Angola: Empowerment Project Opens Dialogue between Communities and Local Government

The National Association of Rural Women, popularly known as Tuende - a local language term meaning “let’s walk together” – prides itself in empowering rural communities in Angola to engage with local authorities on development issues, and improve their livelihoods through agriculture.

Supported by the World Bank Civil Society Fund (CSF)1, Tuende recently completed a project that aimed at promoting space for dialogue between rural communities in the Cabiri area of Bengo Province and the local government to discuss rural poverty.

During the implementation of the project, Tuende led a series of training workshops and meetings aimed at improving the relationship between the community and the local government, and the creation of small agricultural cooperatives. The workshops targeted mainly women and youth. Tuende adopted an approach that focused on the community’s strengths, capacities, and assets rather than their problems, and this has yielded tremendous benefits to the community at large.

“Very few of us women beneficiaries of this project have ever participated in a meeting organized by the local authorities to promote social development in the area, but this project has enriched our horizons and has helped us think differently,” explained one of the project beneficiaries.

To ensure sustainability of its interventions, Tuende facilitated and coordinated the formulation of the first Community Strategic Plan (CSP) by the community and local administration representatives. The CSP is now the guiding tool for community development in Cabiri. “This is taking the reduction of rural poverty to a new level,” says Ferreira Jose Kimonokene, the Communal Administrator of Cabiri.

In the course of the project, Tuende conducted more than 35 agricultural training sessions for more than 120 direct project beneficiaries, in partnership with the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA), a department within the Ministry of Agriculture. Tuende members conducted 200 agricultural extension visits, coordinated the creation of a cooperative, and facilitated the gender program implementation of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the area.

Tuende’s participation and implementation of the project was so successful and inclusive that even before its third month of implementation, the local government awarded the association with one farm tractor to help project beneficiaries with their subsistence farming activities such as maize and groundnut seeds, as well as agricultural tools. At the end of the harvesting season four more tractors were provided to speed up the process. In addition, two hectares of land were provided and this has allowed women to expand their subsistence farming activities.

The Communal Administrator of Cabiri justifies his actions and direct support to the project by saying “Tuende’s contribution to the development of this commune has made a real difference – they deserve not just material stuff such as tractors or land, but our respect for the work well done”.

Today, according to Tuende’s president Mama Margarida Solunga, more than 250 women are now in a process of organizing themselves into small agricultural cooperative organizations for mutual self-help and reliance.

“We are really poor and often we sleep with empty stomach, but Tuende members have shown us light at the end of the tunnel. We are now in a better position to fight our daily difficulties”, says Amelsa Bia, a member of a small cooperative being formed under the auspices of the project. Another beneficiary says “I have always wanted to improve the life of my kids, but being poor and illiterate I was unable to be part of any activity in Cabiri but Mama Margarida has been encouraging us to do more for ourselves.”

Behind the scenes, Mama Margarida notes the important role of the project financiers – the CSF and the support from the local government to implement the association’s civic engagement project.

“We relied on funding from the World Bank to ensure that our efforts were seen and felt by these special women, who have dedicated their time and efforts towards the improvement of their relations with the local administration and the success of this project,” said Mama Margarida, who is the driving force of community participation that is gradually shaping various communes in Bengo Province.

In the fiscal year 2009, seven national non governmental organizations were awarded funding from the CSF in Angola. After the success achieved in the previous year, Tuende will continue to implement the project with additional funding from the CSF and the support from the local administration. In the upcoming months, Tuende will conduct a series of workshops targeting not only women, but men and youth. The local administrator has requested that the project be extended to other communes of the province.

Tuende was founded in 2001 by a group of rural women to contribute to the emerging civic movement in Angola. The founding of Tuende took place at a time when a new generation of Angolan Civil Society Organizations emerged during the Lusaka peace process which took place between 1998 and 2002.