Angola is currently implementing a major tax reform programme, which aims to boost non-oil tax revenue as a means to diversify its economy. Broadening the tax base will play a critical role in reducing natural-resource dependence and vulnerability to international commodity price and demand volatility. Improving revenue collection and redistribution mechanisms also has the potential to strengthen the state’s institutions and relationship with society. However, the government has not used its tremendous oil wealth to develop other sectors of the economy or promote social development, leaving the country with a narrow taxable base and an exiguous taxpaying culture. The government faces several other challenges including limited fiscal decentralisation, widespread evasion and corruption, and lack of institutional and legal foundations. Political will for reform is manifest in the administration, but the question remains whether enhanced taxation will help to reconcile the disconnection between Angola’s extraordinary macroeconomic achievements and persistent underdevelopment.

O Relatório do Desenvolvimento Humano de 2011 oferece novos e importantes contributos para o diálogo global sobre este desafio, mostrando como a sustentabilidade está indissociavelmente ligada às questões básicas da equidade – ou seja, a problemas de imparcialidade e justiça social e de um maior acesso a melhor qualidade de vida. A sustentabilidade não é, de modo exclusivo ou mesmo essencial, uma questão ambiental, tal como este Relatório tão persuasivamente defende. Tem fundamentalmente a ver com a forma como decidimos viver as nossas vidas, com a consciência de que tudo o que fazemos tem consequências para os 7 mil milhões de pessoas que nos rodeiam actualmente, bem como para os milhares de milhões que se seguirão nos séculos vindouros.

Angola marks a decade of peace on 4 April 2012. Until then war had dominated Angolan life. What began as a struggle for independence from Portugal in 1961 morphed post-independence in 1975 into a war among liberation movements for control of the country, and eventually gave way to Cold War logic with the MPLA government backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and the UNITA rebels backed by apartheid South Africa and the United States. Only since 2002, following the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi has Angola enjoyed peace. The war left the country at rock-bottom: in 2002 the UNDP Human Development Index had it below the average for sub-Saharan Africa. Ten years on Angola has been transformed. This paper looks at various indicators to assess what results the peace dividend has delivered over the last decade in Angola and the new challenges it faces.

In 2011 President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power for 32 years, faced an unprecedented wave of criticism. Inspired by the pro-democracy Arab Spring movements, Angola witnessed an incipient movement of anti-government protests. In response, authorities used excessive force to crack down on the protests, most of which were organized via the internet, and curtailed media coverage of the demonstrations. More broadly, Angola’s government continued restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly, despite strong guarantees protecting these rights in the 2010 constitution.

Although transformation in Angola has progressed since the end of civil war in 2002, developments during the review period (2009 – 2010) cast doubt on the regime’s commitment to democracy. The government does target market economic development, but there is ongoing internal resistance to this orientation, which frustrates the consistent implementation of policies that could further this. The regime’s commitment to a market economy anchored in principles of social justice therefore remains questionable.