Africa-Press – Angola. Fifty technicians from Benguela province are participating since Thursday in a seminar to reinforce social protection, as part of the implementation process of the Municipalization of Social Action across the country.
The purpose of the Municipalization of Social Action is to bring related services closer to the most vulnerable populations, with concrete actions for the prevention, protection and promotion of communities, to be carried out through the Integrated Social Action Centers (CASI).
Hence the initiative of the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Women’s Promotion to train technicians from the province of Benguela, namely from the Social Action, Family and Gender Equality Office, municipal administrators, CASI assistants, representatives of the health, education and and justice.
The training, which ends on Friday and has already taken place in the provinces of Cunene, Cuando Cubango and Namibe, also includes traditional authorities, church representatives, residents’ commissions, non-governmental organizations and other social partners.
At the opening, the national director of Social Action, Fátima Cabral, stressed that the seminar aims to strengthen the capacities of technicians in the sector, to improve the quality of the provision of social protection services to families in vulnerable situations.
Admitting that social protection is still worrying, Fátima Cabral argues that it is necessary to unite synergies for integrated responses, combining all services – from education to health – that contribute to assist vulnerable families.
“Regardless [of the idea] of focusing on this integration, we still continue to carry out [the services] in a fragmented way”, acknowledges the person in charge, believing, however, that training is a step forward for a paradigm shift.
The official also pointed out challenges, such as the decentralization of social work services in the country, so that citizens can find specific answers locally to the problems they face, such as the lack of wheelchairs.
“We often see that a needy citizen from the province of Benguela still travels to Luanda to, perhaps, ask for a wheelchair, because Benguela does not have this means”, he noted, stressing that there will be quality services when social policies at local level are strengthened.
In addition, he highlighted the need to recruit more human resources to ensure the quality of service delivery at the local level, that is, in the municipalities.
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