Major challenges

DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Angola

Water | Health | Oil

DFID has only a small office in the British High Commission in Luanda, where it works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The DFID Southern Africa office in South Africa actually manages the Angola programme.

As Angola has become a ‘lower middle income’ country in terms of revenue, DFID’s aid to it is gradually decreasing – to £3 million for 2008-09 - but the country continues to benefit from regional programmes, including substantial ones for health. We focus on strategic inputs in critical areas where we feel that we can make a difference.

Water

DFID's Luanda Urban Poverty Programme supported community management of water standposts, which doubled the supply per person at a cost three times less than that of private vendors. This model will be replicated by the Luanda provincial government for over half a million people.

We also commissioned an independent study of the water sector, through the European Commission delegation in Luanda. The results were shared with the National Directorate for Water to inform its future strategy.

Health

With DFID funding, Unicef has conducted major immunisation campaigns that reached millions of children and secured government agreement for free under-5 birth registration. It also developed an accelerated child survival plan to support national and provincial government programmes scaling up primary health care.

Oil

Angola’s economy is highly dependent on oil, which accounts for more than half of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 75% of government revenue. DFID has supported work on transparency in oil revenue management, including funding petroleum revenue management workshops and supporting the government’s attendance as an observer at conferences run by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.