Development Workshop is working with IDRC on a program focused on vulnerable coastal cities in Angola. Angola experienced a massive shift of populations from the war-torn interior to the coastal settlements during the conflict years. Displaced families built their housing in unoccupied unserviced peripheral land around the existing towns. Low cost land was typically in the most environmentally vulnerable locations adjacent to coastal marshes or in river basins that have in recent years become increasingly susceptible to flooding. Most population shifts occurred in the civil-war years from 1974 through to theceasefire in 2002 —years that coincide with increasing concern about global climate change. During this conflict period almost all of the 500 meteorological and hydrological tracking stations were abandoned leaving the country without means to track its increasing vulnerability. Development Workshop is engaged in research on issues of water and climate change in these vulnerable coastal settlements. The research has been central to DW’s work on influencing water policy in Angola. DW together with the Ministry od Water & Energy developed a model of community-based water governance as a remedial tool for incorporation into the “National Water for All” program which was adopted as national policy and is being rolled-out in municipalities across the country.
