Citizenship and Services for the Urban Poor: Impact Assessment Synthesis Report

The Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP) was an award-winning initiative operating between 1999 and 2010, and this evaluation for the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) discusses LUPP’s work on microfinance, water and sanitation, participatory governance and early childhood development. Key achievements include providing the equivalent of US$ 100 million in microfinance to 100,300 clients; water standpipes serving more than 150,000 residents; 24 crèches for nearly 2,000 children; and ongoing municipal development forums. The author, Lucy Earle, synthesizes LUPP’s experiences and lessons, helping to illuminate how donors, governments and residents in impoverished post-conflict settings can gradually build institutions and reduce urban poverty.

Part I introduces the context in Angola as well as LUPP’s approach and strategies throughout the programme. Despite extensive oil and mineral wealth, burgeoning formal construction and rising foreign investment, most Angolans remain extremely poor and live in inadequate housing. More than 75 per cent of Luanda’s population resides in informal settlements, which are growing by 7 per cent annually (page 20). With DFID funding, LUPP was implemented in four of the capital’s low-income municipalities by several NGOs (Development Workshop, Save the Children, CARE and One World Action). Earle notes that the partners were often unable to reach the poorest residents, but LUPP was successfully replicated at scale in water and crèche facilities through the use of cost-recovery (page 28). She concludes that LUPP created an important model of pro-poor service delivery, while simultaneously promoting democratic governance after the civil war.

LUPP’s impacts are analyzed in Part II, which identifies key achievements at the project and policy levels. For instance, LUPP’s autonomous microcredit enterprise has loaned to 100,000 recipients; microfinance was also taken up as a legislative priority and microloans from commercial banks have benefited another 150,000 people. Achievements in the water sector were again significant at the municipal and national levels. Nearly 150 water standpipes were built in Luanda and the cost of water from these is 4–8 times less than private water vendors’ prices. There has been a reduction in water-borne diseases and LUPP’s community management of water was adopted as a national level policy. Municipal development forums have been conducted every two months since 2001 with LUPP support, leading to the formation of civil society networks and enhancing citizen–government interactions. Earle argues that these activities “…helped to catalyze broader democratization processes”, suggesting that “…greater democracy at lower levels of the state can be forged outside the framework of elections” (page 59). The rest of the chapter discusses experiences with crèches, media outreach and municipal development profiles prepared with community GIS mapping (maps are included as an appendix).
Part III concludes with lessons learned and examines the contribution to DFID’s work. LUPP was DFID’s only urban programme in Africa and, unusually, focused on lower level governance and partnerships (page 72). Earle argues that the onus is now on international aid agencies “…to support similar innovative approaches to addressing urban poverty at scale, as the situation for the poor becomes ever more critical in African cities” (page 77). She also highlights the legacies of increased citizenship engagement, invigorated civil society activity and space created through municipal forums.