Edited by Paul Robson and Sandra Roque

Published in 2001
ISBN: 0-9688786-2-8 

Almost all NGOs now engaged in development programs start with the idea that it is imperative to work with existing traditional or community-based organizations. But what to do when forced migration due to war and civil disturbance has so disrupted the population that the social fabric is weak or virtually non-existent?

The authors demonstrate that over a period of a hundred years, but especially in the period since independence was achieved, Angola has experienced successive waves of migration from rural to urban areas. Contrary to what is commonly supposed, however, these migrations rarely have involved movement by single homogenous groups. The result is that in the peri-urban settlements surrounding Angola’s principal cities, the population is frequently heterogeneous. Moreover, so desperate is the daily struggle to obtain the basic requirements for survival – food, water, shelter – that the possibility of focusing community energies on the achievement of long-term goals is minimal.

In this situation, the authors argue, the first, urgent task of NGOs is to rebuild the networks of grassroots community organizations and their links to service providers and government.