| 1973 | Development Workshop (DW) was founded |
| 1976 | Angolan mission to the UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver invited Development Workshop to Angola |
| 1980 | DW’s first mission to Angola involved an exhibition at LEA (Engineering Laboratory of Angola) and working visits to Luanda, Benguela/Lobito and Huambo |
| 1981 | DW became the first NGO in Angola and set up a unit within the National Department of Urbanism in Luanda, responsible for programs of self-help housing. |
| 1982 | DW produced manuals for environmental design for housing and public building for each of climatic/ecological |
| 1983 | Carried out an education facilities planning/mapping project for primary schools of Luanda province; involved in training staff of Ministry of Education and producing inventory of school infrastructure and educational coverage throughout the province+ |
| 1984-89 | Product design and construction support for South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) and African National Congress (ANC) refugee projects in various provinces of Angola, including workshops, schools and vocational training centres. Many South Africans and Namibians fleeing the apartheid regime had taken refuge in Angola after the Soweto uprising in 1976 and remained until Namibian independence in 1990. DW worked with these communities while they were in exile |
| 1985 | Local Initiatives Programme launched to support community based projects of local NGOs, churches, and associations. Over the years, this programme has invested in civil society and built the capacity of local institutions. Hundreds of projects have been supported with funds from the Canadian, Dutch and Swiss governments, private sector companies and the NGOs NOVIB, One World Action (OWA) and Comic Relief |
| 1986-1988 | Research programme with the Institute of Public Health and the Angolan Women’s Organization (OMA) on Emergency Sanitation for Luanda’s musseques. |
| 1987 | Creation of the Office of Musseque Upgrading – Gabinete para Reabilitação dos Musseques (GARM) with a mandate from the Angolan government to do research and pilot projects for rehabilitating peri-urban informal settlements. |
| 1988 | GARM launched the Sambizanga Project to test for the first time community based approaches to urban development in Angola’s context of prolonged war-fuelled urbanization |
| 1988-1992 | DW led a coalition of NGOs, churches, universities and trade unions called Programme Angola – Canada, aimed at supporting Angola’s emerging civil society. The programme channeled approximately $20 million to local projects and institutions in the period leading up to Angola’s first multi-party elections in 1992 |
| 1990 | AngoNet, Angola’s first email/Internet service launched to serve civil society and humanitarian organisations in Angola to network with international and regional partners and with each other. AngoNet was an Internet pioneer in Angola and in the African region. AngoNet staff contributed to the founding of Angola’s commercials Internet providers EboNet and NEXUS. AngoNet has served over 500 NGOs and humanitarian users |
| 1993-1998 | DW’s Women’s Enterprise Development Programme carried out research and piloted projects to support economic and survival strategies of women-headed households in informal settlements and market places. The project tested credit, saving and solidarity lending, adapting models from Grameen Bank and elsewhere to the Angolan context. DW helped found and provided facilities to the Rede de Mulher, the women’s network, during its first year of development. |
| 1995 | World Bank commissioned DW to do a major study of the Luanda water market and its impact on beneficiaries at the community level. This was the first study of its kind in Angola using participatory research techniques |
| 1996 | DW’s Sambizanga Project was awarded “International Best Practice” recognition at the UN Habitat City Summit in Istanbul. DW set up a computer Geographic Information System (GIS) to help in risk assessments and monitor the impact of projects. Spatial mapping becomes a useful planning tool integrated into DW’s infrastructure programmes. |
| 1997 | DW Huambo programme office opened to take over the International Red Cross water and sanitation programme and became the principal partner of the Provincial Government in this section providing water to over 700 communities in the province over the next decade |
| 1998 | Peace building consultation between church and civil society partner institutions was launched as Angola returned once more to conflict. DW supported CICA, CEAST, AEA, FONGA, and IECA to form a coalition that became the Angolan Peace Building Programme |
| 1999 | Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP) was begun as a partnership between DW, CARE, Save the Children (UK) and One World Action (OWA) with support from DFID. DW began two major projects focusing on sustainable community services (water and sanitation) and sustainable livelihoods (small loans to small businesses). |
| 2000 | DW was awarded the Medal of Merit by the Provincial Government on Luanda’s 425th anniversary in recognition of DW’s many years of contribution to musseque upgrading. ONDAKA, Angola’s first community-produced journal was published in Huambo in Umbundu and Portuguese by DW’s Voices for Peace project. |
| 2001 | Peri-urban land tenure study was commissioned by the Ministry of Urbanism and Public Works with support from UN Habitat, NORAD and DFID. DW used the results of the study to advocate for improvements in the Land Law and stimulate public consultation |
| 2002 | The end of the war allowed DW to scale up and expand its programmes of community water supply and school rehabilitation to previously inaccessible municipalities. DW helped found national civil society networks: Rede de Terra dedicated to land reform and RASME to focus on microfinance |
| 2003 | A new branch of SLP microfinance programme opened in Huambo with assistance from USAID and MTCF. The demand for micro-loans grew steadily as families began to rebuild their livelihoods after the end of the war DW conducted research (supported by Foreign Affairs Canada) for the World Bank and IRSEM on Land and the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Huambo. The pioneering research provides one of the few sources of information on what happens to the demobilized ex-combatants when they resettle |
| 2004 | Civic Education for reintegration of ex-combatants and their families promoted through DW’s peace building network |
| 2005 | Terra Book “Urban Land Reform in Post-War Angola Research, Advocacy, and Policy Development,” was launched by DW together with Minister of Urbanism and Environment Eng. Sita Jose at the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Chatham House in London. Civic Education for Elections project launched with support from a Norwegian cooperation to support churches and civil society organisations in conflict mitigation, voter registration and electoral support |
| 2006 | DW celebrated 25 years of work with Angolan communities. The Sustainable Livelihoods Project was transformed into Angola’s first independent non-bank micro-finance institution, KixiCredito, with over 11,000 clients and a loan portfolio of $2.5 million. |
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