Angolan boys © Mark Naftalin

The standard framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) presents logistical difficulties in Angola. The civil conflict that wrecked the country for almost three decades ended only in 2002, twelve years after the start of the MDG assessment period. Furthermore, human development data tends to be unreliable and out of date, handicapped by the flux of population - at one time 5 million people were internally displaced and over 400,000 refugees have latterly returned from neighbouring countries. A full census is planned for 2010.

Uncertainties over data do not however mask the reality that poverty in Angola is severe nor that distribution of the country’s oil and diamond wealth is so far confined to a narrow elite. The most recent household survey in 2000 recorded over 60% of the population as under the poverty line with over 25% in the more serious category of extreme poverty. Informal polls conducted recently, such as that by USAID, suggest that there has been little subsequent improvement. Measures of the Gini coefficient confirm that inequality is rising.

The government disputes such conclusions pointing instead to the investment in education with claims that the numbers of classrooms and teachers have almost doubled in the 5 years to 2007. Many more children now attend school and are encouraged to do so, but the quality of public school teachers is extremely poor and the high drop-out rate limited net enrolment to only 56% in 2005. Attendance of girls continues to lag and female literacy may be as low as 50%. Government policy on poverty reduction has been guided by the Estrategia de Combate a Pobreza (2004-2008) which places particular emphasis on rebuilding capacity of government to deliver services at all levels, such was the destruction of the war years.

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