Third Year Interim Report: August 2012 to July 2013

Percentage of Households that fetch water within 15 to 60 minutes of their homes.

Percentage of Households that fetch water more than 60 minutes of their homes.

The principal carriers of water from standposts and other sources in Angolan households are women and children. Gender issues are mainstreamed in all DW programs. The questionnaire has specific questions to assess the position of women and girls. The baseline questionnaire shows the # of women consulted on the current level of services and other indicators in their neighborhood.

2011, 2012, 2013 Maps of the access to sanitation (CLICK MAP TO ENLARGE):

In 2013 we had 102 CBO/CSO/ACAs, with 2146 male and 1007 female members; of them 132 men and 162 women were part of the management structures. That is slightly under the number we presented for 2012, but we have cleaned up the list and are still in the process of updating the information for all Partner Organizations. As you can see, for many organizations we miss the number of members, or it is not yet segregated for males and females.

Nonetheless, considering the Angolan context that is a very high score on female participation.

Activity/Milestone 3. Training conducted for municipal administrations in using MDG indicators & mapping.
Target months: 35

Training the municipal Administration Staff at IFAL

The Ministry of Territorial Administration, through its National Local Government Training Institute – IFAL, promoted a 3 month training program for municipal administrations from 40 municipalities across the country. The aim is to equip the administrators with tools that will help them promote a more sustained development by making the most of the locally available resources. Through the various advocacy and policy influencing processes that DW has been carrying out with the Ministry, DW was asked to train the administrators on how to instill and establish Participatory Management and Participatory Urban Planning.

By being chosen to share and replicate its experience with such prominent entities as municipal administrations, shows how much the Angolan government values the contribution is making in promoting a more inclusive municipal governance. DW’s technical staff is now being invited to go to other municipalities outside of Luanda to assist them implement effective participatory systems by training both municipal administration staff members and civil society representatives.

Willy Piassa, Program Manager DW Urban Governance, gave a course in June 2013, at the National Training Institute for Local Administration (IFAL). The course was on Participatory Management and was attended by 40 municipal managers from all over Angola.

The course presented the principles of participative management and the effects on the team, not just the designated managers and the influence of decisions on the organization.
It is not the same thing as community or cooperative management, where all staff/participants have the same weight in the decision-making process. By a majority vote or consensus, the results will be clear. The importance of decisions that are made in conjunction with the team, will be supported (unless there is suspicion of decisions made illegally or immoral in obscure circumstances.) At the level of community participation and buy-in by the citizens, participatory management brings many benefits.

See annex 201306 IFAL Training Manual Participatory Planning by DW
See annex 201306 IFAL Training Manual Planning, Implementation and Evaluation by DW

Allan Cain, General Director of DW, gave a course in May 2013 at IFAL on Urban Planning.

See annex 201305 IFAL Training Manual Urban Planning by DW

See also the DW website where we post some of our activities: www.dw.angonet.org/content/training-courses

DW continued carrying various capacity building sessions involving community members, resident commissions and staff from municipal and communal administrations.

Some examples of trainings given by DW or supported by DW:
See annex 201305 workshop CACS Cacuaco Cazenga Viana
See annex DW Manual on Community Development

Adao Adriano, DW staff, is also involved in IFAL as a trainer. He is a specialist in decentralization and participative planning.
See annex 2013 DW IFAL training Decentralization and CS Participation
See annex 2013 DW IFAL training Decentralization and CS Participation Training Manual
 

Brazil Exchange visit

DW prepared and executed a exchange visit to Brazil. We took 13 members of the municipal administrations (from Cazenga, Viana and Cacuaco), active leaders of the Angolan CS and DW staff with us. The exchange was held in São Paulo from 17 to 27 April, 2013.

The exchange was facilitated by the Interaction Network of Brazil who is a member of the International Network of Residents of Informal Settlements – SDI (Slum Dwellers International). The purpose of the exchange was to learn from Interaction Network and its partners on issues related to self and community organization forms of engagement between communities and local governments.

The exchange was structured in three parts. (1) meetings with government institutions and civil society, especially the secretary of housing, the city of Osasco, POLIS Institute, representing the Cities Alliance and the Interaction Network. (2) the experiences of social movements in their relationship with the local government. (3) visits to housing projects and community achievements result of processes of engagement between local authorities and community groups.

The Angolan delegation receives an explanation from the Brazilian community committees on how they work with the local administrations to improve the living standards in their areas.

See annex 2013 Relatório da viagem de intercâmbio ao Brasil
See annex 201304 Agenda Angola Brazil Exchange Visit
Please look at the online reporting on this exchange visit for further information: www.dw.angonet.org/content/viagem-de-interc%C3%A2mbio-ao-brasil-0

Other training activities

In May the GIS technician was part of a 3 day training on Geographical Information Systems management together with several members of different municipal administrations. See annex 20130527 GIS training report Massomba

On 17th and 18th  2013 DW gave a training on the methodology and tools for the development of a municipal profile in the municipality Cacuaco. The training was facilitated by DW’s Willy Piassa and Tome de Azevedo, both part of the Urban Governance team. The training was organized in partnership with the Social Support Fund (FAS, a governmental organization) with the participation of the municipal administrators and technical staff members of the municipalities of Cacuaco, and the comunas Icolo e Bengo and Dande, in addition to civil society representatives of these municipalities.  The training was for 40 people. The training was developed based on the paradigm developed by various partners, including DW and approved by IFAL. In the end, every municipal administration and its civil society representatives developed a schedule of activities and budget plans for preparing or updating the profile of each municipality. The FAS is prepared to support each of these municipalities. This relates to our activities and strategy in Milestone 2. We always try to combine the trainees to come from both the CSOs and the MA. We do this for a reason: networking is a very important part of influencing the MA and their work. In the Angolan context it helps a lot to know the people working in service provision personally, to get things done. So if we can bring the groups together in trainings and workshops, it brings down the barriers already.

The case studies mentioned in Activity/milestones 2 show clearly the cycle of actions and the improving cooperation between the MA and the CSOs.

Activity/Milestone 4. Results of MDG mapping presented at annual Municipal Forums.
Target months: 14, 26, 38, 50

The DW staff regularly gives presentations to different stakeholders at different levels. You can find many examples on the DW website https://www.dw.angonet.org/content/forums We use the knowledge in training, workshops, meetings, reports, press statements, the online Atlas, at conferences, etc.  With these presentations they spread knowledge about the current situation in the municipalities and strengthen the name of Development Workshop as a leader and a serious and supporting partner in the fight against urban poverty.

The program does an annual review using the community diagnostic tools to measure poverty indicators in the municipalities across Luanda. The program focuses on building communications and synergies with the aim of reinforcing the Angolan local governance process and through that improve service provision to all, especially the citizens living in the musseques. We promote the effective implementation of urban public policies, acting as a facilitator of the planning processes and encourage the municipal participatory planning. This catalyses more informed debate, more collective organization and practical actions in the monitoring of public policies at the provincial, municipal and communal levels. Several meetings brought together the same stakeholders that would also meet on a Municipal Forum. So the meeting may not be called a Municipal Forum, but it would have the same impact.

Meetings take place at every level, bairro, comuna, municipality, province and national. Some meetings are with and by CSO only, some with CSO and MA or other government representatives. All of them lead up to and influence the development agenda. The media is also targeted to write and broadcast about the issues of the community concern.

With wide anti-government protests that were carried out by young people in Luanda and in the other big cities of Angola, the President decided to start a national Consultative Debate with young people and their representatives. As the majority of the population is young, the government has (finally) realized that unless the economy is able to create enough opportunities for children and the youth, we cannot say there is development and a feeding ground for potential civil unrest. Developments elsewhere in the world have shown the risk in that.
The consultative spaces that have been created go in line with the CACS that were more municipal or communally located.  Now the provincial governor and the directors of the main public service sectors also participate in these meetings in order to hear what the community proposes.

This is a great victory to organizations like DW that have built social capital at the community level to ensure that there are active citizenship organizations that engage with local and provincial governments. In the last few years, DW and its partners at the community and provincial levels have advocated for a permanent and more systematic engagement with the participation of the central government. The CACS have not always produced the results that community practitioners were expecting. Maybe because of a  weak supervision by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, or lack of skills, some municipalities across the country have never held any meeting.
In Luanda DW has been training resident commissions (comissão de moradores) so as to equip them to act as advocate for their communities. Members of these commissions are now very active in engaging with the local government and the service providers.  Until very recently resident commissions were used more to defend and expand the interests of the ruling party and they often were in contradiction with the community members they were supposed to defend. With the training that DW has been giving them, they have realized that they are also part of the communities and their main goal should be to ensure there are more services and improved living conditions for residents.

The engagement, negotiation and consensus building spaces that resident commissions, community leaders and other stakeholders have been holding with municipal administrations and service providers in Luanda have proved to be very effective. Services such as electricity, water and road pavement in Cacuaco, Viana, Cazenga and Sambizanga have been discussed and approved in some of these multi-stakeholder meetings.
 
To give a few other examples:

The Technical Office for Urban Upgrading (Requalification)

Allan Cain and Willy Piassa have established close working relations with the special technical department in charge of the upgrading (requalification) of the (former) municipalities Sambizanga, Rangel and Cazenga. They want to work in a strong participatory way, and have sought DWs’ technical assistance in reaching that.

GTRUCS is active online and has posted their work on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GTRUCS

In 2013 a lot of progress has been made: Having completed the technical aspects of the work plan for the  Cazenga municipality and the urban districts of Sambizanga and Rangel , the Technical Office of Rehabilitation of those locations (GTRUCS) in partnership with the municipal administration of Cazenga, held a meeting with the municipalities to present the first draft of that instrument. The meeting was attended by the administration staff Cazenga, CACS representatives and members of civil society, DW staff members from the Urban Governance team, the research department and the GIS technicians. In total it was a meeting of about 150 people.

From right to left: Bastos de Oliveira – Cazenga vice administrator, Bento Soito – Coordinator of the Cazenga and Sambizanga Upgrading Office; representative from the Ministry of urbanism and construction.

The purpose of the meeting was to present the draft plan to all stakeholders, collect contributions on the areas that need to be safeguarded or improved. The architect Benedict Soito, GTRUCS Coordinator, gave a brief presentation on the process of preparing the plan directory and methodology that has been used to ensure that the instrument is as solid as possible. He also explained that upon completion of the work of technicians GTRUCS, those who still want suggestions may do so by addressing to the municipal administration or office of GTRUCS. The GTRUCS will soon open an office in Cazenga. The reclassification does not foresees the displacement or relocation of the residents to areas outside the city.

See for a more elaborate explanation of this very strong example of proper cooperation between the municipal administration and the citizens:
See annex 20121109 – GTRUCS Encontro de consulta para a requalificação do Cazenga

The 1st Communal Forum Cazenga on Water

On the 25th of October 2012 a public forum was held to discuss the access to water situation in Cazenga, the Water for All Program, the growing population and the role of the Municipal Administration. DW held a presentation on the systems of capitalization, distribution, rationing and treatment of water.

See annex 20121025 Program 1st Comunal Forum on Water Cazenga

National Urban Forum

After having two last year, we had none in this reporting year. The National Urban Forum is promoted by the Ministry of Urbanism and Housing and it usually takes place between August and October every year. Last year, this period coincided with the national elections and the forming of the government. It was not clear whether the then minister and some of his officials would continue in the office. Therefore, it was not possible to call all the stakeholders including the provincial governments to meet and discuss settlement issues. But the groups that would come together at the NUF see each other at several of the other actvities of the program.

Provincial Civil Society Conference
The Urban Poverty Network holds two major meetings every year, one of them being the Provincial Civil Society Conference where they analyse the major advocacy and policy influencing issues tackled throughout that year and the strategies to continue unlocking doors in the following months. The last such meeting took place in CEFOJOR last year in October.

Media outlets
In the different newspapers DWs work is mentioned on a very regular basis. This is one of the best ways to spread our knowledge and influence the service provision levels in the city. See activity/milestone 6 and 9 on the Angolan Media Scans and other media proofs.

DW has developed a DVD about the situation at communal schools. How they struggle with bad buildings, leaking roofs, some even without roofs, no material, overcrowded classes, underpaid teachers, etc. It shows how the students and teachers are trying to improve the situation and make the best of it nonetheless. The movie is used at meetings with communal and municipal administrations, to advocate for better services to these schools.
See annex Movie Communal Schools

The 6th National Civil Society Conference

The 6th National Civil Society Conference was held in the province of Huila in the beginning of December 2012. As always many members of the Luanda Urban Poverty Network (LUPN) were present in the meeting. The LUPN are representatives of the provincial conference in the province of Luanda that happened before the national meeting. They were responsible for taking the conclusion and recommendations of the Luanda conference to the National Conference. The CS movement is growing at a very rapid pace in Angola. The Poverty Network will ensure that recommendations and follow up points are taken seriously in Luanda.

Willy Piassa, DW Urban Governance manager, gave one of the presentations, on the state of the MDGs in Angola.
See annex 20121213 Willy Piassa PP at National Conferência da Sociedade Civil – Angola e os ODMs

For the full report on the 6th National CS Conference, see annex 20121211 – Report 6th National CS Conference – Humpata

Institute for Democratic Development
DW supported a provincial conference on the Economic growth of Angola and the influence on the lives of the citizens. Several politicians, professors from Universities and Civil Society representatives came together to debate the issues, the role of politics, and how to reduce the bad poverty indicators Angola still shows.
See annex 201303 IDD conference preparation and plan

Municipal Forums
Two Municipal forums were held in each of the municipalities of Cazenga, Viana and Cacuaco, while two Communal forums were held in each of the Districts of Sambizanga and Kilamba Kiaxi.

During the reporting period several municipal and communal forums were held in all the municipalities. Community groups and associations engaged amongst themselves to discuss ways of building synergies and agree on best strategies to engage with service providers and the various provincial and central government working commissions that have been working in the respective municipalities. The combination of all these meetings, workshops and trainings gives a constant sharing of information and raising of expectations between stakeholders, and keeps the pressure on all of them to perform their duties. An example of the meeting matrix of some of the project officers at DW Advocacy team, the WATSAN team and the GIS technician: see annex 20130731DW team Meeting Matrixes combined

World Urban Forum
The WUF was held from 01-07 September in Naples, Italy. This was the 6th edition of the World Urban Forum, under the theme “The Urban Future.” It had 10.000 participants from 185 countries. Willy Piassa attended on behalf of DW and the Angolan Civil Society. The event featured a strong presence of a delegation of the Urbanisation and Housing Ministry which promoted the work of urban requalification of Sambizanga, Cazenga, Cacuaco and Kilamba. In addition to the elements assigned to the Ministry, the delegation was also composed of journalists from TPA, TV Zimbo, Angop and Jornal de Angola.
For more information the report on the WUF: See annex 201209 World Urban Forum Napels Italy

It shows a great variety of meetings, forums, workshops, at many different levels, on many different subjects. By constantly engaging with all stakeholders at all levels we keep the work going.

In milestones 2 we already gave a few examples through case studies on the chain of events.

Objective 2 – To build an Urban Poverty Network to advocate for improved and equitable access to basic services
Activity/Milestone 5: Organize Municipal Forums on 6 monthly basis.
Target months: 7,14,19, 26, 31, 38, 43, 50, 55

As explained in Activity/Milestone 4 we have had many meetings, that are not necessarily called Municipal forums, but bring together the same stakeholders and have the same goal and impact. We try to get as much exposure for the LUPN as we can, in all possible forms and shapes.

During the reporting period several municipal forums were held in all the municipalities. These Forums discussed the provision of basic services, road infrastructures, sanitation and housing. A lot of attention is also given to the social fabric of the society. There is a lot of attention of youth, crime levels, lack of access to decent work, domestic and gender based violence. DW believes strongly all these issues need to be addressed, and will participate in these debates also as much as possible. If people, and especially women are not safe in their own homes or neighborhoods, that will affect the service delivery also. The conclusions and recommendations of the meetings were discussed taken to the CACS meetings which are led by the municipal administrators.
The aim is for the municipal LUPN to meet on a monthly basis. But since there have been discussions on municipal and provincial civil society conferences, which are being promoted by LUPN, the meetings have been taking place more regularly. Some municipalities hold meetings every other week, while others almost every week.

The LUPN leadership group decides what they think to be convenient for them. We provide technical assistance in terms of methodology but we try not to make any decision on their behalf. The city-wide LUPN continue meeting regularly on a monthly basis.

Friday debates – Debates de Sexta Feira

Every Friday, DW’s research department organizes the Debate de Sexta Feira. The Friday Debate. Every week we have a speaker, or a group of speakers, and we have presentation with a debate afterwards. These debates have been gathering media attention and we have more and more regular visitors to the debates. We try to react to current affairs, and always try to link the debate issues to our work in the communities. We received some media attention also. The Friday Debate is published on our Facebook Website and the invitation is send to the same group of people that have subscribed to the monthly DW Angolan Media Scans. The focus on the Friday Debate is to have a more academic approach to poverty eradication. We have many speakers with an academic background and view on the matters at hand.

We post the MP3, pictures and presentations used on the DW website for the general public.
See https://www.dw.angonet.org/content/friday-debates
Listen to http://archive.org/search.php?query=uploader%3A%22angolaenglish%40gmail.com%22&sort=-publicdate

An example of the monthly invitation for the DSF, with speakers from the UK, Harvard University, and some of the other topics we had in the last half year.

See annex 2013 PP of DSF Pedro Bramquima on CACS
See annex 201307 DSF Daio on Sustainable Urban Planning WB
See annex Anderson 2013_SAIIA_Angola tax policy brief

Other advocacy activities

Willy Piassa is part of several work groups and joins meetings at all levels (CLICK TO ENGLARGE).

The Lisbon International Conference

In October 2012 on of our research colleagues was invited to give a keynote speech on the International Conference in Lisbon on Angola, Lessons from a Country in Transition. Helga gave a presentation on the Informal Markets in Angola.

See annex 201210 PPP on Angolan Informal Market at Lisbon Conference

And an article in the Journal de Angola:
See annex 201210 Jornal de Angola on Lisbon Conference

DW as a research facility and knowledge center

The CEDOC center and DW library are unique in Angola, many unique documents are stored, and more and more are digitalized and posted on the ever expanding DW website and online library.

See www.dw.angonet.org/online_library

Activity/Milestone 6. Community media articles or broadcasts covering the Municipal Forum debates.
Target months: At least 10 x.

Radio shows

Radio National did a full radio show on the Urban Poverty network.

Activists from Viana and Cazenga came to the studio on the Day af the African Woman to talk about prevention of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and citizens’ participation

In all the community newspapers, several of them supported by DW, there are always stories about service delivery. Issues featured included basic service provision, participatory governance and day to day issue affecting particular communities within the municipalities, such as the INFORSAMBILA, the community newspaper of Sambizanga.
See as an example annex 201305 INFORSAMBILA community newspaper

DW has trained members of local organizations in collecting and analyzing poverty related indicators from their communities so that they can testify on the findings to the MAs, media and service providers. In addition to the indicators collected in the communities DW also provides community organizations with media scan produced on a monthly basis by the DW/CEDOC. See also milestone #9.

The local partner organizations use the information to challenge their local governments during CACS meetings, forums and through the media. The issues that are mostly featured include water and electricity accessibility, basic sanitation, access to work, especially for the youth, gender based and domestic violence, birth certificate registration and crime. Because of the way the poverty network members presented their cases in the radio and TV programmes, they have been sought after to give their opinions on issues related to poverty and community development. TV and Radio stations are again more open to attend meetings organized or promoted by municipal CSOs and the poverty network. DW get regular phone and email requests, even from Bloomberg, to comment on current Angolan affairs.

For more examples of media attention to our work, the program, and the state of affairs in our municipalities see this Word doc.

DW in the media

DW is approached by the media on a regular basis. Sometimes we invite journalists to our activities, sometimes they come to DW staff member for their expert opinions. We have been approached by Bloomberg News Group on several occasions, to ask our opinion on: the land law process and the relocations process in areas such as Boa Vista, Samba, to get our comment on those past relocations. Was the process successfully conducted by the government? There are new relocations taking place in Sambizanga municipality. As a relevant actor of the Angolan civil society, is DW following the new removal of people? If so, how is this one going?

In milestone 9 we have the Angolan Media Scans, many of the articles there will mention DW also.

DW Urban Governance manager Willy Piassa, being interviewed by several journalists on the work DW does together with the Luanda Urban Poverty Network

Another example of DW in the media:
See annex 20130513 ANGOP -DW  Especialista atribui relevância ao Programa Nacional de Urbanismo

Activity/Milestone 7. Launch Luanda Urban Poverty Network (LUPN).
Target month: 6

As reported already last year: The Luanda Urban Poverty Network (LUPN) is officially active. The Poverty Network was formally established in 2009, growing out of an informal network of groups and individuals active since early 2001. It is a membership organisation with a range of varied experience in addressing issues related to poverty and social exclusion. The membership is made up of a wide range of organisations including grassroots community groups, individuals facing poverty, voluntary organisations and statutory organisations in the province of Luanda.

Membership is open to all organizations that share the desire to tackle poverty and social inequalities in Luanda. The current membership of the poverty network include women associations, organizations working on child protection, HIV/AIDS, informal vendors, environmental issues, education, health and water and sanitation.
LUPN is non-party political, and will work with all organisations that support our aims and our values.

The poverty network continues solidifying its membership base at the commune and municipal level whereby various organizations have attended the meetings and events held. The Poverty Network seeks to influence policies at local, provincial and national level that will have an impact on poverty in the musseques and tries to create the conditions for a more socially just Angola. LUPN carries out this work through a range of activities: campaigns, advocacy, networking, project work. Central to the approach is working alongside people experiencing poverty to have their voices heard.

The LUPN has four objectives for the period 2010-2013:

• To work with people and communities experiencing poverty to empower them to address poverty
• To work with organisations to build a strong anti-poverty network in Luanda and scale up to other provinces
• To influence decision makers at the local, provincial and national levels for the development of policies which promote social justice and combat poverty
• To raise awareness about poverty and encourage debate about solutions.
• Implement on an annual basis community based social researches in order to carry out an evidence based advocacy.

Despite the economic growth Angola has experienced in the last ten years, the population of the musseques is still living in precarious conditions. The basic forms of poverty manifestations, such as inadequate housing, inadequate sewage and drains, inadequate health and education facilities are almost as visible as they were a decade ago.  Cases of forced eviction and demolition of houses people have built are still happening. Main points of advocacy with municipal, provincial and national governments will therefore be to ensure that people’s right for tenure are respected and the current upgrading and regeneration projects in some musseques is carried out using more human and pro-poor approaches.

The results of diagnosis and community researches will be the produced in policy briefs that will be published in the Municipal Profiles, the Online Atlases, community newspapers, the DW Friday Debates, the DW website and copies/links are sent to relevant government institutions.

Activity/Milestone 8. Meetings of the LUPN held four times per year.
Target months: quarterly

The LUPN is currently meeting on monthly basis in order to follow the pace of the political and social changing context in which Luanda is going through. In the period being reported the main issues discussed included the slum upgrading process for the municipality of Cazenga and the district of Sambizanga.

The Poverty Network organized several municipal forums in Cazenga to discuss the municipal upgrading program. The Program was presented by the architects from the Provincial Upgrading Office established by the President. The municipal forums are attended by representatives from municipal and communal administrations, churches, local communities, residence commissions and NGOs. Many of the meetings, conferences, forums have already been covered in the report so far.

Activity/Milestone 9. Monthly and annual media scan monitoring review published.
Target months: 14, 26, 38, 50

The CEDOC research department of DW continues to scan all the Angolan media for articles that connect to the work of DW or are about the work of DW. It covers all national, regional, local printed and most online media. It covers state owned, private and community based media.

DW staff at work to prepare the DW Angolan Media Scan

This milestone was to be reached only in year 2, but has been effectively reached since the beginning of the program. The CEDOC Media Scan has been renamed to Angolan Media Scan, and is a very important tool, used widely, to draw attention to current affairs in Angola and serve as a research tool for the general public.

All the Angolan Media Scans can be downloaded from DW’s website. Many articles, reports and other sources of information are uploaded to the website. See dw.angonet.org/pt-pt/cedoc.

Every month the newest Angolan Media scan is sent to many stakeholders by email, posted on Facebook, and made available and downloadable on the DW website. A printed version is always available at the project office in Luanda. As the document averages 80 to sometimes more than 200 pages, we do not print versions unless requested.

All the monthly media scans done during the last program year of the Voices of Urban Citizens program have been made. We attach here just one example: see annex 201306 DW Media Scan

DW has decided to focus more on online activities, to invest in upgrading the website, and is very active on Facebook and Twitter.
See www.facebook.com/DWAngolaCEDOC
See www.twitter.com/DWAngola

Objective 3 – To increase sustainable access to potable water through the promotion of community management models to ensure consumer voices are heard
Activity/Milestone 10. Base-line mapping of water services in the project municipalities.
Target months: 8, 18, 30, 55

We have the annual questionnaires information in the DW Database as described already in milestone 1. The questionnaire covers all MDG poverty indicators and collects answers on 11 questions regarding the access to, quality and price of water. See also the information already given in milestone 1. This information is used for the updating of the Municipal Profiles or Atlases and in the field by the WATSAN officers.

In the third year DW has supported a total of 259 stand posts
See annex 20130731 Stand Posts database DW

We are up from 50 at the beginning of the project to 255 in December 2012. We support the increase of government investment in the rehabilitation of the areas Mulemba and construction of stations in Mulevo and New Urbanization in Cacuaco. The record date of the standposts demonstrates the number of stand post in operation.

8 meetings were held:

At the communal level: on 04/24/2013, 05/31/2013 and 28/06/2013.

At the municipal & communal level: 3 meetings – 05.21.2013 , 24.06.2013 and 19.7.2013.

At the Municipal Level: 08/02/2013 and 12/05/2013.

It is important to mention that in this period, EPAL has built and put into operation several new public stand posts. Although they are not specifically located in the program area, EPAL recognizes and calls for collaboration from the DW WATSAN team to support the program to establish the model of community management in the area.

Our calculations are based on the estimated coverage of services, taking into account that a stand post supplies around 100 families and a family can be estimated at 5 to 7 people. Thus, the actual number is above the target of 80.000. We are estimating reaching approximately 157.000 people within the program area, and many more outside.

DW WATSAN began to introduce the approach of the estimated calculation based on access to services (analyzing different quality indicators). This information is collected and analyzed from the monitoring sheets completed by the janitors at each water point. This set of activities is part of the business plan of the project team.

The project is designed to leverage Government municipal budgets in order to ensure the continued sustainability of infrastructure investments in the peri- urban slums of Luanda. Is that the case?

We believe this is happening. We see the continuation of the implementation process of the distribution of water inside the neighborhoods, in the framework of the Water for All Program, (700,000 household connections to water). The project of household connections is an initiative of the Government of Angola through the company’s public waters of Luanda ( EPAL ) and is being implemented by a Chinese company.

Not at the scale it was promised at during the elections (700.000 new connections), but the government has definately increased the investment in the project area. Where EPAL scheduled 51,947  residential connections in Cacuaco district in 2013 , 806 have been made​​. Pedro Viegas, manager of the division of Energy and Water Cacuaco stated on July 26, 2013. Cazenga was provided with 30,000​​, confirms André Gomes, Head of the Agency Cazenga district on 16.08.2013, during a meeting on Monitoring and Balance of Community Management Stand Post Project, sponsored by DW.

One of the bases of the community management model, promoted by the project is cost recovery from users, and communities who take responsibility for ensuring needed small repairs and maintenance are sufficiently funded. This is based on the MOGECA, as explained below.

We found the occurrence of irregularities in the supply of water stand posts in the project area , as well as the existence of a few breaks in the network, leaving streets flooded, impassable and contributing to reduced revenues from the sale of water collected in the stand posts. This fact has caused major traffic jams of cars on the main transit routes, usually frequented by project technicians.

In the MOGECA model of sustainable management it is the responsibility of the associations to repair minor break downs. During the reporting time frame, the associations took the initiative to repair the stand posts: MD508, 510, 511, 512, 514 and MD201, 204 and 205, replacing 10 taps and service 2 distribution stations, in the neighborhoods Bula and Commander Augusto Ngangula. There was also the joint repair (Community Association Living Hope Rising + EPAL) of a rupture in the pipe 110 meters in the neighborhood Augusto Ngangula and delivery of 509 stand post that was managed by the Residents Committee.

DW has observed significant improvement in relations with EPAL, especially with the Division of Stand Posts (with responsibilities within the province of Luanda), a strategic area for the project. This improvement is the result of several workshops held together throughout the period, at the initiative of the program. Thus, it is recommended the project to continue to invest in maintaining this partnership.

The initiative to have regular meetings to exchange experience among different water associations, some more experienced then others, has shown growth of institutional associations, which ensures the sustainability of the processes in the coming years.

DW Facilitator Tome on a training on Community Development with staff of the Communal Administration of Ngola Kiluanje, and the members of the residents committees

We had multiple encounters with the municipal and communal administrations: Apart from the moments referred to in the preceding paragraphs , we had 3 other meetings that were intended to seek institutional support to learn to resolve minor conflicts that emerged in the management of associations involving stand posts built and residents’ committees. The activity resulted in engagement and involvement of experts from the municipal administration of Cacuaco and the Communa Hoji – Ya – Henda, in the Cazenga district (Division of Social Services and the Energy and Water). Attendance of 15 men and 12 women.

Three meetings with the beneficiary community: We conducted three meetings extended to the beneficiaries of the project. The meetings were attended by technicians of EPAL, community leaders, including religious leaders, members of neighborhood committees, associations, technical staff from the Municipal and Communal Administrations, having an average of 28 male and 55 female participants. The meetings served to members of community associations to share with the wider community and local leaders their actual experiences related to the operation of the stand posts. The space served for accountability in the management of stand posts.

Through these dynamics undertaken by the project, there is already some remarkable decrease of outbreaks of diseases, both from defecation and garbage, in some sectors of the neighborhood Quarry and Augusto Ngangula. We also noted some improvements in hygiene in the surroundings and technical state of stand posts, mainly due to the existence of fences and roofs (assembled by the project) that motivates the permanent presence of a janitor in each stand post. There were also improvements in financial savings for the citizens, with regard to access to water, promotion of dialogue spaces, increasing the level of democratic communities and closeness between citizens (service providers and local authorities).

Some problems and the solutions

Some Resident Committee members were interfering in the management of stand posts. These interferences were creating a bad environment and conflicts with the ACAs and janitors happened. To deal with the situation, the project held a few meetings with the Committee of Residents of these areas to clarify the logic and structure of the stand post management model established by EPAL based on the MOGECA, which led to mitigation of the conflict.

Throughout the period there were difficulties accessing the project area due to the rains that fell. This happens primarily due to lack of infrastructure and because the roads are damaged and there is no proper drainage system in most of the city. Thus, the secondary and tertiary roads were impassable and we had several flooded neighborhoods, making it difficult to maneuver to closely monitoring technical actions in the field.

A possible problem in some sectors is the dismantling of illegal connections by EPAL. Without giving immediately a legal access point. This has left some associates angered because the suggestions are made in almost all meetings to promote more responsibility on the ground, but then the legal stand posts are not given promptly, creating absenteeism in the participation of members in the monthly meetings.

Persistent irregular supply of water in the area of ​​project implementation has lead to some mistrust. In Hoji – Ya – Henda and Ngola Kiluanje they had very poor water supply for 27 days, leaving citizens very worried. To reverse the situation the project has passed the message to community groups to continue to advocate for better water services along the EPAL and Municipal Administrations.

Lessons learned

The creation of associations of community management of water and sanitation should be well architected and the roles of these ACAs and Residents Committee should be well defined, to avoid situations of jealousy between organizations, especially when the ACAs have formed a very dynamic approach in carrying out their tasks in the communities.

Conducting meetings with the involvement of key stakeholders , including technical Municipal and Communal Administrations, technical EPAL staff, members of Committees of Residents , members of ACAs, as well as some community leaders , has contributed to a greater interaction, increased dialogue, transparency and clarity on the Community Management of Water Systems, reducing outbreaks of some conflicts of interest. It has also created synergies to the complaints and handling of illegal connections to the water distribution network of the stand posts, thus contributing to a more effective supervision.

The ACAs deposit the amounts received from the sale of water stand posts in the bank account of EPAL. That roused the responsible senior EPAL. He commandeered the process of outsourcing of stand post, especially those located in the area of project intervention.

MOGECA

In the last 3-4 years, the Community Management Model of Water (MOGECA) scheme was implemented in pilot projects;  one component in the peri-urban towns of Luanda (with EPAL) and Huambo (with DPEA), and in the rural areas around Huambo, Huila and Cunene. In the year 2012, the MINEA – Ministry of Energy and Waters officially adopted the Water Management Model MOGECA to be replicated throughout the country. This recognition and achievement are satisfactory, but at the same time is a major challenge to the main actors with responsibilities for its implementation.

The official MOGECA AGUA MANUAL has been printed. The book will be distributed to all provinces and is to be used as the Policy and How-To on community water management systems. It comes with a set of raining cards to be used in the communities. As they use drawings, they can be used at all levels, and being analphabetic is not an issue.

The official launch will happen in the weeks to follow.
See annex 2012 MOGECA AGUA MANUAL

Activity/Milestone 11. Training of stand post committee staff in maintenance and financial management.
Target months: 11,23,35

During the period under review, we planned and implemented several activities: meeting with the Commercial Director and Deputy Head of Division Stand posts of EPAL, to realize plans and strategies drawn to the periphery of the city, conducting training sections (lectures and seminars) for the promotion of community associations on water management; monitoring and reflection on the water supply services meetings for strengthening the institutional partners (EPAL, Municipal and Communal Administrations, ACAs and Residents Committees) conducting independent research on the Operations and Sustainability of Community associations of Water Management, focused on associations operating in the project area.

DW developed a guide for development of municipal plans for water and sanitation. The result continues to be used in the “Training Course for Facilitators for the Preparation of Plans Municipal Water and Sanitation”, administered by the DW Watsan team. Participants are members of the administrations, EPAL, Associations and Technical Sectors in Watsan. The manual is a comprehensive 62 page document, that explains the history of water committee development and management. But its main strength is that is serves as a how-to guide for Municipal Water and Sanitation Planning. See annex 201108 DW CB Municipal Water & Sanitation Plan

The DW staff gives trainings on a very regular basis, for example on the right of access to water.
See annex 20130705 PP by Adao Adriano on Direito a Agua

See annex Angolan Law on Water LEI DE AGUAS 639

4 Associations (ACAs) grew institutionally to an acceptable level and have been legalized up to the level of the Ministry of Justice.

Several ACAs have finished their registration processes, and are now recognized and legalized.
See annex 20120907 Registration & legalization of ACA
See annex 20120910 Registration & legalization of ACA

And an example of a registration done in the Diario Da Republica (all established businesses and laws that have been accepted need to be published) and payments made to EPAL and the PoU between DW and EPAL.
See annex 2013 complete legalization process ACA and payment EPAL

We strengthened again the cooperation with EPAL. See minutes of one of the many meetings annex 20130510 DW EPAL Minutes of the meeting

Training and mobilization of Stand Post management groups

Training Seminar for groups on Water and Sanitation in February 2013

Increased knowledge and information to beneficiaries, with the completion of two training seminars directed at community groups for the management of stand posts, with the purpose of increasing the technical capacity and management of associations and caretakers of stand posts.

DW held two seminars, one on Basic Accounting and one on Conflict Resolution. 55 people attended, including 30 women. The 1st seminar focused on the basic accounting and recording of the daily flow water, and the 2nd seminar on Conflict Resolution, training on conflict resolution techniques. With these capacity building activities the program aims to increase the shared capital of the beneficiaries with the aim of ensuring better management of stand posts and conflict resolution in the management of water services.

A seminar on Business Plan Development during 4 days in June 2013

With aim of supporting the associations of community management of stand posts with tools to present a new proposal for the management of the water in their areas of operation to address a new EPAL policy related to outsourcing of local management of water systems.
The seminar covered the following topics:

• The importance and definitions of a good Business Plan
• Technical applications of a Business Plan
• Components of the Business Plan
• Size and Style of the Business Plan

As a result, two associations took the initiative to develop their plans. 25 people participated in the seminar, including 4 women.

Conducting Lectures during 6 days in May 2013

Through lectures we transmitted knowledge and information about maintenance of household latrines, prevention of waterborne diseases and good hygienic practices and health. The lectures were held in neighborhoods Augusto Ngangula and Quarry. On average we involved 30 men and 35 women. The primary target group was users of the stand posts, patients of health centers, students from public and private schools of the districts covered by the project. The lectures were presented by project technicians and Intern Students from the Institute of Social Education – ICRA, that are doing their internship with DW.

Community Theater during 5 days in May and June

Mobilization and community outreach with Community Theater. The use of theater has become an essential and indispensable tool in community mobilization, especially in changing of awareness regarding hygiene and health. In partnership with the theater group (Nzoji Mwenhu y), the project conducted 15 sessions of Community Theater. The pieces were focused on preventing waterborne diseases, the advantages of fetching water in closed containers and collecting and treating solid waste. We also passed messages on hygiene and health at home and the importance of accountability in the management of stand posts. The pieces were exhibited at the communes Kicolo, neighborhoods Pedreira, Augusto Ngangula and Paradise areas to be known as “endemic” in relation to waterborne diseases. On average, the actions involved 76 women and 47 men.

DW uses theater groups to educate the people living in the areas that depend on public stand posts on the benefits of proper community water management.

Activity/Milestone 12. Best Practice model tested and validated.

A very comprehensive DW study has been done on the performance of the ACA system. A researcher from the University of Nottingham has worked together with the DW team, ACAs, EPAL staff and the citizens living in the target area to do a analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of the ACAs and the implementation of the MOGECA system.

See annex 201302 DW Study on ACAs in Luanda
We have used our Friday debate for a presentation to the wider public on this study.
See annex 20130301 DSF DW presentation Mariana Matoso on ACA performance

This and many other presentations can be found on the DW website.

Development Workshop’s mission envisions the organisation to become a “knowledge-based institution” with the aim of using research and practice to feed the national debate on poverty reduction and to bring advocacy to scale by influencing public policy.

DW’s research team closely monitors and publishes the public media in Angola with the aim of monitoring the Government policies but also public perceptions of these policies.

DW has an on-line library on its website to publish research findings. The Online Cazenga Forum is the newest loot on the DW online presence.

The research results continue to allow DW to feed national policy debates on urban poverty. Research findings have been fed directly to the Government partners of the National Institute for Urban and Territorial Planning and the Ministry Of Urbanism’s Territorial Information System.

DW’s director was invited in September 2011 to join the Minister of Urbanism’s expert advisory group on developing a national urban strategy and the results of the research were presented to that group.

DW has developed training materials for the use of GIS tools by municipal administrations. These tools continue to be used in Huambo to build capacities of five municipalities with an aim of developing their capacities in land mapping, cadastres and land tenure registration

The MOGECA National Policy on Water has been published in is being rolled out as we write.

DW continues, together with Co-Water, the cooperation with DNAAS, funded by the African Development Bank, the work DW is doing on the Voices of Urban Citizens program. The first objective is to assess sector strategy and policy development, and sector planning and program formulation in the rural water and sanitation sector. The  second  objective  is  to  develop  a  realistic  national  rural  water  and  sanitation program (NRWSSP), and to outline sample rural water supply projects to be implemented in the coming years (2012-2016).

• Assessing the  relevant  water  sector  regulations  and  institutions,  decision-making processes, roles and responsibilities in the sector;
• Assessing  progress  to  date  in  the  rural  water  sector,  in  terms  of  policy  towards sustainable water supply and sanitation for rural areas;
• Assessing the interaction between water supply, sanitation and related sectors and sub-sectors;
• Assessing  national  indicators  of  water  quantity  and  quality  coverage  and  other relevant characteristics (e.g. sanitation, hygiene, etc.);
• Assessing the “Water for All” program and identifying lessons learned;
• Assessing external support and programs;
• Defining  and  obtaining  consensus  from  DNAAS  on  criteria  for  selection  of  new projects;
• Identification and selection of new projects with DNAAS;
• Developing a program  concept  note  (PCN)  including  well-defined  performance indicators and an investment plan.

DW has been working closely with the Water National Directorate from the Ministry of Energy and Water in order to replicate the community management model to other communities across the country. There have already been some significant successes, but there is still a lot to do. One of the biggest difficulties faced here is not directly related to the government’s acceptance of adopting the model but the capacity of providing timely assistance in those communities where water services are being implemented.

The government led “Water for all Project”, for example, is trying to provide for water for nearly 75% of the population by the end of 2012 and most of services will be community related ones, that would require community management model. An attempt here is being made so as to enable Local Administration Training Institute (IFAL) to start delivering courses on water management models.

Progress

General Progress:

We believe that the program is doing fine and in general has already achieved some significant successes and is generally on schedule, and on some milestones ahead of schedule. We have a very active Partner Organization base that meets on a very regular basis, to address the issues faces by the urban poor in Luanda. The constraints we face were already anticipated at the beginning of the program. The cooperation with the local and national government bodies has been positive but dealing with Angolan bureaucracy is often slow. Their timelines to respond has obliged us to adjust timeliness on some outputs.

The delay in the local elections is a rather serious strain on the progress. We want to use the buzz around the elections to gain again more speed in the improvement of the cooperation between the citizens and the local administrations and service providers. On the other hand it is clear, in the media and on the streets, that the turn in behavior, actions and reactions will not be stopped anymore. The people know their rights, better and better, and get more vocal in asking for them.

We hope to make some mayor steps soon in the access to and influence on the actual decentralized budgetary planning cycle.

In general we will continue implementing the program as planned.

Key Milestone Deviation:

We are meeting all milestones.

Course Correction:

At this moment we are not planning any course corrections.

Plans for Next Reporting Period:

Not applicable. We will continue as planned.

We are delayed with our Midterm Review consultant. We plan to work with Andy Rutherford. We have worked with Andy Rutherford before and he has been a great support to us. He is critical, action oriented and able to advise us on course corrections, if needed.

Risks:

Luanda keeps growing at an almost unsustainable speed.

That leads to an ongoing struggle to provide sufficient services to the population at large. The whole city, rich and poor areas, suffer from very frequent power failures and hampered water provision. Also in the areas where everybody is connected as a paying client to EDEL and EPAL, the service providers, services are bad. We see some improvements, but that is strongly linked to areas. The influx of people, but mainly the natural population growth leads to potential sustainability problems. Research shows that for every child born in Angola, TWO start to live in an urban area.

Most if not all risk were already identified before. Below you find an update on our risk assessment and strategies:

Risk 1: Lack of a serious commitment by the Government and / or abandonment of the promises made in relation to poverty reduction may affect the results of this project.

Situation at moment of reporting: The government is moving in the right direction. Maybe not as fast as desired, or not always with the priorities focused on the poor, but in general the whole country is moving in the right direction. The citizens are more vocal, the President is making field trips to the poorer areas, and those visits have dire career consequences if he is not happy with what he encounters. There is more and more government information available online; the GTRUCS is a very strong example of good participatory work. We always have to realize where this country is coming from.

The radio debates show how spaces have been opened to discuss and monitor urban planning and public policies. The fact that municipal administrations and public service providers continue to attend meetings promoted by civil society is an indication of their willingness to be accountable and get inputs on municipal planning. After all, municipal planning at this point in time is to do with more availability of services for the poor. This is exactly what forums and other meetings are producing.

While the government is realizing the benefits of implementing projects using participatory approaches, there are still some entities who insist in implementing projects without consultation. Most of these projects have been raising people’s expectation but fail to deliver. People expectations at local level have increased so much that the government at all levels are feeling the pressure of having to improve people’s living conditions immediately. This pressure sometimes makes the government to implement projects without giving enough time for consultation. As a result many of these projects are inefficient and do not produce the desired results.

Unfortunately progress against targets set by the Government rarely gets tracked. We have the plans, but the detailed budgets and the results on these plans are rarely published.Many media stations are heavily controlled by the ruling party.

Mitigation Strategies: (unchanged) The Voices of Citizens for Urban Change Project will continue to carry out studies and monitoring of progress or lack of policies and programs around the Angolan Government. The results of these studies of monitoring will be shared through the media and CSOs. That will lead to pressure on the government to improve the implementation of the policies. The project team will continue to train MA staff and CSO organizations to improve their capacities.

Risk 2 A: The Government does not provide sufficient funding to local authorities.

This is unfortunately UNCHANGED from last year.
Situation at the moment of reporting:
Although the Angolan Government has provided its policy agenda in the administrative and fiscal decentralization to the level of Municipal Administration (MA), the allocation of roles / functions has not been accompanied by an adequate allocation of financial resources and capable human resources.
MAs have the status of autonomous units in the state budget, but they still have not assumed the full autonomy to control their own resources permitted by law. MAs are in practice still dependent organs of the Provincial Government. The MAs have to send their plans and budgets to request for funds. They do not have access to a sufficient funding every year to fully implement their plans. The Provincial Governador determines the monthly amount of funds available to each municipality.

Mitigation Strategy: Based on the Decree 17/10 on the organization and operation of the MA, the MAs and communities come together in Consultative Municipal Councils (CACS) and other platforms. There are functional councils that the residents can use for discussion and resolution of local problems. The project gives great importance to the networking between civilians and administrators and service providers and promotes public education about its potential through the dissemination of information.

Various meetings promoted by the program involving community leaders, municipal administrations officials and service providers are aimed at infusing a participatory culture in discussing and deciding on priority community basic services. In the last physical year forum meetings, community assemblies and conferences paved the ways for more electricity transformation posts, water stand posts and households connections to be set up in Cazenga, Viana, Sambizanga and Cacuaco.  Municipal administrations in these municipalities have been empowered to present more legitimate priorities of local needs to the central government.

Risk 2 B: Successive changes of directors and governors of Luanda.

This is happening unfortunately. As the new administrations offices (following the new borders) and the development of the autarquias is not going as fast as planned, it leads to delays and an in-house focus.
This leads to MAs that are busy with the consequences of the change in leadership. As people are still not elected but appointed a new leader could lead to shifts in staff positions. The focus will not be on building capacities of staff of MA. In Angola having personal relations with the stakeholders in any situation is very important.

Mitigation Strategies: (UNCHANGED) The Voices of Citizens for Urban Change Project continues to provide training and capacity building in the field of municipal participatory planning, to enable the creation of an environment of mutual trust and relationship within the CACS.  All trainings and meetings, if appropriate, are given to ‘mixed’ group, MA staff and CSO representatives, so there is always a change for networking. DW invests a lot of time in getting to know all the ‘movers and shakers’ in the Angolan Administrative structures, at all levels.

Risk 3: The government sometimes accuses civil society organizations to be spokesmen of political opposition and introduce restrictions on their activities.

This risk remained and increased somewhat for some CSOs, especially those who advocate aggressively on human rights, land tenure and asymmetries in the distribution of income in the country and corruption.
Some NGOs and CSO have criticized individual government leaders personally expounding political party positions. Public space tends to close for these organizations. The CSOs in the CACS are not fully able to expose their views freely. It is supposed to be a very democratic space, but there is room for improvement.

Mitigation Strategies: The Voices of Citizens for Urban Change Project will continue to work with the Institute for Local Administration Training (IFAL) to train the government and CSOs on how to best use the CACS as spaces to promote a constructive dialogue between governments and CSOs.

Risk 4: Leadership challenges within civil society. (UNCHANGED)
I) Reduced space for CSOs in the public sector, due to stricter legal control by the government of CSOs.
II) Drastic reduction of donor funds to Angola.
III) Strong staff members of NGOs move to the public or private sector, as NGOs are struggling to compete with salaries offered.

Mitigation Strategies: The Voices of Citizens for Urban Change Project continues to invest in the promotion of relevant training workshops for CSOs, forums and CACS to promote participatory and democratic elections of representatives to public spaces, inclusive and participatory municipal planning and leadership activities in CSOs and MAs.

Risk 5: Changes in the borders of MA lead to delays and unclear structures. See also risk 2B

Luanda has changed the municipal borders but new administrative systems are not all made and active yet.
Plans will be submitted later, and plans in process will cover old boundaries.

Mitigation Strategy: Our principal institutional counterparts in the MA and Central Government appear to still be in place at the time of reporting. Our CSO focus strategically focuses on working with bairro and communal level community based organizations who will still be active and vital even if municipal boundaries are re-configured. We will therefore keep our ongoing work focused on the bairros, irrespective of which municipality they belonged to or are becoming a part of at a future point.

Risk 6: Municipal Elections were expected in late 2013

No date has been set, but we expect them only in 2014. This could influence the speed of the MA development of Plans and Budget. And this could lead to the rapid building of water points without proper management and maintenance structures developed. Water points are a very visible and important improvement in most areas. But without proper management of the water points, that will lead to water points that will function only for a short time, if at all.

The DW MOGECA management model is based on participation of all stakeholders. In a highly politicized society, under the pressure of upcoming elections we have to be aware of and vigilant of the neutrality of DW.

Mitigation Strategy: Make sure DW keeps her independent image, and promotes civic education and the importance of proper water management systems.

While there are some expected challenges requiring re-adapting the approach to engage with the new governance structures at the municipal and provincial levels, the project does not foresee any major changes in its operation.

Sustainability:

The Voices of Citizens for Urban Change (VCUC) Program is part of and scaling up of a long-term cooperation between DW, many Angolan and international CSOs and NGOs, and the Angolan Government at all levels, national, provincial, municipal and communal.

DW is able to execute the Voices of Citizens for Urban Change program, because of the long standing cooperation between DW and all the other stakeholders. We have supported the development of ACAs we in the past that have been operational for many years without further operational of financial support from DW. We have long term cooperation with EPAL, IFAL, several ministries and other government bodies. And of course with our CSO and NGO partners in Angola and more and more abroad.

One of the aims of the program is to facilitate and support the growing cooperation between all stakeholders in the improvement of the living conditions in Angola, and in the case of this program, in Luanda. We disseminate our knowledge and information throughout the country and share information with, and learn from (inter)national partners as often as we can. This is one of the main tasks of Allan Cain, supported by Cupi Baptista and Willy Piassa. They often join (inter)national conferences and workshops to strengthen the cooperation with other organizations.

With the ever faster developing online community and growing attention for our Friday debates (especially online) and the online availability of our work, training manuals, opinions, research results we embed our work even further in the Angolan society.

DW staff members are part of many national and international workgroups and steering committees. We expect a lot from the Online Atlas and the forum it supports. It is a massive step to bringing pro-poor, transparent and inclusive planning and improving living standards a lot closer again.

As the Angolan government is keen on continuing the cooperation with the CSOs and NGOs (including DW) we expect the continuous development of this cooperation to continue after the grant period has ended.

Scalability:

We aim to increase the influence of the citizens on the development of their bairros, comunas and municipalities. And that work is not restricted to the 4 municipalities of the Voices of Citizens for Urban Change program. Our work spreads throughout the whole city, and where possible also outside Luanda and through the National Urban Forum and the Annual Civil Society Conferences the lessons learned from the program are shared and replicated at a national level.  Due to the visibility of DW in Angola, we often get invited to share our work and our research in other parts of the country, and abroad.

And of course our increased cooperation with the Cities Alliance, Slum Dweller International, POLIS and INESC, The Africa China Initiative, our work related to other networks and donors, it is all linked to each other.

Development Workshop is developing a partnership with the African Centre for Cities (ACC) based at the University of Cape Town. The DW Director is serving as a Board Member involved in the State of African Cities Project. The ACC wishes to extend the scope of their program to include Luanda, which is now recognized as Africa’s fastest growing city.  In partnership with our project and the Cities Alliance we are exploring the expansion of our participatory urban indicator monitoring work to other municipalities and sharing the lessons with other cities within the African region.

The Africa-China Workshop on Pro-Poor Urban Development Exchange, which DW has initiated in partnership with the Centre for African Studies at Peking University and support from BMGF, has great potential for significant impact on a large scale. The largest and most important investments in urban Africa today and for the foreseeable future are Chinese. The initiative aims to influence the direction of this financing and promote good practice so that these investments will positively promote pro-poor development.
Lessons Learned:

We are very aware of the importance of working with and partnering with the key people in the strategic institutions. Building their capacities remains one of the biggest challenges. Staff retaining is a big risk and burden for all non-oil employers. We just can’t afford those salaries.

We continue to develop functional working relations with all stakeholders in this program. Especially the continuous changes in the Municipal Administration staff, that already have a rather high staff turnover and now following the municipal restructuring due to the establishment of the new municipal borders, leads to some extend to extra work, but that has to be accepted. Training of all stakeholders at all levels remains vital to the program.

The sharing of all available information in an action oriented format is crucial. Doing research and sharing the outcome leads to better knowledge and decisions. We should have focused more and earlier on the power of online availability of our information. The enthusiasm about the online atlas and all the other topics we now routinely upload, makes us realize we should have done that years ago…

That helps the program to come to results that all will benefit from. The population because their needs are met, the municipal administrations because they improve their capacities and strength to influence the situation in their municipalities. It is not a lack of will to improve the lives of the poor, but sometimes the problems, needs and demands are so overwhelming and complex they lead to in-action or fear to take decisions. The Program supports all stakeholders to keep moving in the right direction.

Lessons Learned:

We are very aware of the importance of working with and partnering with the key people in the strategic institutions. Building their capacities remains one of the biggest challenges. Staff retaining is a big risk and burden for all non-oil employers. We just can’t afford those salaries.

We continue to develop functional working relations with all stakeholders in this program. Especially the continuous changes in the Municipal Administration staff, that already have a rather high staff turnover and now following the municipal restructuring due to the establishment of the new municipal borders, leads to some extend to extra work, but that has to be accepted. Training of all stakeholders at all levels remains vital to the program.

The sharing of all available information in an action oriented format is crucial. Doing research and sharing the outcome leads to better knowledge and decisions. We should have focused more and earlier on the power of online availability of our information. The enthusiasm about the online atlas and all the other topics we now routinely upload, makes us realize we should have done that years ago….

That helps the program to come to results that all will benefit from. The population because their needs are met, the municipal administrations because they improve their capacities and strength to influence the situation in their municipalities. It is not a lack of will to improve the lives of the poor, but sometimes the problems, needs and demands are so overwhelming and complex they lead to in-action or fear to take decisions. The Program supports all stakeholders to keep moving in the right direction.