Local communities to benefit from US $55 million grant

Angola's ailing social services sector this week received a much-needed boost from a US $55 million grant by international donors. The European Union and the World Bank agreed on Wednesday to transfer half the money to the Social Aid Fund, already in its third phase. An estimated $27.5 million is expected to go towards expanding the fund, which complements existing efforts by the government to upgrade and rehabilitate local infrastructure, largely destroyed during the country's 27-year civil war. Communities across the country's 18 provinces are expected benefit from these funds. "The target of the fund is mainly to uplift the poorest communities living in rural, urban or peri-urban areas. They have the responsibility of identifying which [infrastructure] projects need to be addressed - the whole process is community-driven," European Commission information officer, Jeronimo Belo, told IRIN. A key feature of the fund is that each of the targeted communities will identify social projects of importance to them. "Communities identify the building of a primary school, the construction of health posts and, in some cases, the rehabilitation of bridges which are importance to linking communities to markets," Belo said. There will also be an emphasis on building capacity, especially within municipality structures, to enable local communities to sustain the projects over the long term. Belo noted that results from the previous two phases of the Social Action Fund had been positive.