Interview with new UN Resident Coordinator

Pierre-François Pirlot, the new UN Resident Coordinator in Angola, has had 30 years' experience in the UN, of which the last 20 years have been spent with the office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He spoke to IRIN about the challenges confronting Angola, and the United Nations, as the country goes through its transition from a complex emergency to a new development-driven agenda.

QUESTION: Which direction is Angola moving in?

ANSWER: Angola is moving out of war. That gives opportunities to do something about the rebuilding of the country. But it is also moving towards a type of public administration that is more forward-looking. There is a strong desire in the government to improve and develop the public administration – not to rebuild what has been destroyed, but to move out of past practices. That is not going to happen overnight: they need to work at that for quite some time ... This is where the UN can assist: to try to build something that is accountable in response to the current situation in Angola.

Q: How should the UN carry out this assistance?

A: There are two sets of references: one is the Millennium Development Goals; the other the document of the government on the strategy against poverty [Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper], which is in line with the Millennium Development Goals. The UN can intervene in many different areas.

UNDP [the UN Development Programme] will concentrate on building up the public administration, the decentralisation to provinces and the empowerment of provincial authorities. Others, like UNICEF [UN Children's Fund] and WHO [World Health Organisation], work with public health.

The creation of employment is important, especially when it comes to redeveloping the agricultural sector of Angola, which used to be very important. FAO [the Food and Agriculture Organisation] is strong in this respect.

The UN will also work in partnership with private companies, especially the oil companies, in creating possibilities for vocational training. There are many needs in vocational training, when all the infrastructure in the country has to be rebuilt. Linked to this, we need to develop a microcredit strategy. This is a whole lot, but the country needs a whole lot.

Q: Is the UN taking too big a responsibility?

A: I don't think so. The UN does not act alone, the UN acts in partnerships – with the Bretton Woods institutions, with civil society, with bilateral agencies. So there is a group of actors that – and this is very positive in Angola – try to coordinate their actions. That doesn't happen very often, but here it does. It is quite surprising, but there is a basic recognition that broad directions should be defined, and that there is a need of coordination in terms of follow-up to avoid overlapping, stepping on toes or repetition of activities.

But we are here to build the capacities of the government, so that they can do the coordination - this is a long process that started some time ago. Until now the conditions were probably not ripe to move forward in earnest - now the conditions are there, but it is going to take years to build the capacity of the government to a larger extent. But some of the functions are already carried out by the government, not only in Luanda, but also at the provincial level.

Q: What is the challenge of Angola?

A: Angola has a reputation of being a difficult place. It is so because of more than 30 years of war and the difficulties of working here. When I arrived here, I perceived that things were changing, that despite the difficulties, there is a possibility of doing something [positive].

Angola needs these things to be done fast – and slowly. Fast, because people cannot wait - peace has been here for the last two years and they are yet to see the dividend - and slowly, because you need to consolidate what you are doing ... Clearly, I can see that the [people] are expecting something. If nothing appears to be happening, social tensions are going to be rising very soon, and it is going to be the new problem of the country. This has to be addressed and tackled rather rapidly ...

The [UN] agencies are dependent on donations. If they do not get funding they are blamed, even though it is not their fault. But funding depends on how high the issue is on the political agenda at a certain moment. When things become dramatic - a crisis - and the media talks about it, money is not a problem. It is when things go back to normal that it is becoming a problem.

We are trying to move out from a period of humanitarian assistance to a transitional period ... It is precisely this period that is underfunded. Governments have one pocket for humanitarian aid and one for development, and in between there is a gap. We will have to see how the international community will react. We will tell them that there is still a level of vulnerability that needs to be addressed with an "old focus" until we can find additional sources.

Q: Do you find it frustrating to work in a country that has huge revenues from the oil and diamond industries, but allegedly high levels of corruption?

A: The frustration exists everywhere. There is money in the world, but it is not going where it should go. But I agree that more effort, possibly, should be made in freeing some of the resources for the development of the country. It would be easier with some more commitment from the government.

Q: What is your outlook for the future of Angola in the short term?

A: It is difficult to say. I see positive signs, and the country has huge potential. There are positive steps taken by the government. But I am not naïve - it takes a long time to build up a good public administration, especially here, simply because you are moving from a very centralised, controlled administration toward something that is trying to promote decentralisation. I am speaking of changing mentalities, not only techniques and structures. That takes time.

... But we also have to encourage the government to open up, and tell them there is a strong will among many Angolans that they should support, not oppress or stifle. In three years' time we will not see magnificent results, but changes. In five to 10 years time we can confirm that we are going in the right direction and feel the real changes, not only in Luanda, but also in the provinces. It is important to make the provinces stronger, so that people might move back to the rural areas from the urban areas on the coast.

Q: The UN in Angola did not have a resident coordinator for a long time. How did that affect the work of the UN?

A: It probably caused a lot of damage. It was an opportunity missed, to get things moving earlier. Things were kept together – the humanitarian assistance was marvellously handled by OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] – but a vision was missing. The UN has not been as active as it should have been as an actor for development. We have to repair that now. My dream is to bring the UN team together to have a common vision. We are certainly talking to each other, but maybe we need to take it a step further and push in the same direction.