Africa-Press – Angola. Angolan political scientist Almeida Henriques said Monday that the new Political-Administrative Division (DPA) responds to the challenges of combating regional asymmetries and social inequalities, bringing public services closer to the population.
He said that the new administrative division will guarantee the population’s access to basic services, namely drinking water, sanitation, electricity, both public and domestic, improvement of roads, land use planning, health and education.
He added that the DPA will also provide a plausible response to improving issues related to culture, environment, sport and other aspects of interest to local communities.
Almeida Henriques referred that the elevation of districts and communes into municipalities constitutes an important step towards the decentralization of local power, as a promoter of the mobilization of local resources and provision of a better system of coordination, supervision, control and execution of social projects, with the more direct involvement of the population in the pursuit of development goals.
He underlined that the DPA will also allow for the expansion of the number of civil servants, with the recruitment of new staff for the civil service, although it will require more resources from the Angolan State in order to create conditions to end social inequalities.
The political scientist stressed that the new administrative division, in addition to ensuring effective decentralization, contributes to maintaining political stability, national unity and, consequently, to development.
Decentralization of local power
He explained that the decentralization of local power, in turn, promotes a better representation of all social groups in meeting their needs, thus contributing to equity in the allocation of government resources and the reduction of social tensions.
“Decentralization allows citizens to actively participate in public policy decisions, excluding the myth according to which local authorities can generate tribalism, when, after all, they do not typify people’s race, color or origin, but rather, policies that aim to satisfy the needs of communities more quickly”, he stressed.
He made it known that the decentralization of the State and, consequently, the increase in the power of local governance, is a trend in any modern democracy, as it is extremely difficult to meet the needs of millions of inhabitants through a centralized government at a national level.
In this sense, he continued, States are currently seeking to adopt measures that increase the power of local authorities, stimulating local governance and the involvement of communities.
In his understanding, local governance is not just the emptying of the State and the transfer of initiatives to the local private and social sectors, but rather an evolutionary process of the relations of the traditional structures found in the public system, in which the types of regulation system must act in concert.
Almeida Henriques clarified that the choice for decentralization generally seeks to meet objectives related to social development, democratization in the participation and management of resources and services, with efficiency, equity and capacity in the response of governments in relation to the demands of the population.
He emphasized that decentralization makes it possible for the community itself to manage resources and make decisions, based on local governance processes, to meet the priorities defined by the population, a practice that essentially aims to bring together the needs and desires of the community, as well as to agents who promote and execute public policies.
suggestions
According to the political scientist, the Executive was right to pay greater attention to the provinces of Cuando Cubango and Moxico, but it is important that it also reassess the regions of Malange and Uige, due to their territorial density and geographical position.
In the particular case of the province of Uige, Almeida Henriques said that there is a project called “Cuilo Cuango”, conceived since colonial times and which has been claimed, which at the time had Sanza-Pombo as its capital, covering the municipalities from Buengas and Kimbele, departing from the Culo river, in the municipality of Alfândega in Sanza-Pombo, ending in the Cuango river in Kimbele.
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