Catchiungo (or Katchiungo) is a typical third-tier municipal city that has been left out of most researches up until now. Catchiungo was largely depopulated during the war, and suffered serious damage. Like many Angolan municipal centres, Catchiungo is rebuilding itself as a regional market town in the last post-conflict years. The city of Catchiungo has a population of 10,000 and an almost negligible population growth rate. The evidence is that in general, the Catchiungo urban area has not spread into areas of environmental risk. The data show that the urban core itself is located in a very low risk area and that in the outlying or peripheral areas, there are relatively few houses that have been built on steep slopes that may be at risk of erosion. Perhaps this is an issue that the city administrators should keep an eye on, to make sure that this trend does not continue to grow. The study has shown that there are adequate areas for the future physical expansion for the city, and similarly, areas for housing in non-risk areas are available. With an almost negligible population and economic growth rates, there will be little pressure for the city and the people of Catchiungo to occupy at risk areas.

This report focuses on the research in the city of Huambo. The research used field research and new mapping techniques to, firstly, supply baseline data on the five characteristics which the United Nations uses to define slums for the Millennium Development Goals and, secondly, to explore in more depth the spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues in Luanda. The five characteristics which the United Nations uses to define slums are poor security of tenure, difficult access to safe water, low levels of improved sanitation, low durability of housing structures and overcrowding. The spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues that were studied were land markets and prices, housing location and transport, and flooding and erosion risk.

The report provides evidence that rising land prices has forced the urban poor out of inner-city informal musseques to occupy lower-valued environmentally risky sites such as river basins, dangerous slopes and areas susceptible to flooding on the margins of cities like Luanda. The urban areas of Luanda (the capital city of Angola), Huambo (the capital of Huambo Province), and Cachiungo (the main town in the District of Cachiungo in Huambo Province) were chosen for this study as they are dissimilar and were considered to be representative of different types of urban areas in Angola. DW carried out the research project from 2009 to 2011 to examine the differences in the three urban areas. The study used field research and new mapping techniques to supply baseline data on the five indicators which the United Nations uses to define slums for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, secondly, to explore in more depth the spatial aspects of poverty and urban environmental issues in Luanda.

The main objective of this research has been to understand how the informal trading economy has evolved in the new context of Angola post-2002. It has attempted to understand whether the more favourable context for economic activity in Angola (free movement of people and goods, stable and realistic exchange rate, economic growth on the back of petroleum production, attempts to create a favourable business environment) have had any effect on the informal economy, and in particular on small-scale informal retail trade which makes up the bulk of the informal economy in Luanda. Has this aspect of the informal economy shrunk or grown or remained as important as before? Have any of the characteristics changed, in terms of who is involved in the sector, the locations of the informal and the type of products bought and sold. Three particular locations of the informal retail economy have been examined: trading in markets, trading in the street and trading at home.

Over the next 24 months DW proposes to expand and build upon its strong record of both sector-specific and broad baseline research to begin to develop a comprehensive and cross-sector integrated study of the Angolan informal economy. Knowledge about the Angolan informal economy remains fragmented and partial at best. While recent studies conducted (or collaborated in) by DW have provided some basic baseline information about the informal market’s structural profile (i.e. categorization by sector of activities, relative rates of participation by sector), as well as more in-depth knowledge about specific sectors (such as the dynamics of informal peri-urban land markets), there is a vital need for a more comprehensive documentation and analysis of the Angolan informal economy as an integrated whole, of how it is being transformed by the new challenges and opportunities emerging since the war, and of how these changes are affecting the livelihoods of the millions of Angolans whose livelihoods depend upon it.