptable degree of organisation of peasant associations.

Rice and wheat growing in Bié Province

The acting governor of Bié Province, António Gomes da Conceição Gonçalves, officially relaunched rice, wheat and groundnut growing on the Cahanga estate, municipality of Katabola, on 15 January.

Two thousand hectares of land had been prepared, 200 of which had already been planted with rice and wheat.

At the start of the programme, ten tonnes of ‘limpupu’ rice seeds from Mozambique and ten of wheat seeds were to be distributed to the peasants, together with fertilisers.

An area had also been prepared for breeding livestock - cattle, goats and sheep.

Beekeeping and fisheries project in Malanje

The Forestry Development Institute, IDF, is to invest US$78,000 this year in a beekeeping and fish-breeding project in the municipalities of Kambundi Katembo and Luquembo in Malanje Province.

According to Tomas Misalaque, provincial director of the IDF, the project, to be implemented within the framework of the local government’s public investment programme, is to benefit the most needy people in those communities.

He added that it would be carried out in partnership with the Food Crop Development Programme for the Northern Region.

They were just waiting for the arrival of technicians and beehives from Luanda before starting work on the project, he said.

Diversification of mining industry

In an interview published in the Jornal de Angola on 13 January, Manuel Africano, Minister of Geology and Mines, said a strategy for relaunching the steel industry prepared by experts from his Ministry has already been presented to the governmentHe said that fertiliser production from phosphates and other national resources could also start soon.

The Minister further revealed that agreements had been signed on prospecting for copper and gold in Uíje and Huíla provinces, respectively.

With regard to diamonds, he said there had been 10 percent growth last year, with net earnings of US$800 million.Meanwhile, reorganisation was continuing.The government had agreed to set up a Diamond Security Corps, and a certificate of origin within the framework of the Kimberley Process had been introduced. Stating that 2004 would be the ‘diamond year’, he cited US$900 million as expected earnings in the sector.

‘We have succeeded in putting forward a strategy on iron and manganese, so that the country can produce steel. We are drawing up a strategy to produce fertilisers, since we need to make Angola an agricultural power in this part of the continent,’ he said.‘I think we are on the right road. But it must be said that the good results in the geological and mining area are basically due to the end of the permanent state of war in the country.’

‘We are continuing to grant mining rights to companies that request them. Africano continued. ‘Apart from Angolans, lots of foreigners are also entering this area. This year five more big projects will start and, as I said, there is every indication that 2004 will be the diamond year.’

The mining diversification strategy is aimed essentially at reducing large-scale imports by relaunching projects in phosphates and other minerals to make it possible to produce fertilisers. Another area to which greater importance is to be given is building materials of mineral origin, with the restoration and/or construction of facilities.

Other minerals like copper, zinc and lead are planned to be used in the processing industry, an area in which there are already a number of projects aimed at attracting national and foreign investment.

EU provides US$116 million for poverty reduction

The European Union has granted 91 million (US$116 million) to Angola for three programmes in support of the poverty reduction strategy and to create conditions for economic recovery in the country.

Minister of Planning Ana Dias Lourenço and Glauco Calzuola, head of the EU office in Angola, signed a financing agreement on 23 January for social projects.

The largest tranche, 45 million, was for reinforcing the Social Support Fund, which is in its third phase and is to be implemented over four years.

Ana Dias Lourenço said the second programme, which was expected to have the clearest effects on living conditions, was in the area of mine clearance and support for the return and sustainable resettlement of displaced persons.At a cost of 26 million, this programme is also to be implemented over four years.

She stressed that this international financial support was important to macro-economic management to achieve economic stabilisation.

Government has reduced malnutrition among displaced persons

João Baptista Kussumua, Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration, stated in Luanda on 19 February that in 2003 the government had succeeded in reducing malnutrition rates among the around four million displaced and repatriated people from 25 to 10 percent.

Speaking on the commercial radio station, he said camp areas had been expanded, making it possible to give better attention to the most needy. Action was focussed on supporting former soldiers and their dependents and displaced persons, he said.

This year, he continued, there were programmes to improve social services in places for returnees, the reunification of families, mine clearance, support for the aged and to assist the return of Angolans from abroad. Special attention would also be paid to the social reintegration and vocational training of the 200,000 demobilised soldiers.

Kussumua appealed to the media, churches and civil society, asking them to tell young people that Luanda should not be seen as the only place to rebuild their lives, because the country as a whole needed everyone’s skills in order to be rebuilt.

Government reintegrating more than 900 former Unita soldiers in Huambo

Around 900 former Unita soldiers in the municipality of Ukuma, Huambo Province, are being involved in small-scale projects.

The programme, which started in early January, is aimed at facilitating the social and economic reintegration of the former soldiers and their families. It is financed by The World Bank, at a cost of US$28,275.

The initial pilot programme involves agricultural projects, vocational training, traditional apprenticeship, community work and generating non-agricultural income.

The institute for the social and professional reintegration of ex-servicemen, Irsem, plans to extend the programme to more than 21,800 former Unita soldiers in Huambo’s 11 municipalities, excluding those who have already had vocational training.

Rains destroy 23 primary schools in Bié

Torrential rain in Bié Province is going to affect targets set for the current school year, according to José Francisco Dumbo, provincial director of education, who said that at least 23 adobe schools built by communities had been destroyed. He had previously praised the involvement of local communities and churches in building hundreds of schools to meet the needs of the schooling explosion.

He said his Ministry had planned to enrol 540,000 pupils this school year, which started on 5 February.Another 200,000 desks were needed, he said, and 5,210 additional teachers were being recruited.

The plan, he continued, was to have a primary school in every town in the province, as part of the public investment programme, which was aimed at building a six-classroom school in every municipal seat.

This programme was going well, he said.

EU prepared to provide supplementary assistance

A European Union spokesman has revealed that aid provided to Angola in 2003 – including assistance to the population, humanitarian aid and food security – amounted to 71 million, and that it was prepared to provide more if necessary.

This was said in response to a question by an MP from the People’s Party, José Ribeiro de Castro, who had asked about the shortage of food still affecting the Angolan people, which had recently led to the adoption of a food contingency plan by the World Food Programme.

The spokesperson said the emergency situation was not due to a lack of contributions by donors, but to delays and the deterioration of WFP food shipments. The increase in the numbers of people being assisted did not mean that the humanitarian situation had worsened but reflected improved access to all parts of the country and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees after the war ended.

Since Angola would continue to need emergency assistance for rehabilitation and development, the EU would seek ‘a more structured approach than in the past’, when it had acted essentially in response to crises.

With regard to food security, it would progressively reduce food aid, so as not to avoid the high risk of creating dependence.

Instead, it would seek to increase the production, processing and marketing of agricultural produce, strengthen local associations and rehabilitate the agricultural sector.

Public consultation on plan for education for all

A public consultation on the Education for All Plan was launched in Luanda by Minister of Education Burity da Silva on 14 January in the presence of Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of Unesco.

The Minister said the plan involved various sectors and was designed to be interactive with government policies in the areas of medium and long-term social and economic stabilisation.The tasks involved corresponded to basic education needs, he said, and its achievement did not depend on any one sector of society.

The plan is aimed at improving the quality of education and to meet the specific needs of an education system deeply affected by years of armed conflict and social and economic instability. The Minister said it could help to eradicate poverty through improved education and promote sustainable development.

The priority areas are infant and primary schooling, literacy teaching and adult education. The 135-page document stated that the success of the plan depended on the combined efforts of civil society, particularly churches, trade unions, NGOs and social and professional organisations.

One of the targets of the plan is to ensure that all children, especially those living in difficult conditions and from ethnic minorities, have access to free, compulsory and quality education by 2015, by when it also aims to increase the number of literate adults, especially women, by 50 percent, to ensure equitable access to basic and further education.

The government also plans to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, with a view to full gender equality in education by 2015.

Following consultations in all the country’s provinces, the Luanda consultation was due to end on 15 February with a workshop, which would last until 21 February, in order to reach a definitive consensus on the plan.

During the ceremony, the Minister and the director-general of Unesco signed an agreement on primary school teacher training.

The project is the result of a request by the Angolan government and is to be financed by the Japanese government through Unesco.

School and house building in Benguela

The community in the municipality of Bocoio, 105 km from the city of Benguela, is building schools and housing for 210 new teachers with the support of Unicef.

A source in the local administration said the participation of the community was a result of the need to increase the number of classrooms so as to provide for children currently outside the school system.

The work started in December 2003, using local building materials. Unicef provided 800 metal sheets to roof 20 classrooms in Monte Belo.

António Saraiva, administrator of Bocoio, said the involvement of the community in the work would make it possible to reduce the number of children studying in difficult conditions, in church buildings or under trees.

‘With the new housing conditions created for teachers,’ he said, ‘around a thousand children excluded from the school system in 2003 will have guaranteed places this school year.’

He added that the administration was currently mobilising resources to acquire furniture locally for the homes.

Vocational training

Between 1998 and 2003, 2,651 people were trained at the polytechnic vocational training centre in Luanda in courses in electricity, cold storage, welding, plumbing, carpentry, computing, English and general accountancy. A source at the centre said that more than 85 percent of them had been given jobs.

Unesco support for Angola

Unesco is going to increase its support for Angola, particularly in the area of education. Under an agreement signed in Luanda, the UN agency is to provide US$250,000 for training primary school teachers.

Koichiro Matsuura, director general of Unesco, said in Luanda on 14 January, after being received by President José Eduardo dos Santos, that now that there was peace in Angola support was being mustered from many countries, including Italy and Britain, for the country’s education system.

He went on to say that there would also be cooperation in other areas, particularly culture, which he had discussed with the President.

Government and oil companies to work on social projects

The Cabinda government and oil companies operating in blocks 0 and 14 are to work together to build basic social facilities for the benefit of the population in the region.

This was revealed on 22 January by provincial governor José Anibal Rocha during the official opening of the market in Buco Zau, which was sponsored by oil companies at a cost of US$80,000.

In the presence of the directors of blocks 0 and 14, António Pegado and Lauro Carvalho, and the director of operations of Chevron-Texaco, he praised the efforts made for the social and economic development of the region.

Work in progress on the Buco Zau municipal court and regional hospital was also being supported by the oil companies, he said.

The partners in these projects had already built ten homes for higher education teaching staff and rehabilitated the Polytechnic Vocational Institute.

Seeds for peasants

Adriano Muicoto André, coordinator of Prodeca, the project for the development of food crops in the northern region, stated on 28 January that 43,200 needy people in the provinces of Uíje, Malanje and Kwanza Sul would be given seeds and support for the rebuilding of basic facilities in rural areas.

The seeds, he said, were for groundnuts, beans, sweet potatoes, maize and cassava, while the facilities included fresh water harnessing systems, schools and medical posts.

Other programmes were reforestation, fruit tree planting and the breeding of small livestock such as goats, pigs and poultry.

The aim, André continued, was to guarantee produce for planting, improve the local diet and increase the output of small family farms.

The same had been done in 2003, he said, and building work had included storehouses for agricultural development stations and a school and water harnessing system in Uíge Province.

Prodeca, which was created in 1998, was allocated US$18 million by the International Agricultural Development Fund, the Belgian Survival Fund and the Angolan government.

During the seven years of its activity, US$11 million of this sum had been spent on projects in Malanje, Uíje and Kwanza Norte provinces.

André further stated that a centre for research, training and studying seeds would start to be built this month in Malanje Province.

The undertaking, to cost US$400,00, was expected to be completed by September, he said.

The purpose was to train personnel and reactivate the seed production process.

Festival to mark anniversary of city of Luanda

The Marginal, the seafront avenue in Luanda, was the site of the Festival of the Bay of Luanda, celebrated on 25 January to mark the 428th anniversary of the founding of the capital city.

Organised by the provincial government, the event included more than 40 national bands and singers, as well as musicians from Brazil and Cape Verde.

The day was also marked by an exhibition of national produce in the municipality of Kilamba Kiaxi, where peasants from nearby areas displayed their goods. There were also a number of football matches played by local teams.