O “Direito à Cidade” emergiu no processo do Habitat III, como uma demanda dos grupos da sociedade civil activa, em campanhas de justiça social urbana, em torno de questões como: gentrificação, expulsões forçadas, refugiados, a privatização do espaço público e a criminalização dos sem-abrigo.

 

Luanda is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities, its population increasing at a rate of
almost 7% annually, and reaching over 7 million people by 2016. The breadth of
Angola’s informal sector – and its pervasive role in the lives of most Angolans –
cannot be overstated. Throughout the vast urban musseques (informal settlements) of peri-urban Luanda, in which approximately half of the city’s population currently
reside, essential services – such as water and food distribution – are provided for the
overwhelming majority through private initiative in the informal sector

After a protracted civil war, Angola has been reconstructing its social and physical infrastructure and developing new policies and legislation to address the chronic poverty that many families live in. Four decades of war were characterized by forced removals, resettlement, and massive internal displacement of rural and urban populations. Urban expansion became uncontrolled, and informal land transactions flourished with few legal tools and little financial and human resources to manage land properly. Land has emerged as a critical point of potential conflicts, and a recent research has demonstrated that, after the civil war, thriving land markets have come to exist in Angola