About UNDP in Angola

Henrik Larsen, UNDP Angola Country Director

Deriving from UNDP’s mandate to support developing countries to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable human development, UNDP Angola effectively supports the country in its efforts to consolidate peace and national reconstruction.

UNDP has been working in Angola since 1977 and has aligned its programme cycle with the Government planning cycle within the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

Under the overarching goal of poverty eradication UNDP Angola focuses on three main areas: Sustainable development, Democratic governance and peacebuilding and Climate and disaster resilience.

In adopting our plan of action and key deliverables for the current programme cycle, UNDP focuses on the strategic areas where it has comparative advantage within the United Nations system in Angola, as defined in the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) for 2015-2019.

The ultimate goal of UNDP is to improve the lives of the people of Angola, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, and to ensure a future that offers equality, dignity and opportunity for all.

UNDP works in partnership with the Government of Angola, development partners, UN agencies, civil society and local communities to help identify local solutions to meet global and national development challenges through a range of interventions that combine UNDP’s expertise and comparative advantage in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Democratic Governance, Gender, Human Rights, HIV/AIDS, Environment and Crisis Prevention and Recovery.

Poverty Reduction

In 2012, UNDP supported different institutions that work on private sector development in Angola. UNDP also  supported  the capacity development of the technical team of the National Bank of Angola, as a result the bank created a micro-finance unit that became a finance inclusive unit that now is responsible for the inclusion of most vulnerable people.

UNDP also supported the Technical Work Group on Microfinance (Ministries of Planning, Finance, Economy, Family, Agriculture, Commerce, Industry, National Bank of Angola, public and private banks and NGOs). The support involves capacity development of teams in different institutions and support to advocacy activities, as a result the group is working with a strong national network that is responsible to create a National Council on Microfinance composed by high level representatives from the Angolan government.

UNDP attempted to move the economic diversification agenda forward by working with private sector groups on skills development, institutional capacity development, and enhancing partnerships. Specifically, UNDP reinforced public organizations and CSOs dedicated to private sector development; including, National Institute of Micro and Small Business, Federation of Women Entrepreneurs in Angola, and the Technical Group of Micro-finance.

Through UNDP’s support 20 organizations formed a national platform for advocating for greater access and coordination of microcredit; 30 organizations trained in business planning; the Ministry of Economy drafted a new law for SMMEs; a new government committee was chosen to coordinate rural credit; the Bureau for Entrepreneurship was established to expand business acumen, particularly to women and youth. 

Efforts to better leverage the potential of rural value chains in four under-exploited sectors (coffee, tourism, fishing, horticulture) will have a short-term impact on alleviating rural poverty and food insecurity, particularly amongst vulnerable groups, while contributing to the long-term goal of building resilient communities that can adapt and benefit from Angola’s rapidly expanding economy. 

UNDP was working with INAPEM (National Institute for Micro and Small Companies), supporting the capacity development of technical teams in the areas of business planning. As a result the group of technicians started a training of trainers with representatives from national level. The IEMP (Business Incubator) was supported by UNDP through the capacity development of technical teams in business development services; as a result IEMP started to offer more institutional services for small companies.

In 2012 the focus of capacity building was on-the-job-training of staff at the National Institute for Aids in the area of planning, logistics and distribution, procurement, and control tools, and distribution of re-agents and ARVs in the value of $3 million. 

The INLS has now taken the lead of its forecasting and restocking processes; however UNDP has been requested by the Government to continue to play an on-going technical backstopping role for a further two years (2013-2015) as part of a measured exit strategy to ensure the supply chains of these life-saving medicines remains intact. 

Democratic Governance

During 2012, UNDP provided support to the Local Administration Training Institute (IFAL) to strengthen the institutional capacities of municipalities and to train their human capital to prepare them to meet future liabilities after the local elections in 2015. UNDP was  also supporting IFAL in strengthening its capacity to respond to the training needs of municipalities, improving the training methodology at IFAL by making it more participatory using both METAPLAN and PACA tools.   

Futhermore, UNDP directly supported the CPPGL (Centre of Excellence), a national research institution for Local Governance Research, as a platform for research-based policy dialogue, learning and engagement between the Government, civil society and communities on local governance issues. This support aimed to generate appropriate methodologies, systems and principles for local good governance, including the creating of linkages with other policy making institutions (MAT, the National Assembly, UNDP Oslo Governance Center and other leading international think tanks), local communities and civil society to articulate their perspectives for policy formulation.

Environment & Energy

2012 has been a fruitful year in terms of resource mobilization for the environment sector:  $8 million has been mobilized from GEF for protected areas, EUR 4 million from the EU for protected areas, and  $9 million from the LDCF to promote climate-resilient development and adaptation capacities for climate change. This mobilization has triggered national allocation of funds for these sectors, displaying national interest, ownership and ensuring a sustainable future.

UNDP’s support for Rio+20 and participation in the African Economic Conference in Kigali resulted in Angola becoming more appreciative of the link between sustainable development and inclusive growth.

With UNDP’s assistance, Angola created a multi-sectorial commission for the drafting of the Rio+20 report which included participation from civil society and the private sector. After Rio, UNDP was requested to support a conference on sustainable development and the green economy with the objectives of introducing politicians and policy makers to the concept and to provide inputs to a multi-sectoral working group responsible for drafting a national strategy. 

In 2012, a set of tools were developed to demonstrate Sustainable Land Management mechanisms in regard to agriculture, livestock and sustainable forestry production systems in order to reduce land degradation in the province of Huambo.  The project supported the creation of 50 agricultural field schools to improve farmers’ agricultural techniques. With the involvement of the local government, academic institutions, and civil society 26,000 trees were planted. The project has worked on more than 600,000 hectares of land.

UNDP has continued to facilitate the regional negotiation process among Okavango River riparian countries, including Angola, Botswana and Namibia, for the sustainable development of the Okavango River Basin, as well as to assist the countries to mobilize resources for the Strategic Action Programme (SAP).

Other developments in 2012 include that the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) was launched and the SAP was prepared for government endorsement. OKACOM approved policy documents on strategies to involve interested parties, as well as a communication strategy and increased access to information through the launching of a new website.  The OKACOM Commission also recognized the research project on the Okavango Future that includes a tertiary education programme for students in the region.

Crisis prevention and Recovery

With the support of the UNDP Angola in 2012, the National Commission for Civil Protection improved its coordination and oversight functions vis-a-vis the Provincial Commissions for Civil Protection on the operational side of the National Contingency Plan for 2009-2014.  This was facilitated through a series of provincial workshops to better disseminate the Plan and the roles of each stakeholder (the commission is a multi-sectorial body comprised of more than 20 government ministries), particularly targeting the local communities. 

The UNDP Angola also contributed to the institutional strengthening and capacity development of the National Service for Civil Protection and Firefighters (SNPCB), the executive branch of the National Commission for Civil Protection (CNPC), in data collection, processing and information management for emergency preparedness and response.

Mr. Pier Paolo Balladelli is the Resident Coordinator heads the UN System in Angola and the Resident Representative for UNDP in Angola.

Mr. Henrik Fredborg Larsen, Country Director is assisted by Ms. Denise E. Findley Antonio, Deputy Country Director/Operations. 

All activities falling within the Country Programme Action Plan are nationally owned. Implementation of the programme activities are being carried out by Implementing Partners, i.e. Government Ministries, Government Institutions, Provincial Authorities, Civil Society Organization, NGOs, Academy and UN agencies including UNDP as appropriate, under the overall oversight by the ministry of Planning.