Peacebuilding & Citizenship

Angola’s history of chronic conflict dates back to the beginning of the 1961 liberation war through to the ceasefire in 2002. In an effort to minimize potential social conflict prior to the 2008 and 2009 elections, Development Workshop together with its civil society and church-based partners developed a series of programs aimed at encouraging dialogue and tolerance among local actors and war-affected communities in each of Angola’s 18 provinces.

DW’s peacebuilding programme was launched in December 1998 during the same month that the Lusaka Peace Process collapsed and Angola entered its final destructive phase of conflict. DW hosted a meeting of the major civil society and religious institutions including CICA, CEAST, AEA and FONGA resulting in the founding of the Angola Peacebuilding Programme (PCP). In the post-war period the PCP focused its energies on reconciliation of communities and reintegration of demobilized soldiers and their families. The PCP partners joined forces in the period leading up to elections in order to ensure that the democratic process would not provoke local conflicts and lead to a breakdown in the peace process as had the last elections in 1992.

In 2005 DW and its former PCP member institutions, mounted a renewed partnership focused on Civic Education. Via electoral training, education, adult literacy, conflict resolution and instituting organized participative planning at the local community level, DW has successfully supported its partners’ work of preparing Angola for elections.