Angola: Good Governance

PIN Angola has been implementing projects in partnership with national Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in past years, however, several gaps and needs for improvement have been identified, including unbalance in the division of tasks and responsibilities, poor involvement of partners in co-definition and implementation of projects and capacity building needs. While the number of local CSOs and their expertise in related sectors is relatively strong, most of the partnerships created for the new projects are ad-hoc and donor-driven. Therefore, the proper assessment of strengths and weaknesses is often lacking, resulting in a poor capacity of the organization and creating gaps in joint cooperation, planning and implementation of the project.
The role of national CSOs is indispensable, as they are undoubtedly often those with more experience in the field and with deep knowledge of grassroots problems in respective provinces.

The common goal is to build up a strong and reliable partnership for future call for proposals and for future programming in key sectors (Resilience, Good Governance, Public Health). As a result, the current partners improve their organizational skills (such as project design, planning, MEAL, finance, logistics, HR, and procurement). This will be done through joint workshops, trainings, experience sharing for current key partner (AJOMA) and  implementing its activities in relevant geographical areas (i.e., in provinces of current PIN Angola presence).

 

Due to Angola’s demographic trends, young people will increasingly be the driving force for the social, political and economic development of the country. However, their engagement in democratic processes and civic life is still limited. Together with the national youth-led and youth-focused civil society organisation AJOMA (Association of Young People for Angola), we work to unleash the potential of youth CSOs and young people so they can mobilise and educate other young people to ensure that government policies and programmes effectively address youth needs.
The project aims at improving technical, organizational and advocacy capacities of the CSOs so that they can play a greater role in the process of development and governance. Youth CSOs will be empowered to engage policy makers and effectively influence the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies affecting them the most. To this end, organisations participate in a selection process to be part of a 24-month Youth CSO Incubator Programme that includes tailor-made trainings and financial support. Selected youth CSO implement activities to raise awareness, mobilise and foster civic engagement of young people.
The project also provides trainings on public-private partnership, participatory budgeting, advocacy and participatory policy making for CSO participating in Incubator Programme, other young people, government actors and representatives of the private sector. Multi-stakeholder meetings are also organised in order to discuss youth needs and priorities.
As a complement to the mobilisation activities, the project includes an innovative approach that is being used in Africa for the first time. The programme One World in Schools, created by PIN in 2001, contributes to the education of responsible young people using films, discussions, and learning activities. It encourages young people to think critically and become engaged in issues that impact them the most, thus laying the foundation for active citizenship. The methodology also includes youth debate clubs and student elections, among other activities.
 

For the first time in history, Angolan citizens will be able to select their candidates in the municipal elections. However, the available information and understanding of these elections among the general population is very limited, and the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) is restricted due to their constrained access to capacity building and financial means for their activities. To address the challenges but also the opportunities offered by the country’s first municipal election, PIN in partnership with the national NGO Mosaiko work to empower local actors to increase awareness and active participation of citizens in democratic processes, with a special focus on the participation of women, young people and persons with disabilities.

A 12-month programme is designed to enhance the technical, organizational and advocacy capacities of CSOs to conduct public awareness-raising, voter education and mobilization campaigns for the municipal elections. Besides trainings, the programme also includes ongoing advisory support and grants to implement activities at community level.

Awareness-raising campaigns on democracy and municipal elections, including media and print communications, as well as open debates and public discussions with local authorities in election-themed jangos are conducted at the provincial and national level to complement the community-level activities.

In recognizing youth as a key target group, outreach activities targeting high school students are also a part of the project, such as mock student elections and interactive game-based modules on democracy and elections. Through these activities, students will improve their critical thinking and also have a chance to obtain small grants for student groups to implement local awareness-raising, voter education and youth mobilization campaigns.
The project is expected to directly engage with at least 2,000 high school students, 60 school teachers and members of 15 CSOs.