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LUANDA, 28 April (IRIN) - Food security, for both rural and urban populations, is key for post-conflict Angola as it transitions from humanitarian aid to a development agenda. IRIN spoke to CARE Country Director Douglas Steinberg on the new challenges confronting the government, development agencies and the donor community.
QUESTION: Humanitarian agencies warn that without assistance, most of Angola's war-affected population returning to their homes will find it difficult to meet even their most basic food needs. What are the key problems the returnees are facing in trying to achieve food security?
ANSWER: The resettling population consists of internally displaced people, former UNITA soldiers and their families, and returning refugees. All of these people are destitute, and they return with few assets to communities where nothing remains. Although many continue to have access to food assistance, much of this aid is not being provided in their home communities. The immediate challenge is to revive farming systems, but farmers – who are now mostly women - possess few inputs. Seeds and tools are scarce, but labour is also scarce. In some areas, fully half of the households are headed by women. Many other households have high dependency ratios, that is, many elderly or young people to care for. Much of the land has been fallow for years, and it will require a considerable amount of work to put it back into production. The lack of labour, seeds and tools (not to mention animal traction), are all obstacles to achieving food security in the near future.
As more land is being farmed, families will encounter problems with mines. Land that is known to be mine infested will remain off-limits, though there will inevitably be accidents. The extent of this problem is unknown because health services are unable to capture and collate this information. As farmers begin to search for more mine-free land, there will be conflict over access to traditionally communal lands, or between communities and the absentee owners of the large "fazendas".
Aside from food production, families returning to rural areas have several other immediate needs. These include access to clean water and health care. In most rural areas, for example, health posts have been destroyed or abandoned. They need to be repaired, re-equipped, re-stocked with medicines, and staffed. Many of the health care staff need refresher training. And communities need to be involved and trained in the management of their health care systems. Clearly, a family in poor health is not going to be able to achieve food security.
A decent primary health care system is also critical to stemming the growing risk of HIV infection, as well as to helping families care for people living with the infection. Many of the factors that contribute to a rapid rise in infection rates currently exist in Angola – a highly mobile population, deep poverty, armed forces, inadequate health services for treating other sexually transmitted infections, and social stigma related to discussing or coming out publicly with HIV/AIDS. Although Angola's HIV infection rate is lower than neighbouring countries, the country is poised for the "new variant famine" that other southern African countries are now experiencing.
Q: In the longer term, what are some of the challenges facing rural communities in re-establishing local economies devastated by the war and moving from subsistence farming to commodity production?
A: The longer-term challenges revolve around the need to build market economies and an active civil society. Until very recently, many areas of the country were operating on a barter system. If currency is rapidly being reintroduced to rural areas, there is still a very long way to go toward linking the village markets with even the provincial markets, let alone national and international markets. In many remote areas, production is low, and the few goods that do make it to the marketplace are too expensive for most people. The first step is to increase staple production. This will require sustainable local access to quality seeds, the introduction of new varieties, and other inputs such as fertiliser. The improvement in agriculture must be supported by research into new varieties and appropriate farming techniques – particularly techniques suited to women farmers. These needs are also true for the revival of commodity production. After decades of war, the quality of cultivars has declined. New stock needs to be introduced, including varieties that appeal to current consumer tastes.
In many areas, particularly closer to the coast, where the effects of the war have been relatively less, there are market associations. There are already efforts to strengthen these groups, both to supply a national market, as well as eventually sell internationally. But there are areas of Angola, such as Biй Province in the Planalto, where CARE works, that were never oriented toward export production. Instead these areas produced grain or livestock to supply the country (and this was generally under Portuguese control). Market associations in these areas are much more embryonic, and the quantities and kinds of produce are much less attractive to the international or even national market. Much more needs to be done in these areas to build the farmer associations, as well as to introduce marketable crops, such as fruits and high value grains.
A purely commodity-market approach will not ensure improvement, however. Equal attention needs to be given to building the social and human capital in rural communities. I've already mentioned the need for better health care and access to clean water. In addition, schools need to be rebuilt, staffed with trained teachers. The process of establishing or strengthening of farmer associations needs to be sensitive to including families from outside the local power structure, particularly women. Given the number of households headed by women, it would be extremely unfortunate if we ended up with male-dominated market networks. Deeply embedded in all this is the potential for conflict. While communities seem to be placing the conflict between MPLA [the ruling party] and UNITA [former rebels] behind them, the potential for new or the re-emergence of old conflicts exists. Conflict may well arise around land, and issues related to land must be resolved at community levels. But approaches for anticipating and resolving any kind of conflict in the community (including within farmer associations) must be integrated into our work.
Q: Has the war altered traditional social relationships, such as the role of women? How has that been manifested and can it be harnessed in the recovery period?
A: As I've already mentioned, women now head around half of the households in many rural communities. This is largely due to the disappearance of men, particularly men of the most productive age groups. The young men have migrated to cities for economic opportunity or to flee war. Others have been press-ganged into one army or the other. Many are simply gone. This has placed much of the responsibility on women that was formerly assumed by men. For example, women are now playing a greater role in marketing, including distance marketing. And while this can be viewed as an opportunity for increasing women's economic position, it also comes with certain risks. Travelling women face increased risks to their personal security, and they are more susceptible to HIV infection. In other respects, however, the rules have not changed with the demographics. Women do not have greater say in community decision making. Traditional rules for access to land have not necessarily changed just because there are fewer men to lay claim to the land. Finally, many of the farming chores that were divided between men and women have now shifted to women – or they have been dropped. For example, instead of ploughing, women simply till the land by hoe in the absence of men (and livestock and ploughs). This, of course, affects household food security.
Q: Angola has a large urban population, the vast majority of which is poor, and many of whom may not wish to return to their areas of origin. Has the urban population been omitted in reconstruction plans for post-conflict Angola, and what kind of programmes would you like to see implemented?
A: There is some conjecture as to whether urban populations will return to their home areas, now that the war is over. I rather doubt that there will be the mass resettlement of urban populations as we've seen with the IDPs [internally displaced persons] who were camped around provincial towns. First of all, the trend in most African countries is migration into urban areas. Given that the rural areas have been so badly affected by the war and negligence, it is reasonable for people to try their luck in urban areas. But above all, it may be a myth that the present urban population has a home to go back to. Fully half of Angola's population is under 16 years old. After decades of civil war, a significant proportion of the immigrant urban population was actually born in the urban areas. These young people have few links with their origins, and virtually no personal memory of the home village. Why would they return?
Consequently, there needs to be special attention to the urban populations. They too suffer from livelihood insecurity – which manifests itself through a lack of food, shelter, employment and access to basic services. CARE is currently involved in the implementation of a DFID- [UK's Department for International Development] funded urban poverty reduction programme, which I believe is a model for what needs to be done in urban areas in Angola. The objective of the programme is to ensure urban livelihood and service provision, through a variety of strategies that focus on building social capital, strengthening civil society and engaging local government in a process of consultation with the communities they serve. In the end, this process translates into a variety of actions, based on local priorities – it may be trash collection, access to water or child-care facilities, school construction, ditch drainage, and so on. Aside from governance, attention needs to be given to household income generation. This includes activities such as savings and credit, particularly targeting women who often only have access to the informal sector as they are somewhat excluded from the formal sector. Training in small business management can target small enterprises, especially those managed by youths.
Interestingly, there need not be a qualitative difference in this development approach in urban or rural areas. There may be a difference in priorities, but the process of enhancing civil society to engage local government in planning and implementation can certainly be replicated in rural municipalities.
Q: Financing for reconstruction will be key. Do you think the donors are ready to re-programme their assistance from humanitarian to development aid and what will they be expecting from the Angolan government?
A: Donor commitment to the humanitarian crisis in Angola has been quite solid, despite the fatigue and competition worldwide for scarce resources. Of course, it would always be nice to have more, but the humanitarian aid over the last few years has been impressive and has made all the difference for millions of people. The problem is what will happen as the country transitions out of the crisis into rehabilitation and development. Donors clearly want to see more commitment from the government of Angola, and particularly investment in the area of human and social capital development rather than in big-ticket infrastructure projects. The government is currently drafting its poverty reduction strategy paper, and many donors are basically standing by to see what comes of this.
The government does have to do something. Now that the war is definitively over, much more money needs to be allocated to health, education and other basic services, particularly in ways that benefit the poor. But the government also has to rebuild infrastructure. For example, until the road and bridge network is rebuilt, farm commodity production and marketing will be severely constrained. The government also needs to build an operating environment conducive to private investment - a fiscal and legal framework that reduces the cost and risk of doing business in Angola. A healthy and educated population is also critical to the establishment of a favourable business environment. In the long haul, private sector investment should be one of the key drivers for development, and the government needs to do everything possible to promote this.
This is a tall order for the government to fulfil, and despite their vast mineral resources, the means are finite. In particular, the government is thin in terms of human resources. In most rural areas there is hardly any government personnel. So, the government will require assistance, both financial and technical. Both government and donors need to recognize that civil society – particularly international and national NGOs – has much to contribute. These organisations tap into international networks to bring best practices for reaching the poor into project implementation. They are present at the grass roots level, in remote and often dangerous areas, and have access to communities. Organisations like CARE have been serving the people of Angola through the toughest times – we have credibility with these communities. The strengthening of national civil society will contribute in the long term to ensuring greater accountability and transparency.
My worry at this point is that the donors have not begun to plan for the transition. In my experience, it takes a good two years to establish a development programme, from conception, through lining up the funds, to start up. There are already good models for where we should go, such as CARE's urban poverty reduction project. If we begin planning today we just might have the funding for development programming ready to carry on when the humanitarian efforts come to end. Any further delay is going to result in a funding gap that can badly compromise the future hopes of Angola's poor.
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