Community Development Project in 70 Inland Fishing Communities
Angola’s inland fishing communities suffered in much the same way as the nation’s agricultural production suffered during the civil war, losing both capacity as well as expertise. The government is seeking to redress the situation and is focusing on fisheries development as part of a plan to increase economic diversification. Commercial fishing apart, Angola has a considerable and growing artisanal fishing fleet (100,000 people estimated to be earning a living from marine and inland water fishing in 2012 - 2013 (http://www.fao.org/fishery/facp/AGO/en).
ADPP Angola is currently collaborating with the Ministry of Fisheries by implementing the social component of a wider project aiming at improving the production and income of fisher families. ADPP organizes and trains 15,000 families to improve their living conditions by raising awareness about food security, nutrition, gender, climatic change, HIV/AIDS, landmines, malaria, water and sanitation and land, creating savings groups in selected communities, providing literacy training, and facilitating a participative process of evaluating climate change vulnerabilities and creating community development plans. Empowering communities and community members, as the antithesis of a top-down approach, is key to ensuring sustainability.
Project leaders work with groups of 5 Community Agents, each of whom is responsible for one community. One important function of the project is to create Community Action Groups and facilitate the process of identifying real problems faced by the communities and together find the best ways to resolve them. The Community Agents also visit families, give talks to the groups on the themes mentioned above, undertake awareness campaigns and more.
In the latter part of the first year of implementation, the project was working with 70 communities over the four provinces of Bengo, Luanda, Kwanza Norte and Malanje. To-date, water and sanitation, malaria prevention and nutrition have been treated extensively. At the same time, 160 literacy tutors and 7,600 people are active in the literacy program. The first 3920 people, 77% of whom are female, have completed the first module of literacy training, equivalent to 2nd grade level.
