This report is based on discussions at the international conference Women’s empowerment or feminisation of debt? Towards a new agenda in African microfinance organized by One World Action. The report contributes to the November 2002 meeting of the Micro-Credit Summit Campaign.

Presented to the Workshop on Democratization, Civic Strengthening and Human Development Arena, in Sub-Saharan Africa at the Mazingira Institute & Settlement Information Network Africa (SINA) in Nairobi. The Sustainable Community Services Project (SCSP) is a component part of the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP). SCSP sets out to pilot a model of basic service provision in an area of the musseques of Luanda, and at the same time create links between the users of these services, the local government and the providers of the services. These two objectives are closely linked: the linkages between the stakeholders are vital for the management and sustainability of the services, as well as being an opportunity for creating space for participative politics (which can contribute to peace-building and democratisation in Angola).

Presented by Margaret Jiri at the Southern Africa Capacity Building Regulatory and Supervisory Workshop. Angola is a founding member of SADC. The country has suffered 40 years of war since launch of the independence struggle in 1961 until the ceasefire which ended the civil war between the Government and UNITA in February 2002. The 27 years since independence have been an era of almost continuous internal conflict. Due to the war, agriculture has stagnated and the industrial infrastructure has largely been destroyed. Angola has shifted from being an agricultural producer of diverse commodities to almost complete dependency on oil and diamonds.

Presented to the Conference on Adequate and Affordable Housing for All: Research, Policy, Practice in Toronto. Angola’s last four decades of near-continuous war were years of tremendous human suffering, large-scale displacements of the population, heavy damage to property and infrastructure, serious economic losses and accumulation of a massive war debt. At its peak an estimated four million or more than a quarter of the total population was internally displaced. The war has urbanised Angola’s population, and even today, two years after the war ended, more than 50% of the population live in cities. The urban poor in Angola suffer increasing social exclusion that inhibits their full participation in a post war recovery. They have been denied access to the means to pull themselves out of poverty.

Research Report Presented to World Bank Angola Demobilization and Reintegration Project and Foreign Affairs Canada – Human Security Programme. This research examines the land issue in relation to the return, resettlement and reintegration of ex-combatants in post-war Angola. It focuses on Huambo Province, which has the highest rural population density in Angola, the greatest concentration of the demobilized, and a long tradition in agriculture. Specifically, it seeks to understand the mechanisms used by the demobilized to access land for agriculture and the constraints, problems and conflicts they face in the process.