Written evidence submitted by Luanda Urban Poverty Programme partner agencies: One World Action, Development Workshop, CARE Angola and Save the Children in Angola

 

Executive summary

1. New approaches are being developed for working in a difficult urban environment such as Luanda, Angola. These can provide an important contribution to the development of more inclusive urban development, including in post-conflict situations, and in developing knowledge of how to work in such contexts.

2. At the heart of urban poverty are the issues of social and economic exclusion. Key in responding to these is the strengthening of inclusive democratic governance both in urban, municipal political structures and in service delivery.

3. Social exclusion, especially of women, is a major contributing factor to urban poverty. Women, men and children experience social exclusion when they are discriminated against based on their gender, ethnicity, race, caste, religion, language, sexual orientation, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status, where they live or combinations of these. This discrimination also exists within public institutions and services and legal systems, keeping people in poverty and excluded from decision-making processes that affect their lives.

4. Social inclusion occurs when we work with the most socially excluded and marginalised groups across the world so that they can engage with and transform the institutions and processes that discriminate against them.

5. Based on the experience of working with some of the most excluded women and men in Angola, we conclude that unless those who have been traditionally excluded from urban decision-making processes are included, decisions will discriminate against them and ignore their needs.

6. Enabling and supporting women and other excluded and marginalised groups to participate effectively in formal and informal urban governance and justice systems and helping establish an understanding of citizenship, improves and increases the state's responsibility towards its citizens and the responsibility of citizens to the state. People from the most excluded groups will then be able to hold their municipal and national governments to account, to ensure their needs and interests are addressed and their human rights respected.

7. The DFID-funded Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP) fits into this category. The current phase of LUPP started in October 2007 and runs until September 2010, building on experiences since 1999.

8. To ensure that urban poverty is reduced in a sustainable way, the capacity of citizens to demand their rights to basic services and to dialogue with local authorities needs to be strengthened. The LUPP is enabling active citizens and their organisations to begin to participate in planning processes for local services and local authorities provided with technical and managerial support to create the conditions for effective service delivery. LUPP is achieving real impact both in terms of policy influencing as well as in making a difference at a practical level in the lives of poor women, children and men. LUPP is making a difference to building more accountable local governance in a very difficult urban environment.

9. LUPP has opened spaces for state/citizen engagement and has provided exposure at different levels to participatory approaches to urban development. This is providing the foundations for accountability mechanisms to emerge. To date the LUPP has been a successful initiative in the urban context of a post-conflict, fragile state. It has stressed the need to strengthen urban governance at all levels to ensure that all Angolans benefit from the growing economy. This focus echoes the conclusions of the Commission for Africa and much of DFID's recent analysis - even with economic growth and peace, poverty will not be reduced without inclusive democratic governance.

 

Full submission by the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme partners, One World Action, Development Workshop Angola, CARE Angola, Save the Children in Angola to the International Development Committee

 

10. New approaches are being developed for working in a difficult urban environment such as Luanda, Angola. These can provide an important contribution to the development of more inclusive urban development, including in post-conflict situations and in developing knowledge of how to work in such contexts.

 

11. At the heart of much urban poverty are the issues of social and economic exclusion. Key in responding to these is the strengthening of inclusive democratic governance both in urban, municipal political structures and in service delivery. Poverty and vulnerability can lead to a scramble for resources as part of survival strategies.

 

12. Social exclusion, especially of women, is a major contributing factor to urban poverty. Women, men and children experience social exclusion when they are discriminated against based on their gender, ethnicity, race, caste, religion, language, sexual orientation, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status, where they live or combinations of these. This discrimination also exists within public institutions, legal systems and public services and keeps people in poverty and excluded from decision-making processes that affect their lives.

 

13. Social inclusion occurs when we work with the most socially excluded and marginalised groups across the world so that they can engage with and transform the institutions and processes that discriminate against them.

 

14. Promoting inclusive urban development is a key theme for all agencies and can provide an engaging link to many people's experiences in different countries.

 

15. Based on the experience of Luanda and Angola we conclude that unless those who have been traditionally excluded from urban decision-making processes are included, decisions will continue to discriminate against them and ignore their needs.

 

16. We know from experience that enabling and supporting women and other excluded and marginalised groups to participate effectively in formal and informal urban governance and justice systems and helping establish an understanding of citizenship, improves and increases the state's responsibility towards its citizens and the responsibility of citizens to the state. People from the most excluded groups will then be able to hold their municipal and national governments to account, to ensure their needs and interests are addressed and their human rights respected.

 

17. Thus while we welcome the emphasis on the capacity of States, we would like to stress that the urban level should not be neglected. We believe that it is possible for bilateral donors and international organisations, in partnership with others, to work at the urban level in a way that:

i. recognises the centrality of developing services sensitive to gender, age, disability and HIV/AIDS

ii. reduces material, social and human vulnerability

iii. increases knowledge about a society, in particular about the strengths and weaknesses of its institutions and conflict risks

iv. builds State capacity from the bottom by developing the capacity of urban/municipal institutions,

v. helps to develop the capacity of other urban institutions and builds linkages with State institutions

 

18. The DFID-funded Luanda Urban Poverty Programme fits into this category. The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP) has been ongoing since 1999, implemented by four international NGOs - CARE International, Development Workshop (DW), Save the Children UK and One World Action. It is supported by the Department for International Development. The current phase, Building Influence, Strengthening Governance, started in October 2007 and runs until September 2010. LUPP is implemented in four of nine municipalities in Luanda.

 

19. The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme very much welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the International Development Committee's inquiry on "Urbanisation and Poverty". We will base our comments and recommendations on the experience of our work in Angola, which is a country emerging from more than 40 years of conflict.

 

20. The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme has become an important example of a peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction programme which has its roots in work established during the conflict in the urban context of Angola's capital city, Luanda. We present this initiative to the International Development Committee as a successful intervention in addressing urban poverty, initially in the context of a fragile state.

 

21. To ensure that urban poverty is reduced in a sustainable way, the capacity of citizens to demand their rights to basic services and to dialogue with local authorities needs to be strengthened. Active citizens need to be supported to participate in planning processes for local services and local authorities provided with technical and managerial support to create the conditions for effective service delivery. In short, there must be a focus on the interface of effective state institutions with active citizenship.

 

22. LUPP is achieving real impact both in terms of policy influencing as well as making a difference at a practical level in the lives of poor women, children and men. LUPP is contributing to making a difference to building more accountable local governance in a very difficult environment.

 

23. The capacity of active citizen's organisations needs to grow to articulate demands for urban poverty reduction and to enhance dialogue and engagement with local government. Urban poverty reduction cannot be achieved without significant changes in the profound inequalities that exist in Angola by including in the many groups that are currently socially, politically and economically excluded.

 

24. Implementation of the decentralisation process and inclusion of key Millennium Development Goals (i.e. health and education) in the Government of Angola's own programmes provide great opportunities and entry points to continue to promote pro-poor policies and good governance in Angola. The Government of Angola's own plan to reduce poverty will require a great deal of drive and commitment and the allocation of funds at the lower administrative levels. Most importantly it requires active citizens to be organised, able to articulate demands and to plan and dialogue with local government. It is essential that countries which benefit from Angola's oil wealth also invest in more effective systems to ensure that economic growth is inclusive and narrows the increasing gap between rich and poor.

 

25. LUPP partners work in collaboration with the Government of Angola to support the government to meet its declared goal of halving poverty levels by 2015. The programme is implemented in partnership with civil society organisations, NGOs, service providers and government departments/ministries. LUPP engages to promote pro-poor policies, especially in seeking to guarantee the provision of basic services to Angolan citizens.

 

26. The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme has pioneered pro-poor policies and best practices for Angola for post-conflict poverty reduction in urban Luanda. LUPP responded to the massive migration of war affected populations who fled to the relative safe-haven of Luanda to settle in the unserviced peri-urban musseques and in the margins of the city. Luanda's population has swelled ten-fold from half a million at independence in 1975, to over five million today. Working within an environment of chronic crisis conditions, LUPP has demonstrated and promoted sustainable, inclusive and replicable strategies (models, messages and approaches) for basic service delivery, livelihood support and effective poverty reduction.

 

27. LUPP's core approach is to develop and demonstrate urban governance good-practice and to use these models to advocate for inclusive government policies, practice and service delivery that benefit the poor in urban areas. LUPP has been working with local administrations in four municipalities in Luanda to build their capacity to engage, dialogue and plan with citizens, and in this way, address the priority needs identified by communities. At the same time LUPP has worked with often fractured post-war communities to build their capacity to engage with local administrations in order to discuss their needs and work together to try and identify and implement solutions for them. Dialogue has taken place in a range of emerging spaces for engagement and dialogue. In this way, some of the priority needs of communities in Luanda have been addressed such as access to water and sanitation, electricity and the construction of schools. Community relationships with the police have improved. The municipal level activities have been complemented by an influencing strategy at Municipal, Provincial and National levels. Municipal Forums piloted by LUPP have been replicated and adapted all over the country through the Government's new decentralisation programme.

 

28. LUPP's three key areas of work are:

1. Municipal support for urban poverty reduction: Municipal institutions support the reduction of urban poverty through more participatory, accountable, rights-based and transparent governance

2. National and Provincial Policy Engagement: National and provincial policies and plans have a greater urban poverty focus, and enable the scaling up of good practice models.

3. Advocacy, Network Building and Spaces for Dialogue: An active network on urban poverty established and supported to engage effectively on urban policy issues with government authorities. This is founded on enabling marginalised citizens to have a voice in key decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods.

 

Achievements of LUPP to Date

29. The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme began in 1999, shortly after the outbreak of the final phase of conflict. Its goal was to reduce poverty in Luanda. Phase two of LUPP started in 2002, after the signing of the accords that brought an end to the civil-war, and focused on post-conflict recovery and planting the seeds for local-level democracy. The current phase (2007-2010) began as the first national peace time elections were announced for September 2008. LUPP has made real strides over the past ten years around key issues, especially urban governance. The Programme has brought together methodologies and approaches in microfinance, water and sanitation, business development services, participatory urban governance and early childhood development that have become models for the Government of Angola and non government and private sector actors and are being replicated in Luanda and beyond. LUPP has received core support since 1999 from the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) who have recognised LUPP as one of the most successful urban projects and one working in an extremely challenging environment.

 

30. As described in more detail below, LUPP's work includes developing the first micro-finance programme that made US$15 million worth of loans last year (supporting over 13,000 mainly women-owned small enterprises) and establishing and supporting consumer cooperatives that cut food costs for low-income households. LUPP's water and sanitation programme focused on low-income, peri-urban areas and included a stand-post programme where government, utility and citizen water committees worked together to double water supply per person and cut water costs to a third that of private vendors; this reached 74,000 people and the model has now been adapted and replicated in a programme supported by the European Union that will reach at least half a million people. LUPP's sanitation programme has supported the construction of 3,500 household latrines plus 39 school latrines and 2 public latrines in market places and this is also being scaled up with European Union support. LUPP developed a solid waste collection service for 1,600 residents and four markets that has influenced Luanda's waste collection strategy. Finally, LUPP's model for early childhood development that centred on community-managed crèches has proved so successful that it has been adopted for a government programme implemented in 11 provinces.

 

31. LUPP has played a role in putting urban poverty high on the public policy agenda. As a result of LUPP advocacy and proactive engagement, the Government of Angola has established a National Urban Forum. LUPP's experiences feed into national policy through the National Urban Forum, for which it provides a secretariat to the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment. The National Urban Forum provides a meeting space for policy discussion and debate between senior government members, municipal administration, local community members and NGOs. Issues such as land rights, participatory planning and citizen engagement in urban governance have been the focus of recent Forums.

 

32. LUPP has achieved real impact both in terms of policy influencing at a strategic level as well as making a difference at a practical level in the lives of poor women, children and men. LUPP has a proven track record of making a difference to more accountable local governance.

 

33. LUPP has gained the credibility of government partners through its continued and long-term engagement and its ability to demonstrate pro-poor and inclusive approaches:

  

· Government partners at all levels are now raising urban poverty in open forums. With LUPP's constant and proactive engagement, the awareness and depth of understanding within government of urban poverty reduction is increasing. It takes time. Engagement requires credibility and trust, which the LUPP partners have now gained.

 

· Policy makers and practitioners are listening. LUPP is seen to have expertise to share with legitimacy demonstrated from working in the peri-urban areas/musseques with poor women, children and men.

 

· Government agencies at all levels are opening up for information, demonstration and lesson learning from the LUPP models and approaches - for policy debate, development of legal frameworks, supporting state citizen dialogue, and for service provision. There is growing demand for best practice principles and operational guidelines to support quality replication and scaling up both by government and other donors including selecting LUPP's Municipal Development Forum as a pilot for decentralisation.

 

· LUPP has opened spaces for state-citizen engagement and has provided exposure at different levels to participatory approaches to development. This is providing an environment for debate and collaboration and is laying the foundations for accountability mechanisms to emerge. At the same time it is creating opportunities to change existing power relations and the formal and informal rules of the game. In some cases local government is listening and taking action based on concerns raised.

 

· LUPP's development of best practice, community-managed approaches to basic service provision and livelihood support is providing practical solutions for poverty reduction and is having a real impact at the household and community level.

 

· LUPP is empowering ordinary people. It has been successful in building up alliances and networks from the various community based organisations. These are leading to increased participation and giving voice to poor people so that they can start to claim their rights. This is evidence of increased confidence, rights awareness and information sharing and working to find solutions independently from LUPP.

 

Specific Achievements

 

34. Micro finance LUPP was the first programme to develop and test micro-finance models in Angola. Through its direct work in micro-finance, the Programme has gained the credibility to successfully influence the Government of Angola, the National Bank of Angola and private businesses by demonstrating that micro-finance for the poor is an effective model and can be financially sustainable. On the level of influencing the policy and practice of others, LUPP has:

i) Provided technical input in the drafting of new legislation on financial institutions to ensure that there is a provision for micro finance.

ii) Provided the drive, technical and financial support to establish RASME (Angolan Micro Enterprise Network). This level of external influencing was made possible by LUPP's groundbreaking work in micro finance and business development. LUPP established micro credit and savings solidarity groups and to make these interventions sustainable, LUPP has established an independent micro finance institution, called KixiCredito which has made loans valued at US$ 15 million last year to over thirteen thousand mainly women owned micro-businesses. KixiCredito is currently developing a housing micro-finance product.

 

35. Business Development Services LUPP has supported the creation of an independent Business Development Service that is now 100% sustainable. LUPP began by training trainers and the best of these have subsequently established an independent demand-driven private business providing business development training to poor clients at a cost of $25 per client.

 

36. Cooperatives for the extremely poor As an approach to reduce poverty among the extremely poor, LUPP has piloted consumer cooperatives, aimed at reducing the cost of basic products to poor families by bulk buying. There are now seven Consumer Cooperatives, each of which is 100% sustainable. Families report having increased the number of meals from 2 to 3 a day and using savings to support children attending school and accessing health care.

 

37. Water and sanitation LUPP has established and tested approaches and methodologies to water and latrine supply as well as solid waste disposal with a focus on the peri-urban areas, which are difficult to access. The greatest achievements have been to shift thinking within Provincial Government, Municipal Authorities and the water supply company, EPAL, towards community managed systems with significant involvement of citizen's organisations (water committees and Area Development Organisations). Influencing achievements in water and sanitation have been possible because of many years of working in this sector through LUPP and through Development Workshop's work prior to LUPP. In practical terms, LUPP's outputs have been able to demonstrate real impact on the lives of poor citizens. Stand posts have increased the water supply per capita by more than double in those areas and illnesses associated with the quality of water have fallen. Importantly, the cost of water is three times lower than that supplied by private vendors.

 

38. The Luanda Provincial Government's water authority EPAL has adapted and replicated the LUPP model with financial support from the European Union to reach over half a million people.

 

39. In terms of sanitation, 3,500 household latrines have been built during the life of the programme, plus 39 school latrines and 2 sets of latrines in market places (serving 1,200 vendors and clients), reducing open-air defecation in the project areas and improved environmental hygiene. The programme has demonstrates reductions in illnesses associated with poor hygiene and sanitation. The EU has initiated a programme in 2007 to scale up the LUPP model in Luanda.

 

40. In terms of solid waste disposal, LUPP has been able to demonstrate a willingness of citizens to pay for services that function effectively. This has influenced the Ministry of Energy and Water's new cross-subsidy policy. The LUPP experience of establishing SELL as a private sustainable company servicing four market areas and 1,600 residents in Kilamba Kiaxi has been important and the Provincial Government continues to learn from LUPP's experiences and technical advice; the new Luanda waste removal strategy has been informed by LUPP models. The state sanitation company ELISAL has turned to LUPP for technical advice in dealing with the complex issue of waste management in the inaccessible musseque bairros.

 

41. Urban governance In urban governance, significant advances have been made in developing approaches and methodologies for citizen/Municipal engagement and dialogue. These are demonstrating that it is possible to develop greater accountability to citizens in local governance while also enhancing the effectiveness of local government. The Kilamba Kiaxi Development Forum model is feeding into discussions of decentralisation. The models are being replicated through the national decentralisation programme lead by the Ministry for Territorial Administration (MAT) and the National Urban Forum chaired by the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment (MINUA).

 

42. The models can be broken into three areas:

i) Forums and assemblies that bring together Municipal residents with local administration to plan jointly for municipal development, assess progress and access funding for new projects. A Development Forum was created in Kilamba Kiaxi with a membership of some 500 representatives from all sections of the local community. In a similar mode, a representative Consultative Council has been established in Hoji Ya Henda with the support of LUPP, that meets every quarter to review reports from the local Administrator, service providers, the police and civil society organisations and plan for the next quarter. With LUPP support the Municipal Consultative Council for Sambizanga Municipality has been convened for the first time and through a participatory planning process, developed its first municipal development plan and participatory budget. Using the framework of the newly published Decentralization Law and the Physical Planning Law, a participatory process is being mapped out for municipal development planning.

 

ii) Local area associations, NGO consortia, water committees, youth groups, parent committees (crèches) and others that provide spaces for inclusive representation and planning from the bottom-up. These feed into planning processes at Comuna and Municipal levels and demand the rapid resolution of problems such as breaks in the supply of water to standpipes and electricity failures.

 

iii) Capacity building for local administration and government. This has involved feeding into courses provided by the Institute for Local Administration, providing opportunities for Municipal Administrators from other areas of the country to learn from LUPP's experience. Support has been provided through LUPP to establish information management capacity inside Municipal Administrations and the Provincial Government, including GIS, maps, and support in monitoring progress against Municipal Plans.

 

43. Early Childhood Development (ECD) LUPP models for ECD for the poor have been especially important for four reasons:

i) they provide poor children a 'head start', which has been shown to have a sustainable impact on school success

ii) they improve children's protection and health overall as they are no longer spending all day in market areas or are left to their own devices in their neighbourhoods

iii) they allow women and men the opportunity to work more hours and to concentrate on their businesses, and

iv) the crèches have created employment for over 100 childcare workers. LUPP has allowed for the development of a sustainable community-managed crèche model. The model has been adopted by MINARS and the Ministry is providing its own funds to expand community-managed crèches into 11 Provinces across the country as well as more intensive support to piloting in three Provinces. Families report improved child health and a chance to begin adapting to education pre-school. They also report impacts on incomes as women can invest more time in productive work.

 

44. There is evidence of a shift in perceptions on inclusive and accountable governance systems. Municipal Administrations that have participated in local governance programs tend to be more open and engaged with citizens than in other Municipalities. There is growing recognition within Municipal Administrations of the common interests between citizens and governance in resolving problems. Those Administrations that are not yet engaged in participatory processes have been surprised by comments by Provincial Governors in support of this work. By working with Municipal Administrations and the GPL (Luanda Provincial Government) to establish and strengthen participatory approaches to planning and consultation with citizens, LUPP enabled Municipal and Provincial institutions to exercise more inclusive, participatory, accountable, rights-based and transparent governance. In the context of the first national and, in due course, local elections since the end of the war, LUPP has been and is an extremely timely and important initiative for post-conflict Angola.

 

45. LUPP has become a catalyst of policy change and change of practice in participatory urban planning on the ground, with people insisting on their rights as citizens to speak up on issues of importance to their lives and livelihoods and to influence urban planning and management. LUPP has been successfully laying the foundations for active citizens to become part of shaping their futures at Municipal, Provincial and National level in post-conflict Angola. The purpose of LUPP is to influence equitable, inclusive, pro-poor policies and best practices for Angola for poverty reduction in urban Luanda.

 

46. The policy influencing agenda is the overarching framework of the programme. LUPP seeks to influence poverty reduction in Luanda by:

· Demonstrating effective, sustainable, inclusive and replicable best practice strategies (models, methods and approaches) for basic service delivery (water, sanitation, rubbish collection, community crèches), livelihood support (micro-credit, savings, Business Development Services (BDS) and consumer cooperatives), social capital, governance and poverty reduction more generally which can be effectively replicated in poor urban areas to bring about positive change in the lives of poor urban families;

· Facilitating active learning and understanding on urban poverty issues and policies by key stakeholders and producing strategic information on the lessons, messages and methods emerging from the models and approaches, adapted to demands for policy relevant information;

· Strengthening the commitment and capacity of local authorities and civil society to promote and implement inclusive and participatory local development;

· Promoting greater engagement, inclusion and accountability between government and civil society on urban issues, largely through the creation of spaces in which different actors can come into contact with the lessons, messages and methods, absorb their implications and take forward the work of integrating them into policy and practice.

 

47. LUPP is achieving real impact both in terms of policy influencing at a strategic level as well as making a difference at a practical level in the lives of poor women, children and men. LUPP has a proven track record of making a difference to building more accountable local governance in a very difficult environment. LUPP is becoming a ground-breaking example of policy influencing in an extremely difficult environment in a fragile state. LUPP has brought together methodologies and approaches in micro finance, water and sanitation, business development services, participatory urban governance and early childhood development that have become models for the Government of Angola, non-government and private sector actors and are being replicated in Luanda and beyond.

 

48. LUPP has opened spaces for state/citizen engagement and has provided exposure at different levels to participatory approaches to development. This is providing an environment for debate and collaboration and is laying the foundations for accountability mechanisms to emerge. At the same time it is creating opportunities to change existing power relations and the formal and informal rules of the game. In some cases local government is listening and taking action based on concerns raised.

 

49. LUPP's development of best practice, community-managed approaches to basic service provision and livelihood support is providing practical solutions for poverty reduction and is having a real impact at the household and community level.

 

50. LUPP is empowering ordinary people. It is successfully building up alliances and networks from the various community based organisations. These are leading to increased participation and giving voice to poor people so that they can start to claim their rights. There is evidence of increased confidence, rights awareness & information sharing, and working to find solutions independently from LUPP.

 

51. Notwithstanding the challenging context, LUPP's experiences over the past ten years have identified entry points that could help to have an impact on reducing poverty as measured by the MDGs. The Campaign Against Poverty is one of the two top goals for the Government of Angola in its medium term plan. However, how the Angolan Government can address poverty is not as clear. LUPP is a goldmine of practical approaches to reducing poverty and fills a gap for the Government of Angola in understanding how to address complex issues of urban poverty. Various levels of government have already shown interest in replicating LUPP approaches.

 

52. LUPP's experiences since1999 have been impressive and in particular in their capacity to bring citizens closer to Municipal authorities for joint planning. The Programme has shown that it is possible, even in the difficult urban environment of a fragile state, to enhance dialogue at the interface between citizens and state. LUPP has had considerable success in helping citizens to organise into representative groups and work together with Municipal Administrations to plan for services. As Municipal Administrations have become more confident about these methodologies, their enthusiasm has grown and LUPP has provided technical support to Municipal Administrations from 17 of the 18 Provinces of the country.

 

53. The current phase of LUPP is building on existing gains focusing on promoting pro-poor policies and service delivery through active citizenship and more accountable governance. The Programme emphasises creating sustainable capacity within Municipal Administrations and the Provincial Government. At the same time, it will reinforce the capacity of citizens' organisations to negotiate for their rights to basic services and participation in democratic processes.

 

54. To date the LUPP has stressed the need to strengthen governance at all levels to ensure that all Angolans benefit from the growing economy. This focus echoes the conclusions of the Commission for Africa and much of DfID's recent analysis - even with economic growth and peace, poverty will not be reduced without democratic governance.