Africa-Press – Angola. Coverage with financial transfers to a universe of about 8,000 families in 54 municipalities in the 18 provinces since May 2020 makes the Kwenda program a paradigmatic example with a view to eliminating extreme poverty and formalizing the economy in the communities.
The opinion was presented yesterday by the director of the World Bank for Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and São Tomé and Príncipe, Albert Zeufack, at the end of a meeting with the management of the Local Development Fund, during which the review of the first phase and the approach of the structuring lines of its deepening.
Albert Zeufack expressed the conviction that the partnership between the World Bank and the Government of Angola, with the objective of supporting 1,608,000 families in situations of poverty and vulnerability, valued at 420 million dollars, of which 320 million financed by the WB and 100 million disbursed by the National Treasury.
Speaking to the media, he said that the meeting was “productive”, since the progress achieved by the Kwenda program was remarkable, in addition to having learned lessons that “allow the exploration of new avenues and continuous improvement of the functioning”, capable of reflecting a “social platform with an impact on the improvement of the Angolan people’s standard of living”.
The World Bank, he guaranteed, is happy to be a partner of the Angolan government in the Kwenda program, which today has become an example of successful social protection programs on the African continent.
He referred that its impact makes the other countries demonstrate the desire to replicate the example of Angola in the implementation. Albert Zeufack stressed that Kwenda goes beyond issues of cash transfers: “there are other nuances and components aimed at the social evolution and productivity of the beneficiaries themselves, which is why we have specialists with experience in similar programs around the world”.
New challenges
The director-general of FAS (Social Support Fund), Belarmino Jelembi, said that the Kwenda program achieved unprecedented results in two years, despite its implementation in a context marked by the most critical phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Angolan Government, the World Bank and the commitment of the national technicians involved in the operations, according to Belarmino Jelembi, allowed Kwenda “to make a path, as it has scaled the country and is reaching people in a consistent way, with a methodology that engages the families”.
The strategy to be implemented from now on, stressed the official, is to combine the four components of the program, embodied in transfers.
monetary rences, productive inclusion, municipalization of social action, in addition to the structuring of a robust social register that can be used for various initiatives in the country.
“It is important to mention that the Kwenda program is helping to transform lives, as we reach more than eight thousand villages, whose families are using their resources to invest in productive inclusion initiatives, purchase of seeds, land preparation , in some cases for Health and Education”. asserted.
Belarmino Jelembi concluded that “the methodology used allows the generation of trust, due to the regularity of the monetary transfer process, with teams permanently trained to establish a dialogue with the communities”.
“The work will continue in this sense, as we are increasingly closer to families with rigor, discipline, organization and parsimony in the management of the resources available to the program”, he reiterated.
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