The struggle against poverty is Angola’s principal challenge if it is to make the successful transition to sustainable peace. It is fitting for DW, who pioneered support for Angola’s peace-building coalition of civil society and churches, to join with partners under the banner of “Luta Contra Pobresa”. Also in the issue: a new land law, passed by parliament in August 2004 and became law in December, has provided a three-year window for those with informally-held land to legalise their titles. And introducing the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP), which aims to find solutions to poverty around the capital.

 

Aadvoacia para o reconhecimento do direito básico a terra, especialmente os direitors dos ocupantes, está na lista de prioridades da DW.

Advocating for recognition of basic land rights, especially occupant’s rights, tops DW’s current list of priorities as the government gets set to pass a new Land Law in 2004. One of DW’s major concerns is that the new land legislation may even impoverish the poor more because they will lose rights to land that they occupied during the war.

This is a report based on a seminar hosted by One World Action in May 2001 which brought together some 50 participants- practitioners from local and international non-governmental organisations working in Angola, and representatives from European government agencies, research institutions and private companies. The central purpose of the seminar was to discuss the challenge of ‘how to strengthen civil society and local democracy in situations of urban poverty where the poor lack access to basic services and the political influence to effect change?’ The experiences presented at the seminar were from the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP) in particular.

DW “inherited” an emergency water project in Angola from the International Committee of the Red Cross at the beginning of 1997. We deliberately use the word “inherit” because the transfer of responsibility for the project included the transfer of trained staff, vehicles and equipment. A common donor, Swiss Humanitarian Aid, facilitated the transfer of project management from the ICRC to DW. When SHA requested DW to assume continued management of the project, it clearly indicated that it attributed major importance to the introduction of strategies which would ensure sustainable management of the water points in the long term.