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Angola - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Consolidated second, third and fourth periodic reports of States parties due in 2008 [2010] UNCRCSPR 9; CRC/C/AGO/2-4 (26 February 2010)
UNITED NATIONS
|
|
CRC
|
|
Convention on the Rights of the Child
|
Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/AGO/2-4 26 February
2010
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER
ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION
Consolidated second, third and fourth periodic reports of
States parties due in 2008
ANGOLA[∗]
[9 July 2008]
Contents
Paragraphs Page
Abbreviations and acronyms
I. INTRODUCTION 1-12
II. GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES 13-70
- National
Legislation and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child 13-27
- Coordination
mechanisms for implementing the Convention
at the national,
provincial, municipal and local levels 28-41
- Budgetary
resources and funding for children 42-57
- National
Action Plan 58
- Data
collection 59-70
III, DEFINITION OF THE CHILD 71-74
IV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 75-100
A. Non-discrimination 75-79
B. Best interests of the child 80-85
C. The right to life, survival and development 86-89
D. Respect for the views of the child 90-100
V. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS 101-144
A. Name and nationality 101-113
B. Preservation of identity 114-115
C. Freedom of speech 116-120
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion 121-125
E. Freedom of association and to hold peaceful meetings 126-127
F. Protection of privacy 128-129
G. Access to relevant information 130-131
H. The right to not be subjected to torture and other cruel,
inhumane or degrading treatment 132-144
VI. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE 145-191
- Parental
management and orientation 145-146
- Parental
responsibilities 147-151
- Separation
of parents 152-155
Contents
Paragraphs Page
- Children
deprived of their family environment 156-157
- Family
reunification 158-165
- Illegal
dislocation and retention 166-175
- Support
payments 176-179
- Abuse
and neglect 180-189
- Periodic
review of boarding conditions 190-191
VII. BAISC HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 192-305
- National
Health System 192-203
- Health
sector public expenditures 204-207
- Health
and assistance services 208-213
- Children’s
health (child mortality in children less than five years
old) 214-234
E. Nutrition and breastfeeding 235- 243
F. Immunization 244-254
G. Children with special needs 255-258
H. National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS 259-264
I. Social security and child care services and facilities 265-267
J. Standard of living 268-284
K. Water and environmental sanitation 285-305
VIII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 306-365
- Education,
including vocational training and orientation 306-358
- Leisure,
recreation and cultural activities 359-365
IX. SOCIAL PROTECTION MEASURES 366-437
- At-risk
children 367-382
- Children
in conflict with the law 383-396
- Street
children 397-401
- Espaços
amigos da criança 402-403
- Child
trafficking 404-410
- Violence
against children 411-433
- Use
of drugs 434-437
Annexes
Annex 1. List of participants in the process of preparing the
report
Annex. 2. The Voice of the
Child
Bibliography
Abbreviations and acronyms
CCI
|
−
|
Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee
|
CNAC
|
−
|
National Council of Children
|
DNIC
|
−
|
National Criminal Investigations Department
|
DRC
|
−
|
Democratic Republic of the Congo
|
EAC
|
−
|
Espaço Amigo da Criança
|
EIRP
|
−
|
Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy
|
EPI
|
−
|
Expanded Program on Immunization
|
ER
|
−
|
Education Reform
|
GDP
|
−
|
Gross Domestic Product
|
IDR
|
−
|
Survey of Income and Spending
|
ILO
|
−
|
International Labour Organization
|
INAC
|
−
|
National Children’s Institute
|
INE
|
−
|
National Statistics Institute
|
INEJ
|
−
|
National Institute of Judicial Studies
|
ITS
|
−
|
Sexually Transmitted Infection
|
LC
|
−
|
Constitutional Law
|
LJM
|
−
|
Court for Minors Act
|
MAC
|
−
|
World Fit for Children
|
MAPESS
|
−
|
Ministry of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security
|
MCS
|
−
|
Ministry of Social Communication
|
MDG
|
−
|
Millennium Development Goal
|
MED
|
−
|
Ministry of Education
|
MINADER
|
−
|
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
|
MINARS
|
−
|
Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration
|
MINCULT
|
−
|
Ministry of Culture
|
MINEA
|
−
|
Ministry of Energy and Water
|
MINFAMU
|
−
|
Ministry of Family Women’s Empowerment
|
MINFIN
|
−
|
Ministry of Finance
|
MININT
|
−
|
Ministry of the Interior
|
MINJUD
|
−
|
Ministry of Youth and Sports
|
MINJUS
|
−
|
Ministry of Justice
|
MINSA
|
−
|
Ministry of Health
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MINUA
|
−
|
Ministry of Urban Development and the Environment
|
MIPLAN
|
−
|
Ministry of Planning
|
MIREX
|
−
|
Ministry of Foreign Relations
|
NA
|
−
|
National Assembly
|
NGO
|
−
|
Non-governmental organization
|
NHP
|
−
|
National Health Police
|
NHS
|
−
|
National Health Services
|
NP
|
−
|
National Police
|
OAA
|
−
|
Order of Attorneys of Angola
|
OGE
|
−
|
Government Budget
|
OMA
|
−
|
Organization of Angolan Women
|
OVC
|
−
|
Orphans and Vulnerable Children
|
PA
|
−
|
People’s Assembly
|
PIC
|
−
|
Community Children’s Program
|
PLRF
|
−
|
Family Tracing and Reunification Program
|
PPMSSB
|
−
|
Public Program to Improve Services
|
RAAAP
|
−
|
Rapid Action, Analysis and Assessment Program
|
SADC
|
−
|
Southern Africa Development Community
|
SCM
|
−
|
Secretary of the Council of Ministers
|
SICA
|
−
|
Angolan Child Indicator System
|
SME
|
−
|
Migration and Alien Services
|
WFP
|
−
|
World Food Programme
|
WHO
|
−
|
World Health Organization
|
I. INTRODUCTION
- In
2004, the State of Angola submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
the initial report[1] entitled “
Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Angola”.
The report addressed the progress
the country has made and the difficulties it
encountered, in accordance with article 44 of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child,
and the guidelines for presentation.
- In
accordance with the statements in the final observations, this report combines
the second, third and fourth periodic reports on
“The Status of the Rights
of the Child and Implementation of the Convention in Angola for the 2004-2007
period.
- In
updating the obligations stemming from the signing of the Convention, the
Government of Angola applauds the Committee’s recommendation
No. 10,
paragraph 75, on the opportunity for the State of Angola to submit a single
report that combines information from the three
periodic reports on the date
when the fourth report is to be submitted, and accepts the commitment to submit
subsequent reports as
required, to ensure that it is possible to periodically
review the progress made in implementing it.
- The
present report reflects the political, legislative and administrative measures
that the Government has taken to implement the
Convention and the
recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the
mechanisms used, the social impact,
the resources used to implement the
measures, and the limitations and difficulties that were experienced.
- The
second part presents the status quo in the country, characterized by many
programmes to build and rebuild infrastructure necessary
in the post-armed
conflict context, as well as the methodology for doing so. The third part
addresses aspects of the components identified
in the guidelines as context for
preparing the reports, namely:
- − General
implementation measures;
- − Definition
of child;
- − General
principles;
- − Civil
rights and liberties;
- − Family
environment and alternative care;
- − Health,
well-being and health services;
- − Education,
leisure and cultural activities;
- − Special
protection measures.
- The
information on the demographic, economic, social and cultural characteristics,
is not included in this report, nor is information
on the country’s
political structure or the normative framework of human rights; rather, this
information is found in the joint
report on the implementation of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant
on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on
the Rights of
the Child, in accordance with the new joint report preparation methodology
designed by the United Nations in the context
of its
reform.[2]
- The
peace consolidation that began in 2002 made it possible to bring the country
into a gradual development process, helping to promote
initiatives to improve
the well-being of all of society and, consequently, of the Angolan child, which
is an enormous challenge for
the country. The initial
report[3] indicated that Angola has a
very young population, and roughly 50 per cent of the people are under the age
of 15, 60 per cent under
18, and 93 per cent under 50. These data are quite
realistic.
- The
present report was prepared at the Third National Forum on Children, held in
2007, and roughly 250 people attended, including
deputies from the National
Assembly, members of Government, officials from the United Nations System, the
diplomatic corps, religious
entities, international organizations, and
representatives of civil society. Of these, 66 per cent expressed their belief
that living
conditions for children in the country are improving.
Methodology used for preparing the report
- The
report preparation process was coordinated by the National Children’s
Institute (Instituto Nacional da Criança -
INAC), using a special
methodology that focuses on a participatory process at every level, including
meetings with representatives
of the different government bodies, civil society
and religious entities. It received support from the United Nations System
agencies
for the purpose of obtaining the necessary grants.
- This
process also involved raising awareness about children’s rights throughout
the country, a well as compiling a bibliography
of the information needed for
use as a basis for preparing this report.
- The
phase that preceded the introduction of the final adjustments and the evaluation
by the Council of Ministers was used by the National
Council of Children to
evaluate the project in plenary, ordinary and extraordinary meetings for the
purpose of giving the government
sectors and representatives of civil society
who attended the opportunity to add information and to analyse the reliability
of the
information in the report.
- In
exercising their right of participation, children from the 18 provinces, in age
groups (from 10 to 13 years and from 14 to 17 years),
analysed topics pertaining
to HIV/AIDS, education, violence against children, the birth registry, and
freedom of speech and association;
proposals were made that were incorporated
into this report.
II. GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES
A. National legislation and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child
- The
Angolan legal system reveals a scattering of laws and decrees, with the
Constitutional Law (CL) at the top, supported by the Civil,
Penal and Family
Codes and the General Labor Act.
- According
to article 30, No. 1 of the CL, “Children are the absolute priority and
they enjoy special protection provided by
the family, the State and society for
their development.” The priority that the CL places on children takes
inspiration from
the conception of the child as the true person recognized by
the law, according to No. 2 of article 30, which provides that “the
government must promote and harmoniously develop the personalities of children
and youth and create the conditions for integrating
them and having them
participate in working life.”
- Article
4 of the Family Code (FC), approved by Law 1/88 of 20 February states:
“Children deserve special attention in the family,
and in cooperation with
the government, it is the family’s responsibility to guarantee the utmost
protection and equality for
them, so that they achieve full physical and
emotional development and, through their education, strengthen the bonds between
family
and society.”
- The
standards in the Convention and in other international legal instruments of
which Angola is a Member State are enforced directly
by the courts, although
they are not relied on by the parties (No. 3 of article 21 of the CL)
or the authorities. Thus, the national legislation is clearly being made
consistent with the international legal instruments regarding
children, and the
discrepancies are being addressed in the current reform process.
- In
accordance with the international protection parameters and observance of the
Committee’s recommendations, the Complete Protection
System for children
in justice in Angola was developed in the Juvenile Justice Administration
System. The Angolan legal system contains
some statutes that establish more
favorable provisions for the rights of the child, with various types of
responses to violations
of rights provided for in the Convention, including the
use of courts for minors, in general through their representatives or through
the Office of the Prosecutor and, in some cases, they represent themselves
directly.
- In
2002, the Ministry of Justice began to coordinate the major institutional
administrative reorganization processes, with the reform
of the national justice
system, including the harmonization of the juvenile justice legislation and the
Penal Code, in order to safeguard
the rights of the child, eliminate the gaps in
the legislation, and promote harmonization with international standards,
especially
with the Convention.
- The
level of activities in the justice sector observed two fundamental policies,
with a major focus on revising the statutes to be
used in carrying out the
assigned tasks and tasks related to children in particular.
- Regarding
the infrastructure policy, the civil construction projects in the provinces and
the largest cities must be reformed and/or
continued, so that the programmes
planned in the sector are within the reach of the persons for whom they are
intended. This pertains
to infrastructure for the courts, including the Court
for Minors and infrastructure for vital records and identification.
- It
is important here to accept the idea that these issues need to be addressed on
an ongoing basis in order to gradually reach all
of the provinces and communes
in the country.
- The
other policy is the revision of the Unified Justice System, which includes
juveniles. The purpose of the permanent reforms that
were implemented is to
return to the justice sector the credibility it needs to better carry out its
institutional role, and an entire
set of statutes are being prepared that are
general and of special interest to children, namely:
− The draft organic law on the courts;
− The draft organic law on the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the
Status of Magistrates in the Office of the Public Prosecutor;
− The draft law to Amend the Law on Detention While Awaiting Trial;
− The draft law to amend the Law on Review, Searches and Seizures;
− The draft organic law on the status of Judicial Magistrates;
− The draft law to amend military criminal justice;
− The draft law on mediation and conciliation;
− The draft law on amending judicial assistance;
− The draft law on the Judicial Support Center;
− The draft law on Societies of Attorneys;
− The draft law on the Decree to Amend the Organization of Judicial
Bureaus;
− The revision of the Penal and Civil Code and the Codes of Civil
Procedure and Criminal Procedure;
− The revision of the Codes of Vital Records and the Notorial Office;
− Preparation of the Labor Process Code;
− Implementation of Law No. 9/96 of April 19 on the Court for Minors;
− Implementation of Law No. 1/97 and the preparation of legislation for
the Registry and Notorial Office and Identification;
− Adjustment of the status of property that has been and can be
confiscated;
− Revision of Law No. 14/91 – Association Law and NGO Law;
− Preparation of the Legislation on the Penitentiary System;
− Enact the implementing regulations for Law No. 2/04 on the Exercise of
the Freedom of Conscience, Worship and Religion.
Reforming the legislation
- The
Third Forum on Children[4] reaffirmed
the need to accelerate the legislative reform process in the area of children so
that it is consistent with international
legislation.
- With
the enactment of the Court for Minors Act
(LJM)[5] and the Court for Minors, the
first Court for Minors Code of Procedure was set up in 2004 in Luanda Province
with the creation of
the Court for Minors, a jurisdictional organ with
specialized competency. It is part of the provincial court and enforces social
protection and criminal prevention measures for children in social danger or in
conflict with the law.
- In
the other provinces in the country, the courts have observed the implementation
of Law No. 9/96, the Court for Minors Act. The
regulations of the measures of
probation, crime prevention and the provision of community service, whose
approval is pending, aim
to ensure that the decreed measures are enforced under
the Court for Minors Act.
- Decree
No. 31/07[6] establishes the free
birth and death registry for children up to five years of age, as well as the
free identification card for children
up to 11 years of age.
- The
Ministry of Justice furthers infrastructure renovation to reconcile entities
that administer justice, such as the courts, which
include the family sections,
the Court for Minors, and the Civil Registry and Identification
Office,[7] with a permanent action
plan to gradually reach all the citizens at the community, municipal and
provincial levels.
B.
Coordination mechanisms for implementing the Convention at the national,
provincial, municipal and local levels.
National Council of Children
- To
coordinate policies on children in a manner consistent with the implementation
of the recommendations of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child, the
commitments made by the Government during the first National Forum on the Child
and reinforced by the second
and third forums, the National Council of Children
(CNAC) was created by Decree No. 20/07 of April 20, and the implementing
regulations
were adopted by Decree No. 21/07 of 20 April
.[8]
- In
accordance with article 1 of Decree No. 20/07 of 20 April, the CNAC is an
organ for social dialogue, support and oversight of
the implementation of the
policies to promote and defend the rights of the child. It has legal status and
is financially and administratively
autonomous.
- For
its operations, the CNAC consists of members who represent the following
ministries:
- − Ministry
of Assistance and Social Reintegration (MINARS);
- − Ministry
of Health (MINSA);
- − Ministry
of Education (MED);
- − Ministry
of Justice (MINJUS);
- − Ministry
of the Family and Women’s Empowerment (MINFAMU);
- − Ministry
of the Interior (MININT);
- − Ministry
of Territorial Administration (MAT);
- − Ministry
of Youth and Sports (MINJUD);
- − Ministry
of Culture (MINCULT);
- − Ministry
of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security (MAPESS);
- − Ministry
of Planning (MINPLAN);
- − Ministry
of Urban Development and the Environment (MINUA);
- − Ministry
of Social Communication (MCS);
- − Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER);
- − Ministry
of Finance (MINFIN);
- − Ministry
of Energy and Water (MINEA);
- − Director
of the National Children’s Institute
- − Four
representatives from professional associations
- − Four
representatives from NGOs that work at the national level for children
- − Four
representatives from religious entities
- − Two
representatives from cultural and sports organizations
- − Two
representatives from student organizations
- − Two
representatives from social communication
organizations
- As
governmental agencies created specifically to address matters involving children
and adolescents, the MINARS and the INAC coordinate
children’s policies in
accordance with the Convention:
- − Among
other things, the MINARS protects and promotes the rights of children and
adolescents within the performance parameters
in the area of social assistance,
education and the development of the most vulnerable groups, the promotion of
low-cost alternative
services for young children, and cooperates with the Court
for Minors or like entities to implement socio-educational measures in
an open
or closed environment for minors in conflict with the law;
- − The
purpose of the INAC is to hold hearings on children at risk, to promote their
development and improve their living conditions,
and link policies among the
different governmental and nongovernmental institutions that work for children.
The INAC has primary
responsibility for scientific research, awareness and
social mobilization in support of children and their
rights.
-
The CNAC has its own budget for its operations, approved by the Ministry of
Finance, based on the rules and instructions for preparing
the budget to be
included in the government’s general budget.
- The
CNAC carries out its work for children throughout the country and can create
representative offices in the provinces and municipalities.
Its duties include
but are not limited to:
- (a) Proposing
measures to the government for the specific context of programmes to protect
children and help them develop;
- (b) Stimulating
growth and improvements in participation mechanisms and social control to
strengthen services for children’s
rights at the national level;
- (c) Harmonizing
the sectoral proposals for child protection and development policies, taking
into account the overall objectives of
the national child protection and
development policy;
- (d) Developing
and promoting synergies among the governmental agencies and civil society
organizations that work for children in an
attempt to generate consensus,
issuing opinions and making recommendations on the fundamental objectives that
guarantee child survival,
development and protection;
- (e) Assessing,
monitoring and overseeing the execution of the national child protection and
development policy, and the performance
of local organizations responsible for
implementing the policy;
- (f) Fostering
continuing technical training, promoting and supporting events and studies in
the area of the child;
- (g) Participating
in identifying specific policies in accordance with the juvenile delinquency and
risk factor indicators;
- (h) Holding
hearings on the status of children rejected from the family
environment.
Independent entities and monitoring
Ombudsman
- The
Ombudsman is an independent public body that defends citizens’ rights,
freedoms and guarantees. Using informal means, it
ensures justice and the
legality of the public administration.
- Citizens
submit complaints to the Ombudsman for acts or omissions of the authorities and
they are evaluated with no decision-making
authority. The recommendations
necessary to prevent and repair injustices are forwarded to the bodies with
competent jurisdiction.
- The
Ombudsman’s work is independent of the extrajudicial and judicial means
provided for in the Constitutional Law and other
statutes.
- The
other duties of the Ombudsman are established in Law No. 4/06 of 28
April.[9] Article 30, No. 2 of this
law includes the mandate to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, receive
information to defend them, and serve as Ombudsman
for minors.
- The
National Assembly appointed the Ombudsman to a four-year term that may be
renewed for one more term equal in length. The Ombudsman
took office before the
President of the National Assembly.
- The
Ombudsman submits a report on its activity to the National Assembly twice a
year. The report should contain the initiatives it
has taken, the complaints it
has received, the services it has provided and the results it has obtained. The
annual report must include
a rendering of the accounts.
- To
address the matter of its jurisdiction, the Ombudsman may participate in the
work of the standing committees of the National Assembly
whenever the latter
requests the Ombudsman’s presence.
- The
Ombudsman has an autonomous annual budget, prepared according to the appropriate
organic law. It must include the appropriations
to be indicated in the National
Assembly’s budget, managed directly by an Administrative Council,
notwithstanding the legal
stipulations on oversight by the Government Accounting
Office.
C. Budgetary resources and funding for children
Children in the Government Budget
- Now
that peace has been won, the Republic of Angola is able to focus its attention
on the rehabilitation and reconstruction process,
not only on infrastructure,
but fundamentally on human beings, who bear responsibilities for their
development;
- The
country has benefited from lower military expenditures in its budget; this has
opened up opportunities for more investment in
children for
institutional-response capacities in the social area for the steady and ongoing
provision of basic social services for
the family in general and for children in
particular;
- A
State is defined by the population and the territory it controls and hence, it
has a budget in which it makes projections of its
financial revenue and
establishes lawfully approved expenditures for the sovereign organizations. This
is the Government Budget,
which is the financial instrument approved by a
special law that the Government uses to manage Government
resources;
- The
efforts the Government makes to manage financial resources for children have the
following priorities: meet all the needs of
society in general, such as health
and education, which are of benefit to children from 0 to 18 years old,
including, for example,
infant health, complete care, the programme to assist
street children, the community education programme (PIC and PEC), support for
children in difficulty, school meals, and providing temporary survival
allowances to minor descendents under Decree 50/05 of 8 August
.
- In
the General Government Program, the following projects are also being carried
out for early childhood development:
- (a) Strengthening
infrastructure construction and expansion with preschool teaching equipment;
continuing the Family Tracing and Reunification
Program, as well as the
programme to support minors in conflict with the law;
(b) Extending the 2006 General Government Program into 2007 – 2008, which
will generally retain the same objectives and major
reforms in the current
programme.
(c) However, whenever justified, changes, additions or adaptations will be
introduced into the goals, policy measures and investments
to increase the
benefits to children.
- Through
the Public Program to Improve Basic Social Services, the government has stressed
political and economic goals, improving the
statutory provisions and the
sectoral laws, and increasing budget allocations for social sector programmes,
whose annual evaluation
is considered positive, with priority on infant health,
complete care, assistance for street children, community education (PIC and
PEC), support for children in difficulty, school meals, etc.
Change in Expenditures for Children
(Government Budget Resources)
|
Year
|
Amount in kwanzas
|
2004
|
3,342,922,835.40
|
2005
|
4,172,822,867.98
|
2006
|
4,948,779,336.00
|
2007
|
11,776,886,830.66
|
Source: Ministry of Finance
|
- The
crude values budgeted for the Health and Education sectors, the MINARS/INAC and
the provincial governments will increase significantly
in the 2004 to 2007
period as the Government Budget is increased as shown in the table
below.
Monetary Unit: kwanzas (Ministry of Finance, Government
Budget)
Sector
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Education
|
644,149,598.00
|
19.27
|
530,816,135.00
|
12.72
|
2,114,390,630.00
|
42.73
|
2,586,471,245.97
|
21.96
|
Health
|
393,856,082.40
|
11.78
|
668,009,628.00
|
16.01
|
1,248,367,389.70
|
25.22
|
1,737,917,258.74
|
14.76
|
MINARS/INAC
|
199,993,226.00
|
5.98
|
181,309,030.00
|
4.34
|
437,761,436.00
|
8.84
|
243,926,589.60
|
2.07
|
Provincial governments
|
2,104,923,929.00
|
0.62
|
2,792,688,075.96
|
0.66
|
1,148,259,880.30
|
0.53
|
7,179,380,416.36
|
0.61
|
TOTAL
|
3,342,922,835.40
|
|
4,172,822,868.96
|
|
4,948,779,336.00
|
|
11,747,695,510.67
|
|
Note: The data are provisional
- Beginning
in 2007 there was a substantial increase in the percentages of the government
budget allocated to basic social services;
this also improves the likelihood of
achieving the Millennium Development Goals and consequently, the goals to create
a World Fit
for Children;
- We
also note a substantial rise in gross amounts for safety and social protection,
with emphasis on the survival grant for orphans
and vulnerable children (OVCs).
There are plans to establish a grant for this group of children whose parents
did not contribute
to social security while working in the informal sector.
- In
implementing the social development programmes in the urban, semi-urban and
rural areas, there has been a gradual increase in funding
at the municipal
level. For the 2007/2008 programme, this will benefit 68 municipalities that
serve 60 per cent of the total population
of the country, and it will turn them
into budgetary units.
-
To ensure greater transparency and to promote the appropriate use of these
public funds, the following measures were taken:
- (a) Annual
publication[10] of the Government
Budget, as well as the legislation that approves it and the respective execution
reports on the Ministry of Finance
website;
- (b) Introduction
into the national system of a programme to manage and audit public expenditures
at the provincial and municipal levels;
- (c) The
installation, in progress, of a multiyear planning system that shows the
relationship between the budget and the goals for
which it was approved;
- (d) Ratification
of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
- Efforts
have been made to have the social sector benefit from the increase in funding in
order to lower the external debt which, over
the last few years, reached a ratio
of 40 per cent in 2005 and 20 per cent in 2006 compared to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).
The decrease in financing charges and expenditures to defend the
country in the Government Budget will revert to the economic and
social sectors.
- In
the 2005-2008 a cooperation programme between the Government and UNICEF, several
activities have been identified and are now being
carried out in the different
sectors, including the INAC, and a budget has been provided to strengthen their
capacities as the following
table demonstrates.
Summary Budget
|
Programme
|
Amounts in thousands of US dollars
|
Regular resources
|
Other resources
|
Total
|
Health
|
3,200
|
17,000
|
20,200
|
Basic education
|
2,544
|
16,000
|
18,544
|
Water, environmental sanitation and hygiene
|
1,920
|
7,000
|
8,920
|
Child protection
|
2,000
|
8,000
|
10,000
|
Youth and HIV/AIDS
|
2,000
|
6,000
|
8,000
|
Social policies, advocacy and communication
|
2,920
|
3,000
|
5,920
|
Intersector costs
|
8,000
|
11,000
|
19,000
|
Total
|
22,584
|
68,000
|
90,584
|
Source: UNICEF-LUANDA
- The
country does not have a financial fund specifically for supporting programmes
and projects for children, but it does have other
public and private funds that
finance programmes and projects that assist children either directly or
indirectly. For example, there
is the Social Support Fund - Fundo de Apoio
Social - FAS) that finances projects requested by the communities or the
different governmental
agencies in the sectors of education, health, water and
sanitation, economics and productivity, with funding made available by the
government of Angola and foreign institutions, the LWINI Fund, the Sports
Development Fund (Fundo de Desenvolvimento Desportivo),
etc.
- More
generally, there are plans to demonstrate that there are civil society
organizations that have the status of institutions in
the public interest; their
social objectives are related to children, and they receive funds from the
Government Budget (OGE) for
the purpose of putting them to use to carry out
their activities in the areas of social action, philanthropy, development, and
education,
health, assistance, protection, counselling, awareness, mobilization,
civic education and others.
- This
potential, which is still lacking in some areas, may work in other scenarios, as
soon as plans are implemented to establish a
single fund for the purpose of
supporting programmes planned in more varied areas for child survival,
protection and development,
based on the principles of the
Convention.
D. National Action Plan
- With
the creation of the National Council of Children, preparation of the National
Action Plan in four areas is now in progress:
For children
from 0 to five years old:
Health sector::
(a) Plan programmes to accelerate the reduction in maternal-child mortality;
(b) Strengthen the municipal health facilities;
(c) Expand and strengthen health technical schools for the continuing education
of managers;
(d) Create living conditions and other incentives for retaining managers in
semi-urban and rural areas.
Food security:
(a) Plan a national food and nutrition security strategy;
(b) Study vulnerability, food security and malnutrition, taking into account
aspects related to HIV/AIDS, gender, the market, business,
public health, water
and sanitation;
(c) Create and upgrade the information system for child survival for aspects
related to HIV/AIDS, gender, the market, public health,
water, sanitation and
food security, to obtain a detailed understanding of the origin and causes of
food insecurity, malnutrition
and child health;
(d) Expand and strengthen the school meal programme and make it consistent with
environmental education by creating school and community
vegetable gardens;
(e) Create systems to inspect and check foods used in day care centres and
children’s homes.
In the agricultural sector:
(a) Improve the capacity for storing, keeping and processing harvests at the
family level;
(b) Perform vulnerability surveys;
(c) Strengthen manager training in the area of rural extension and monitoring
farm production;
Water sector
(a) Strengthen programmes that seek to facilitate access to drinking water for
the people;
(b) Identify legal systems that require the construction and use of
latrines.
Protection and social security.
(a) Review and adjust grants to the country’s socioeconomic reality,
namely as follows: family allowances, breastfeeding allowances,
survival
allowances, isolation allowances and hazardous duty allowances;
(b) Create statutory mechanisms so that duly identified groups, such as people
who are disabled, orphans, the elderly and widows,
who are not included under
the law on protection and social security, will be eligible for allowances to
guarantee access to food,
basic health care and dignified
housing.
Preschool education:
(a) Update and regularly analyse the database on children from 0 to 5 years old
at the local level;
(b) Upgrade methodologies to deal with awareness and social mobilization;
(c) Review the PIC and PEC program in an effort to provide services to children
in the family and community context;
(d) Ensure the continuity of first grade operations in the schools, with
priority for children who do not have access to preschool
education
alternatives;
(e) Establish a coordination system in the planning, implementation, monitoring
and assessment of early childhood development programmes;
(f) Mobilize private sector resources to support innovative community early
childhood projects;
Birth registry:
(a) Continue to institutionalize the civil registry in the maternity centres and
municipal and communal government agencies;
(b) Implement the database system for the birth registry at the national
level;
(c) Improve the creation, strengthening and expansion of child protection
networks.
For children from 6 to 18 years old
Universal primary schooling and children out of school:
(a) Expand the school network, particularly in the communes and villages;
(b) Expand the school meal programme to all children and upgrade meal
quality;
(c) Expand teaching programmes in national languages;
(d) Expand the teaching of Portuguese as a second language;
(e) Build residences to retain teachers in the villages;
(f) In due time, produce, distribute and check school equipment for all
children, with priority on the most vulnerable;
(g) Ensure the observance of standards to eliminate architectural barriers for
disabled persons;
(h) Enforce the rule on general education schools to prevent acts of acts of
violence in schools;
(i) Set up psycho-social support bureaus in the primary and secondary
schools;
(j) Establish alternative education procedures in the communities to provide
services for special cases, such as mobile schools,
distance learning,
etc.);
(k) Socialize children by having them practice sports;
(l) Train parents and education officials to better monitor their students;
(m) Energize and expand participation in extracurricular activities;
(n) Strengthen the implementation of the school meal distribution network
throughout the country;
(o) Prepare an advocacy programme for the education of girls and vulnerable
children;
(p) Implement the integrated statistical data collection and processing
system;
(q) Accelerate the implementation of the strategy to jump-start literacy and
overcome problems with students who are left behind;
(r) Improve information collection systems so that they can be grouped by
geographic zone and region and systematically updated.
Juvenile justice:
(a) Create and regulate the activity of the regional detention centres for
adolescents in conflict with the law and alternatives
to incarceration in all
the jurisdictions with Courts for Minors (such as community service, probation
and part-time detention);
(b) Increase continuing education for journalists through public and private
communication with regard to the protection of children’s
rights.
For all children
Family capacities:
(a) Expand family capacities in all the municipal seats;
(b) Translate all child-related instruments and programmes into national
languages;
(c) Disseminate education and training programmes on hygiene, the environment,
nutrition and families in national languages.
HIV/AIDS prevention:
(a) Expand pediatric care policies, paying special attention to children from 0
to 18 months old, and incorporate the voluntary testing
programme into antenatal
services;
(b) Expand the coverage of the voluntary testing programme and ensure that all
HIV+ women about to give birth receive counselling;
(c) Create mobile team services for the community approach to
HIV/AIDS.
Violence control:
(a) Foster the implementation of the National Strategy to Prevent and Mitigate
Violence against Children;
(b) Expand, strengthen and build the capacities of the child protection networks
at the national level;
(c) Discuss and disseminate the types of manifestations and consequences of
violence in national languages using educational tools
and advertising on the
radio and television;
(d) Promote the training of trainers on the rights of the
child.
Sustainability of successes
Dissemination of information about the child
(a) Strengthen the link between the institutions that deal with the problems of
children and families in the process of developing
integrated communication
policies, and, for this purpose, create cooperation networks between these
institutions and the social communication
organizations;
(b) In the social communication organizations, create more venues dedicated to
children in order to ensure that they participate
more;
(c) Increase the number of venues to discuss child-related issues, improving
content related to the sections that are part of the
Convention on the Rights of
the Child and other statutory instruments to protect the child;
(d) Improve the databases, studies and research on information about children in
order to plan intervention programmes;
(e) Foster teaching, educational and didactic programmes covering the most
diverse areas of knowledge;
(f) Encourage the use of national languages among children and youth, promoting
special programmes for child and youth audiences
on culture, education and
information in national languages;
(g) Foster specialization and capacity-building for social communication
specialists who deal with issues related to the child and
the family;
(h) Encourage advocacy and social mobilization strategies with the purpose of
protecting children from violence and commercial exploitation
through
advertising and prohibiting the media from disclosing personal details and
photographs of child victims or offenders;
(i) Promote programmes for children and youth which, while they educate, also
inform and entertain children;
(j) Ensure that children’s festivals have young artists as their principal
protagonists;
(k) Call on the provincial governments and other entities to encourage the
creation of public library networks and school libraries
as well as other
reading venues;
The child in the Government budget
(a) Increase the total amount to be allocated to the sector and that the
Government allocates in a significant percentage in this
area to social
protection programmes for children as part of the 11 commitments made during the
Third Forum;
(b) Allocate funds for the social protection of children in a decentralized
manner to the organizations involved in carrying out
the government’s
commitments;
(c) Adopt a special integrated programme that reflects each commitment made,
which must be duly budgeted for the purpose of monitoring
its execution;
(d) Broadly disseminate Decree No. 50/05 of 8 August, which provides a temporary
survival allowance for minor descendents so that
they are able to enjoy this
right;
(e) Adopt mechanisms to create and implement the National Solidarity and
Assistance Fund, provided for in article 31 No. 2 of Law
No. 7/04 of 15 October
(Social Protection Framework Act);
(f) Increase the family allowance and other grants that assist vulnerable
children and families.
E. Data collection
- A
well-organized data collection, analysis and processing system can be used to
monitor, check and assess the results of the programmes
related to the 11
commitments made at the Third National Forum on Children and in the communities,
the general framework for implementing
the Convention, as well as the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the goals set for
creating a World
Fit for Children.
- The
Angolan Child Indicator System (Sistema de Indicadores da Criança
Angolana – SICA) was established because there
were no consistent
indicators from reliable sources to analyse the status of children in the
country.
- The
information used to prepare the initial report on the implementation of the
Convention in Angola was taken from the Reports of
the General Government
Comprehensive Program from 2004 to 2007. The Ministry of Planning was
responsible for publishing this report.
- Since
that time, some governmental institutions have been collecting statistical data
on children using surveys, studies, and administrative
means.
- There
are training programmes in progress in the National Statistics Institute (INE)
on statistics as part of Devinfo, the advanced
database management computer
programme, which is used to ensure that the 11 commitments related to the child
development index are
carried out.
- The
Angolan Child Indicator System (SICA), now being implemented with UNICEF and
UNDP support, is of paramount importance to make
the implementation of Devinfo
operational through the concentration, processing and systematization of data
available on children
at the baseline level (schools, communal agencies, etc.),
and at the provincial and national level, which will receive the summaries
and
the reports produced for the purpose of supporting the various levels of
government administration to facilitate the monitoring
and planning of policies
and programmes, correcting and adapting them to the circumstances of the
time.
- For
carrying out the programme, there are projects underway that assign
responsibility for data collection and introduction, checking,
ongoing updating
and analysis, for identifying the links between the systems and databases by
sector using the Joint National IBEP
Survey to be started in May 2008
(coordinated by the Ministry of Planning through the National Statistics
Institute – INE).
- In
addition, there are also information and awareness programmes being carried out
by the specialists in each Ministry, the provincial
governments and municipal
governments, on the importance of using statistics and how they work, while at
the same time there are
programmes underway to strengthen the capacities of
employees at all levels for the purpose of implementing the programme
established
by the Angolan Child Indicator System (SICA) through the
administrative channel.
Training in the rights of the child and dissemination of the
Convention
- With
the ratification of the Convention, a process of disseminating this important
international legal instrument was triggered and
it promoted knowledge of the
most sacred rights of the child, and many programmes have been developed in
cooperation with international
agencies, such as UNICEF in particular, as well
as other social partners.
- Pamphlets,
posters, flyers, bumper stickers and other audiovisual graphics materials were
produced with sayings and messages that
facilitate understanding the Convention.
Radio and television outdoors [sic] and spots were developed, and theatrical
skits were
developed for the purpose of disseminating messages about the
Convention to the communities.
- The
following are ongoing programmes directed at several fringes of
society:
− Important events in which the children’s rights component was used
as material for training, awareness-raising and
enlightenment for
social-professional associations.
− Programmes to enlighten judges and the Public Prosecutor, policemen, the
immigration and alien agencies, criminal investigation,
prison agencies,
military units, teachers and students, health and social communication
professionals, civil servants, salespersons
and all workers.
− Programmes for children, in particular at school and in the community
and in associations that attend meetings to discuss
and share information on
their experiences based on the interpretation of the content of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child
and its optional memoranda.
- The
Third National Forum on Children, which received widespread coverage in the
international and domestic (government and private)
social communication media,
was also a vehicle for disseminating as a specific theme the content of the
initial report on the implementation
of the Convention (CRC/C/3/Add.66), as well
as for evaluating the extent of the content’s compliance with the final
observations
of Committee on the Rights of the Child.
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
- Angola’s
initial report on the implementation of the Convention (CRC/C/3/Add.66) took a
rather detailed approach to the aforementioned
article 28 of the Constitutional
Law, and well as articles 1 and 2 of Law No. 68/76.
- Adulthood
in Angola is reached at 18 years of age, unless it is reached earlier under the
law applicable to children, the age when
individuals acquire their full capacity
to exercise their rights and are authorized to govern their person and dispose
of their property,
with the exception of those who are legally deprived of
political rights. They are entitled to and are required to participate actively
in public activities, vote and be elected or appointed to any governmental
organization.
- Other
statutory provisions that deal with the understanding of the concept of a child
are included in Law 9/96 on the Court for Minors,
the Civil Code (arts. 66, 69,
123, 124, 125 and 127), the Family Code (art. 24), the Code of Civil Procedure
(art. 617), and the
Penal Code (arts. 68, 69, 108, 109 and
399).
- The
precepts of these laws that apply to children and others that stem from the
legislative reform now underway are the result of
the specific features of the
country and the necessity to harmonize them with the provisions of the
Convention on the Rights of the
Child, its optional memoranda, and other
international legal instruments.
IV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. Non-discrimination
- Article
18 of the CL, in harmony with article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, establishes the right to equality and
non-discrimination as fundamental
principles of the democratic State. It further establishes that the law severely
punishes all acts
that seek to undermine social harmony or create discrimination
and privileges based on these factors.
- This
constitutional standard covers all children, including disabled children.
Disability is not a condition that limits the rights
of any child, whether the
child belongs to a minority group or not.
- There
are special programmes to serve disabled children that are considered
discriminatory because they are intended only for children
with those
disabilities that are important because they are instruments used to provide
special attention based on educational and
teaching needs, especially at the
beginning levels. However, children that belong to the Khoi-San communities are
normally integrated
into society and are eligible for the current educational
and teaching system in the country and other community and social activities,
such as recreational, sporting, cultural and other activities.
- The
Durban Declaration and Action Programme adopted at the World Conference against
Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held
in 2001, have not yet been
adopted by Angola. They are on the list of international treaties to be approved
by Parliament in the
near future. In any event, their provisions are dealt with
by national legislation.
- As
time goes by, the efforts made by the Government and society are increasingly
obvious and are visible signs of the return of the
framework that is gradually
benefiting children from disadvantaged or vulnerable families in communities in
semi-urban and rural
areas, as well as minorities, providing access to basic
social services.
B. Best interests of the child
- Article
30 of the CL establishes the principle of absolute priority for children. Such a
principle has various constitutional implications
for legislators and the
institutions.
- Therefore,
the enjoyment of “special protection for the family, the State and
society, for the purpose of their full development,”
is provided for in
articles 30, No. 1 of the CL, and 4 of the Family Code; both make reference to
the fact that “children deserve
special attention inside the family; in
cooperation with the Government, it is incumbent on the family to provide them
with greater
protection.”
- According
to article 158, No. 1 of the Family Code, for matters related to the exercise of
paternal authority, “the Court must
take the necessary measures to protect
the minor.” According to article 160, the Court must always keep the
minor’s benefit
and interest in mind” when it renders its
decision.
- Thus,
the supreme interest of the child is reflected in the aforementioned rule of
absolute priority of the child, combined with the
other constitutional
principles and norms that protect the rights and supreme interests of the
child.
- It
is the responsibility of the family, guardians or persons who have custody or
care of children to decide what is best for them
and always keep their supreme
interests at heart, since children are not mature and cannot decide on their own
what is best for them.
This specific right of the child merited considerable
attention from the governmental bodies in the protection and assistance
programmes
developed by public institutions, namely the SOS At-Risk Children
Program or activities that involve counselling, reconciliation
and mediation
that are carried out by the MINFAMU, INAC and the Organization of Angolan Women
(Organização da Mulher
Angolana).
- The
INAC checks children that are leaving the country in coordination with the
Immigration and Alien Service (SME) in an effort to
prevent trafficking and
forced and illegal departures.
C. The right to life, survival and development
- There
have been no changes in Angolan legislation on the most sacred right of survival
and development. In this regard, the initial
report (CRC/C/3/Add.66) provided
substantial information on the establishment of the CL which, in article (22),
provides that the
law protects the life of each citizen, and that the State
respects and protects the life of human beings and prohibits the death
penalty.
- Article
358 of the Penal Code prohibits abortion as a guarantee of survival and
protection for a developing human being. However,
the control mechanisms for
this statutory provision are taken included in the new proposed Penal Code as
part of the legislative
reform underway in the country.
- In
various ways the State has promoted the harmonious development of the
child’s personality and/or has created conditions to
integrate children
and have them participate in the activities of society and in cooperation with
the family and society, which is
in response to the aforementioned articles 30
and 31 of the CL.
- To
strengthen the right to survival and development, various measures have been
taken that are of an essentially administrative nature;
they are paradigmatic
examples of the projects and programmes mentioned in the last part of Chapter II
– General Measures for
Implementing the Convention.
D. Respect for the views of the child
- The
right to freedom of speech is guaranteed in article 32 of the CL. This right may
be limited by law according to No. 2 of the aforementioned
precept. In the
specific case of minors, the law expressly establishes some rights.
- According
to No. 3 of article 158 of the Family Code, the Court is required to hear a
minor who has reached age ten in cases related
to them that pertain to the
exercise of paternal authority:
- (a) Testify as
a witness or declarant in civil or criminal matters upon reaching age
seven;
- (b) File
complaints for offenses against sexual self-determination (legally called
offenses against honesty);
- (c) Consent to
adoption upon reaching age ten;
- (d) Speak to
express their opinion about processes of instituting guardanship upon reaching
age ten;
- (e) Speak and
express opinions on exercising the right to assemble and demonstrate, with the
constitutional proviso on the exercise
of political rights;
- (f) Be heard
about social protection, criminal prevention and criminal proceedings;
- (g) Choose an
attorney to defend their rights and interests upon reaching age 16.
- (h) In addition
to this statutory framework of exercising the right to freedom of speech,
children may freely express their opinions,
not only in the family environment,
but also in boarding and educational institutions and/or in social communication
environments
as well as their own venues that the government has dedicated to
their right of participation. With the capacity-building of networks
that
address children’s rights, communities have worked with the networks on
awareness-raising campaigns for adults through
theatrical skits and lectures in
national languages to change traditional attitudes to respect viewpoints on all
issues to which
they pertain.
Venues for children’s participation
- Article
12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “Member
States shall ensure that children are able to make
their own judgments and they
are entitled to express their opinions freely about all issues related to
childhood, taking these opinions
into consideration based on the child’s
age and maturity.” This statement is the source of inspiration for
creating conditions
so that Angolan children have a venue where they can
participate in the family, school, institutions and the
community.
- The
experience of the Children’s Parliament in 2000, which led to holding
assemblies in schools, in the community and at the
provincial level, made it
possible to create provincial and national circles of child deputies. However,
at one point there were
problems, because the children reached legal age and it
was not possible to continue the activities. However, efforts are being made
to
devise a solution.
- In
the absence of the Children’s Parliament, other venues have been
encouraged on issues specific to children.
- As
in past years, Children’s Day was held during the period, preceded by a
series of programmes, the highlight of which were
children’s meetings in
schools and in the communities, where they discussed issues related to violence
against children. Their
complaints and suggestions were incorporated into the
set of themes discussed at length during the Third National Forum on the Child,
which was the high point of the Day, resulting in important recommendations for
a national strategy to prevent and mitigate violence
against children.
- The
national awareness campaign for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including
the matter of HIV and AIDS, “Defending Life
by Learning about AIDS,”
was carried out by the MED in cooperation with UNICEF and other government
agencies, namely the MINJUD
and the INAC, in 2006, and became a genuine venue
for children’s participation for the 16-to-18 age group.
- Along
those same lines, the Ministry of Youth and Sports created the Friends of Youth
Services as part of the “Informed, Responsible
and Organized Youth
Project” (Juventude Informada Responsável e Organizada - JIRO),
developed in a partnership between
the government and the UNFPA. This programme,
which deals with family orientation matters, reproductive health and hygiene,
with
child participation and with technical support from the National AIDS
Institute, launched the HIV/AIDS awareness programme and youth
in free time, and
aims to raise the level of knowledge among children in the 15-to-18 age
group.
- There
are other participation venues in the Social Communication organization, where
children carry out child journalism activities,
producing programmes by children
for children and for adults, where they broadcast information and messages that
promote the realization
of their rights.
- Based
on the Convention version of “Friend of the Child,” published
by UNICEF, the INAC prepared a guide to enable children to hold meetings, giving
them venues for participation so they could
contribute their opinions to the
report preparation process and, consequently, to solving their problems,
allowing them to exercise
the right to express opinions and
viewpoints.
- The
National Pioneers Meeting[11] was
held in Luanda from 29 November to 1 December 2007, before the Municipal and
Provincial Meetings. This was an highly visible
event with notable references,
and its suggestions and opinions deserve to be treated appropriately by the
respective governmental
organizations.
V. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
A.
Name and nationality
- The
composition of names is expressed in Point 1 of Law No. 10/85 of 19 October, by
the People’s Assembly. Point 1 establishes
that the complete name shall be
composed of no more than five simple grammatical words, only two of which can be
the first name and
the remaining ones are the last name; Point 3 provides that
the first names or at least one of the first names must be national;
Point 4
states that first names in a foreign language are accepted in their original or
adapted form; Point 5 provides that last
names are mandatory and shall be
selected by the family member – paternal, maternal – of the
registrant’s progenitors.
If the registrant’s progenitors do not
have a last name, it will be chosen by the declarant, preferably with the civil
servant
before whom the declaration was made.
- Upon
registration a personal booklet is issued. This is the document that certifies
that the registration occurred in an Office of
the Civil Registrar. At the time
of registration, this document provides access to acquire the Identification
Card which is issued
by an identification office that identifies the registrant
as a national citizen and contains the necessary references about the
registrant’s name (chosen by the parents because of the minor’s
incapacity) and those of their ascendants, and the place
and date of birth.
Through this set of procedures the identity of the citizens is preserved, and in
particular the identity of children.
- The
Family Code establishes that a relationship is proven by an instrument recorded
by the office of the civil registry (art. 162).
In any case, the establishment
of maternity is based on the birth certificate (art. 167). The right to
establish relationship is
recognized for all citizens, and paternal authority
will be exercised by the progenitors that are to contribute to raising,
instructing,
training, and educatiing the children.
- Law
1/05 of 1 July establishes the conditions for awarding, acquiring, losing and
reacquiring Angolan citizenship. This law provides
that awarding Angolan
citizenship takes effect at birth (art. 4). The Council of Ministers has
jurisdiction to evaluate and make
decisions on all matters pertaining to the
acquisition, reacquisition and loss of citizenship when the National Assembly
does not
have this jurisdiction (art. 8).
- Angolan
citizenship may be by birth or may be acquired. According to the aforementioned
law, a person is an Angolan citizen by birth
when his or her father or mother is
an Angolan citizen who was born in Angola, as is the child of a father or mother
with Angolan
citizenship who was born abroad (art. 9).
- Moreover,
note is made of the law that a newborn is a citizen of Angola who is in Angolan
territory unless proven otherwise (art.
9, No. 2).
- Angolan
citizenship may be awarded to a minor or incapacitated child of a father or
mother who acquires Angolan citizenship, and this
child may opt for different
citizenship upon reaching legal age.
- Moreover,
children born in Angolan territory who have no other citizenshipo may acquire
Angolan citizenship, as well as children born
in Angolan territory of unknown
parents, parents of unknown citizenship, or stateless parents.
- Minor
children of Angolan nationals who are born abroad lose their citizenship and,
since they also have another citzenship, if upon
reaching legal age they claim
that they are not Angolan, they also lose their citizenship. This is also true
for children completely
adopted by foreign citizens if, upon reaching legal age,
they claim that there are not Angolans.
- Refugee
children are protected by the State as part of the treatment for their parents,
family members, or persons who have assumed
responsibility for them. Their
nationality, declared by these persons and proven using means specific to the
special programmes that
deal with these matters, is preserved, taking
international refugee registry standards into account. Likewise, the same holds
for
families in a state of asylum.
Birth registration
- The
implementation of Decree Law No. 2/07, which establishes the framework for the
duties, competencies and legal system for the organization
and operation of the
provincial governments in the context of deconcentration, as well as the
administrative strategic decentralization
plan, have accelerated the resulting
application of Decree No. 31/07 of 14 May of the Council of Ministers. This
exempts all children
between 0 and five years old from paying fees and gives the
Identification Card to children from 8 to 11 years old. It also creates
conditions that ensure that registration services work with the hospitals,
maternity centres and mother-child centres as well as
other centres that perform
deliveries, and in the municipal and communal governments, and expands the
system to the communities so
that all children are eligible for this
right.
- We
point out the work of information, awareness and mobilization in the urban,
semi-urban and rural communities by teams led by the
INAC that involve
institutions and entities that include the networks that protect and promote
children’s rights at the provincial,
municipal and local levels for the
purpose of understanding the measures provided for in Decree
31/07.
- The
allocation of domestic financial resources has strengthened the national birth
registry system so that more children can be registered
and have a national
identification document. Nonetheless, the fact that there are no obstacles for
children to access health services
should be noted.
B. Preservation of identity
- The
Ministry of Culture, through its two specialized agencies, carries out a set of
programmes that seek to preserve national culture
and identity. As part of its
duties the National Cultural Programs Division (Direcção Nacional
de Acção
Cultural –
DNAC)[12] has been working to
involve children in the celebration of the Children’s Carnival, and is
performing studies for creating
cultural programme centres in the schools, to
include students, teachers and educators, in order to carry out artistic and
cultural
as well as technical and scientific programmes to ensure that children
are involved in the different artistic events, thereby contributing
to their
well-rounded training.
- On
12 October 2005, the DNAC and the Agostinho Neto Pioneers Organization (OPA)
initialed a Cultural Cooperation agreement to be in
effect for five years. Its
objectives are to jointly promote cultural and recreational activities and/or
events and to pass on the
habits and customs of the peoples of Angola to
children. Some of the scheduled activities are the National Children’s
Songfest,
the Children’s Carnival, literary and theatrical arts contests,
guided visits to monuments, sites, museums and other venues
of historic
interest.
C. Freedom of speech
- Article
32 of the Constitutional Law guarantees the freedoms of speech, assembly and
demonstration. This fundamental right is protected
by several statutes, namely
the Family Code and the Court for Minors Act (Law 9/96 of April 19). In general
terms, they establish
the right of minors who have reached age ten to be heard
in courts in matters that pertain to them. The basic elements of these statutory
provisions are in harmony with the Convention.
- To
protect children from violence and commercial exploitation in advertising and to
prohibit the media from disclosing personal details
and photographs of child
victims or offenders, training and retraining courses are periodically held for
journalists from private
and government entities.
- Training
and technical-scientific and ethical-professional conduct training programmes as
well as other information processes for
social communication professionals have
been developed to protect the rights and dignity of the child.
- The
training cycle indicators are rather positive indicators for protecting the
rights of the child, with a significant increase in
child participation in the
information entities, also benefiting from journalistic training, with a
significant number of child journalists
throughout the country.
- In
an effort to promote and stimulate freedom of speech in children, the
institutions of the State, Government and civil society created
forums where
they are able to freely express what they feel and think; these include
meetings, assemblies and lectures where they
speak freely, discussing topics
related to their rights, peace, the conservation of nature, national culture,
sports, and solidarity,
and matters related to social conduct and civic pride,
citizenship, morals, and the quality of education and health.
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- Article
8 of the Constitutional Law defines the Republic of Angola as a secular State,
with separation of church and State. The protection
and respect of all religious
expressions, places and objects of worship are guaranteed provided that they
obey the laws of the State,
namely Law No. 2/04 of 21 May on the Exercise of
Freedom of Conscience of Worship and Religion. In accordance with article 20 of
the Constitutional Law, the State respects and protects persons and human
dignity and provides that every citizen has the right to
the free development of
their personality provided that they duly respect the rights of
others.
- Without
instrumentalization, the family relationship determines through rules that
children practice the parents’ religion,
since from early on in their
lives they live with their parents and share in their social activities.
- As
a recommendation of the Third National Forum on Children, to ensure the
sustainability of policies for children, the Action Plan
is now being prepared.
This Action Plan includes the promotion of advocacy and social mobilization, for
the purpose of protection
from advertising and prohibiting the media from
disclosing personal details and photographs of child victims or offenders,
ensuring
respect for them and their dignity.
- It
has been observed that the media are now protecting children’s privacy and
dignity in journalistic matters, avoiding mentioning
names and exposing them
without protection when they report any act in which children are involved.
- Since
the Republic of Angola is a secular State, it does not interfere with the
freedom of its citizens to adopt any religious creed.
This is due to the fact
that all the faiths that apply, under the terms of the law, obtain a license to
establish their church in
Angola, taking into account, in a certain way, matters
of national interest, namely places of worship, the relationship between the
public and the authorities, including and in particular aspects that may violate
children’s rights.
G. Freedom of association and to hold peaceful
meetings
- The
purpose of the Scouts Association of Angola, the Organization of Pioneers of
Angola and others that are national and local in
scope is social solidarity,
civic education and philanthropy. This concretizes the establishment in the
Constitutional Law and Law
No. 16/91 of the freedom of expression, assembly,
demonstration and association and all other forms of expression in public and
private
places. For purposes that do not conflict with the law, public morals,
order and tranquility and the rights of individuals and groups,
a right is
granted to all citizens, including minors who are not yet 18, whenever the
nature of the association justifies doing so,
since minors under 16 years old
are not permitted to serve in managerial positions.
- However,
the suggestion expressed in the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.66) on the necessity
to include in the law the guarantees of
the effective exercise of these rights
that children are recognized to have, is being protected as part of the
legislative reform
that is underway.
F. Protection of privacy
- The
inviolability of domicile and non-disclosure of correspondence, within the
limits specially provided for in article 44 of the
Constitutional Law, has State
guarantees. Article 43 of the same Law gives the citizens the right to go
through the courts to challenge
all acts that violate their rights as
established in the Constitution.
- As
citizens, children are guaranteed privacy based on the interpretation of the
statutory provisions referred to in the previous paragraph
and other
legislation, namely the Civil, Penal and Family Codes and the Civil Registry. In
addition to the statutory mechanisms for
protecting the child’s privacy,
the State has strengthened the role of the family through community education
programmes, the
expansion of micro-lending, leadership training to guarantee
support and protection for the child, as well as the discharge and preservation
of cultural and traditional values and the dissemination of the Convention and
African Charter.
G. Access to relevant information
- The
mechanisms of access to sources of information with respect to the information
that affects citizen privacy, and particularly
the privacy of children, were
established in the Media Act.
- Programmes
that broadcast news and local radio stations in national languages have also
facilitated the child’s access to information
through lectures and
debates, awareness and social mobilization.
- The
right to not be subjected to torture and other
cruel,
inhumane or degrading treatment
- Integrating
the population is a challenge due to the effects of over 30 years of armed
conflict, whose principle protagonists were
children, many of whom lost one or
both parents. They find themselves required to move, seeking safety in other
localities and supporting
the youngest, and they become involved in different
types of child labor and many families are unable to provide for their
subsistence.
- The
result of this and other situations, characterized by a significant number of
children expelled from the family environment, and
reports of children accused
of practicing sorcery, led the INAC, in carrying out its advocacy function, to
conduct a preliminary
study in the provinces and localities where this was most
apparent.
- From
the preliminary findings and with a view to strengthening Peace and
Reconciliation in the Country, the INAC, with UNICEF support,
completed in 2006
and published on June 16, 2007, the study on the impact of Accusations of
Sorcery against children in Angola, which
seeks to protect human
rights.
- The
Networks for the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of the Child, as a forum
for coordination and dialogue between the communities
and the authorities in
which adolescents participate as representatives of the child, generated the
fundamental objective of responding
to the accusations of sorcery against
children, and today they are working with all child protection
issues.
- The
link with the provincial courts makes it possible to carry out supervisory
programmes and measures for the social protection of
children in cases of
violence and abandonment.
- To
discourage society from practices that treat children cruelly, it is the Office
of the Prosecutor that can order detention while
awaiting trial, conduct
pre-trial investigations in criminal matters, cooperate in investigating cases
intended to verify violations,
and report them to the criminal fact-finding and
investigation authorities for criminal proceedings. They are brought to justice,
duly tried and sentenced to prison and families of victims and prosecutors feel
that justice is served.
- The
implementation of services to protect and assist victims is also in progress for
temporary shelter, medical and psycho-social
services, such as the
government’s response to protect the child, including training and
retraining for professionals that
work with children.
- The
torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that was being inflicted on
children in Angola ceased with the end of the armed
conflict. However, accusing
children of practicing sorcery generated a wave of violence against them, first
in the northern provinces
of Zaire, Uíge and Luanda, followed shortly
thereafter by the entire country, with consequences that have occasionally been
tragic.
- The
study of the Impact of Accusations of Sorcery against Children in Angola
analyses the symbolic case and double victimization and
states: “... the
majority of children accused of sorcery are rejected by the family for various
reasons. Frequently, these
children are in a vulnerable situation because some
have lost their parents, have fallen ill, have been abandoned, etc. At the time
they are accused, many of these children have already experienced a violation of
their fundamental rights, namely violence, mistreatment
and abandonment, which
are the frequent consequences of the accusations as elements that constitute a
symbolic case of the violation
of human rights, because these accusations are
directed against some of the most vulnerable persons in the communities and
families,
because they involve extremely serious forms of violence punishable by
the law, and because they almost irreversibly jeopardize the
future of children
of all ages...”.
- The
study of the factors that protect or increase the risk of children being accused
of sorcery found:
- (a) Risk
factors – being an orphan; separation from the mother; not being in the
education system; suffering from tuberculosis,
epilepsy, enuresis or other
diseases; belonging to families that have no access to health services;
belonging to families that attend
churches that validate the accusations;
belonging to families in stressful situations, with economic difficulties, and
poor health;
belonging to nuclear families that are separated due to a move or
migration; and destruction of the extended family support network.
- (b) Protection
factors – families and communities that have knowledge of the
manifestations of the different stages of the child’s
psycho-emotional
development; extended families that serve as support networks, giving shelter to
orphaned children and integrating
them; the existence of Committees/Networks to
protect and promote the rights of the child in the communities and provinces;
children’s
access to and remaining in school; the existence of support
programmes for children that are not in the school system; and the availability
of support and assistance for vulnerable families.
- In
the MED teacher training and qualification programme, subjects are taught that
are related to the protection and promotion of children’s
rights, sharing
ideas to eliminate negative customary practices, hazardous or violent traditions
used to discipline children as an
excuse to violate their rights. The programme
seeks to:
- (a) Concentrate
efforts to make schools safe and comfortable, protecting the pupils and students
from all forms of violence;
- (b) Organize
advocacy and mobilization campaigns that contribute to improving child
performance and results in general, and in particular
for schoolgirls and in
tertiary institutions;
- (c) Systematically
disseminate the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the schools; and
- (d) Hold
lectures on the problem of violence against children in the schools, providing
information that strengthens respect for the
child and dignity, involving
teachers, parents, educators, administrative workers, students and the
community.
- The
training programme for child specialists who work in hosting institutions warns
against the use and practice of violent methods.
The supervisory team that
operates in these institutions strengthens control and the ban on acts of
violence through monthly inspections.
However, the policies identified to
empower families to take better care of children include standards for
preventing the use of
violent methods.
- The
fact that there is no well organized system to detect, report and collect
reliable data on acts of torture, cruel and other treatment
to which many
children are subject and that occur in the family and institutional environment
(schools, children’s centres,
police departments and elsewhere) and in the
community environment (the street, entertainment venues, groups, etc.), makes it
impossible
to grasp the scope of these practices, and it is up to the government
to devise a strategy to prevent and mitigate violence against
children.
VI. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
A. Parental management and orientation
- The
concept of the family is understood in different ways in Angola, including the
nuclear and extended family. In most of the ethnic
groups, families are
organized according to structures of lineage or class. Parents consider their
biological children to be their
children, but they also include their nephews
and nieces as their children as well. They show goodwill toward them if their
real
parents die or become unable to carry out their paternal role.
- However,
the Family Code has placed great importance on this, defining the family as the
fundamental nucleus of the organization of
society and, as such, subject to
government protection, Angolan families live in an environment of social
instability, economic and
psychosocial disintegration, depression and
frustration, and widespread violence as a consequence of the prolonged armed
conflict,
an environment in which parents raise their children without emotional
stability.
B. Parental responsibilities
- In
an effort to build family capacities, the MINFAMU created family counselling
services and is carrying out gender-related activities.
- The
objective of the Family Counseling Program is to establish a climate of dialogue
to prevent and lessen domestic violence, hold
mediation and provide legal
referrals, including for matters related to the failure to assume paternal
responsibility and to assist
children. In addition to this programme,
counselling services are also provided by the INAC, the Organization of Angolan
Women (OMA),
and the Association of Women Lawyers (AMJ).
- The
promotion and guarantee of the full protection and education of children is the
family’s responsibility. The family must
live together directly with the
children and provide total physical and moral protection for them with the
special cooperation of
the government, which the law charges with creating the
necessary conditions. There have been few legislative changes in this area,
so
that the provisions established by articles 29 and 30 of the CL continue in
effect.
- The
National Family Council is a collegial body that consists of various
participants from the government and civil society. Its objective
is to analyse
the family situation and prepare policy proposals with the purpose of improving
family responsibilities.
- The
neglect that causes many children not to attend school due to the lack of health
care, clothing, footwear and food, the abandonment
that removes children from
the family environment, denial of paternity, which increases significantly the
number of women that head
families, and the high incidence of early pregnancies
and promiscuity, are evidence of the high degree of failure by progenitors
to
assume paternal responsibility, and this fact is of concern to society in
general and to the State in particular.
C. Separation of parents
- The
National Family Tracing and Reunification Program (PNLRF), adjusted to the
current context, works with and takes care of all children
who are separated
from their parents and are deprived of care, and who, voluntarily or
involuntarily, find themselves outside the
family environment. However, other
initiatives have been tested to develop in children the dignity they deserve,
placing them in
the family or in a foster family, and avoiding
institutionalization to the extent possible.
- Article
134, No. 2 (a) and (b) is a provision of the Family Code that establishes that
parental authority is extinguished only by
the death of the progenitor or by
adoption. The de facto separation of parents does not extinguish ownership of
the parents’
right to paternal authority. They continue to possess the
rights that are given to them as a result of the existing relationship,
which
continues in effect to correspond to the reality of the
country.
- For
progenitors that do not have custody of the child in the event of separation,
the law protects their position by providing that
despite the fact that the
exercise of paternal authority is not awarded, the progenitor retains the right
to a personal relationship
with the child and must participate in their
schooling and upbringing and support the exercise of paternal authority by the
other
parent; this provision has guided the counselling services of the MINFAMU,
INAC, OMA and AMJ.
- However,
there are still countless families that have no structure. In most, paternal
authority over the children is exercised by
one of the progenitors or by another
family member.
D. Children deprived of their family environment
- According
to the basic MICS indicators, about one-third (32 per cent) of all children
between 0 and 14 years old are not living with
both of their parents. Children
who live with neither of their biological parents are six times more likely to
live only with the
mother, which is consistent with the 27 per cent of Angolan
woman who are the heads of households. The percentage of children not
living
with their biological family does not vary between rural and urban areas.
Moreover, slight variations have been recorded between
regions: eight per cent
in the national capital region and 11 per cent in the west and centre-south
region. Significantly, children
between age 10 and 14 are 27 per cent less
likely to live with both parents than children in the younger category (0 to 4).
- About
ten per cent of children do not live with both parents. Roughly half of these
children (6 per cent) live with host families,
even though the father and mother
are alive. These indicators continue to demonstrate the socioeconomic
difficulties in households
that are unable to provide care for their dependent
children.
E. Family reunification
- The
vast majority of children that were separated from their families because of the
armed conflict have now been reunited with their
biological families or placed
in foster families through community alternative projects, thereby avoiding
institutionalization.
- The
PNLRF locates the parents or other closer family members and identifies families
that meet the requirements to care for children.
It creates conditions and
reunites children with their parents, placing them in foster families and
provides support where the child
is reintegrated or placed.
- Temporary
family custody (mother guardians or rapid response units), services in the home
(for cases that are demonstrably without
families and with no possibilities of
reintegration or placement in a family); alternative services (mother guardians
and milk and
baby food), is another programme component that serves children
under two years old with the objective of avoiding the institutionalization
of
this group of children by providing them with a family environment and
contributing to reducing the level of infant mortality.
- For
demonstrable cases of children without families or other families that can be
traced, there are managed self-construction and
vocational training programmes
that provide safe shelter for them and insert them into the community and the
job market.
- The
number of institutions is being gradually and selectively reduced to discourage
institutionalization and consequently, the voluntary
separation of children from
their families. At the same time, the conditions are being created to provide
more dignified service
for the others in detention and part-time detention
facilities that will soon be built, as well as for children that do not have
biological families or the possibility of being placed in foster families. An
effort is also being made to improve the living conditions
of foster families
and guardian mothers, giving them basic shopping baskets and monetary
grants.
- There
are also programmes for counselling, psycho-social rehabilitation and social and
family reintegration of children that are victims
of acts of violence. They are
given vocational training with courses in cooking, manicure/pedicure,
electricity, shoemaking, information
technology, locks, mechanics, child care
and others (these are other alternatives for providing care for this group of
children).
- The
survey performed in the major population centres showed that there are some
institutions in which there are children that have
no biological family and that
it was not possible to place them in foster families. Consequently, a national
team was created to
supervise and monitor these institutions, and the Government
is working to locate their families and identify foster families that
have the
wherewithal to care for them. When this is not possible, the Government is
planning to build and outfit five regional and
ten provincial boarding centres,
with programmes for recovery, education and reintegration into society in a
dignified manner without
discrimination in the context of social
partnerships.
Resources that became available during the
period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated in absolute terms and percentages, per
year
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Family tracing and reunification
|
87,347,785.00
|
0.01
|
|
|
|
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Social resettlement of persons and families
|
|
|
9,236,508,571. 00
|
0.37
|
11,027,254,723. 00
|
0.51
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
- In
an effort to understand the underlying causes of why this continues, studies
were conducted on voluntary separation and on street
children. The results
pointed to the financial conditions of families and the dislocation of children
from their areas of origin
as factors.
F. Illegal dislocation and retention
- To
prevent child trafficking, the Migration and Alien Division of the MININT
strengthened controls at all the airports, ports, border
posts and venues where
many aliens are found in order to prevent this and the dislocation of minors to
places outside the country.
It also strengthened the mandatory requirement of
complying with the terms of responsibility by accompanying persons and
completing
forms for minors. In addition to this measure, an INAC document is
required that certifies the legality of the departure of children
in question.
- In
this context, the criminal investigative bodies carry out special training
programmes for the National Police, since they work
directly in the control,
detention and investigation of crimes of this type, so that performance is
according to the provisions of
the national legislation and international legal
instruments.
- According
to studies performed by the ECCAS and ECOWAS, the trafficking follows routes
such as: origin (countries or departure points
for children who are victims of
trafficking to a domestic or international destination); transit
(countries, locations or points through which the traffickers and victims
pass temporarily for geographic or logistical reasons);
and destination
(countries and arrival points in the traffic flow).
- The
lack of systematized information and the country’s current context make it
impossible to determine Angola’s status.
This objective situation means
that the authorities that protect and promote children’s rights consider
the situation extremely
troublesome, and it should be the focus of attention for
policies and programmes for children.
- Trafficking
is associated with sexual abuse and exploitation. It is one of the worst types
of child labor. As such, it is one of the
principal manifestations of violence
against children in Angola at this time. The action plan with national, regional
and provincial
activities being carried out in the Santa Clara regions in Cunene
province, in Matala in Huíla province, and at the central
level, has
produced remarkable results in preventing child trafficking. It is an experience
that involves major departments of the
Government, social partnerships and
traditional authorities, and should be used to advantage to identify national
strategies to protect
and promote the rights of the child.
- The
Child Rights Protection and Promotion Networks are now in the creation phase and
are being strengthened and expanded at the national,
provincial and local level.
They are in part the result of this experience and seek to make a contribution
to preventing and mitigating
this phenomenon.
- Zaire
province has reported obvious cases of kidnapping and child trafficking with
unacknowledged objectives, reported many times
to the provincial authorities. In
coordination with the INAC and the Child Rights Protection and Promotion
Networks, the National
Police based at the border posts and in Mbanza Kongo has
taken prevention and intervention measures that have prevented unaccompanied
or
improperly accompanied children from entering or leaving Angola via the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose authorities maintain
cooperation
relations with the Angolan authorities. Prevention and interventions have
recovered many Angolan and Congolese children
and have reunited them with their
respective families.
- Even
so, the situation is still troublesome. Because of the vast border, control is
quite difficult, so that measures are being taken
to attempt to decrease the
flows of people at points where they can cross the border without police
control. However, in general,
Angolan children are taken from the capital city
of the country and Congolese children are taken from Kinshasa.
- The
chart below shows some cases that were reported and monitored in the 2004-2007
period.
EVOLUTION OF THE SITUATION
|
EVENT
|
NUMBER OF CHILDREN
|
PUNISHMENT FOR THE PERPETRA-TOR
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2004/2007
|
M
|
F
|
MF
|
M
|
F
|
MF
|
M
|
F
|
MF
|
M
|
F
|
MF
|
M
|
F
|
MF
|
- Kidnapped
from Angola and trafficked into the DRC. (a) Recoveries by the SME and NP and
taken to the Mbanza residential service centre
Kongo Angola
(b) Recovered by the Rights Protection and Promotion Network and taken
to Luanda where they are returned to their families
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trafficker held by the NP in Mbanza Congo
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
|
Traffickers not identified
|
- Kidnapped
and prevented from being taken from the city of Mbanza Kongo or to the
border.
(a) Reunited with their respective families
(b) Reunited with families
(b) Housed at Centro Santa
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trafficker detained by the NP in Mbanza Congo
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
|
5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Traffickers not identified
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
|
|
Trafficker died suddenly
|
(c) Housed at Centro Santa
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
|
Trafficker detained by the NP
|
- Kidnapped
from the DRC and prevented from being taken to the city of Mbanza Kongo or to
the border.
(a) Taken to their country of origin (DRC) by the
SME
(b) Taken to their country of origin (DRC) by the INAC and delivered to
their family
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9
|
|
9
|
|
|
|
Traffickers not identified
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
|
Traffickers not identified
|
(c) Boarded at Centro Santa
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
|
|
Traffickers held by the NP
|
(d) Housed at Centro Santa
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4
|
|
4
|
|
|
|
Traffickers held by the NP
|
TOTAL
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- The
INAC outlined a Strategy to Prevent and Mitigate Violence against Children, now
in the consolidation and approval phase, to deal
with this problem, which is
reaching somewhat troublesome levels. One of the manifestations of violence is
trafficking, which is
not defined in the national legislation, which is why the
prevention and mitigation work requires the preparation of a series of
research
activities, as well as a situational analysis, legislative reform, social
mobilization, monitoring and evaluation, training,
capacity-building and other
alternative measures, with the involvement of all the social stakeholders, the
communities, families
and the children themselves.
G. Support payments
- To
comply with the recommendations and commitments of the Third National Forum on
Children, a cycle of seminars were held at the national
level, covering the
provinces of Benguela, Luanda, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Moxico, for social
awareness and capacity-building
of managers in view of the necessity of revising
and updating Law No. 7/05 and Decrees 38/98 of 6 November and 46-C/92 of 9
September
on the family allowance, the law on support which strengthens the
progenitors’ responsibility with regard to the requirement
of supporting
their children.
- The
initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.66), referring to articles 247, 250, and 259 of the
Family Code, mentions that the definition of support
covers everything that its
necessary to sustain the life of the person being supported (a minor), including
health, education and
other costs related to a child’s
well-being.
- According
to paragraph (g) of article 18 of Law 7/05 of 15 October, regulated by Decrees
50 and 52/05 of 8 August, the breastfeeding
grant is a benefit intended to
offset family expenses for a deceased worker for the loss of income from work.
The Government has
a support system for descendents of the beneficiary for the
first year of life and the survival payment is temporary and covers children
from age 0 to 18.
- Of
the 66,598 persons receiving support from the social security system, roughly
40,000 are children covered by the family allowance,
breastfeeding grants and
survival payments. Even with this, efforts are being made to expand the base of
the impact on and coverage
of the target groups.
H. Abuse and neglect
- In
the context of administrative measures, the General National Police Command, by
Order No. 242 of 11 October , created the Violence
against Women and Children
Unit in the National Criminal Investigation Division for the purpose of paying
more attention to the cases
of violence that frequently occur in families and in
the community, and in 2006, through the Provincial Commands of the National
Police, the School Brigades and Police Divisions, to monitor and provide care
for minors, both in teaching institutions and in the
families.
- The
victims and perpetrators units of the MININT give children who are victims of
physical or psychological violence the opportunity
to file reports that are
forwarded to the Prevention and Juvenile Delinquency Departments, the School
Police, the Violence against
Women and Children Unit and/or to the Court for
Minors. Based on the case, the corresponding measures that are provided for by
the
law are taken. With regard to caring for victims, the Psychology Section was
created in the National Criminal Investigation Department,
and it includes
clinical and criminal psychologists.
- Included
in the awareness campaigns to fight violence against children, the INAC promoted
and held annual workshops, seminars, debates
and lectures with 24,732
participants, 63 per cent of whom were children, in an effort to educate the
public on the negative consequences
of the mistreated.
Public education activities by province and by
year
|
Topics
|
No.
|
Province
|
Number of activities
|
-
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
Total
|
- Children’s rights
- Violence against children
- Right to quality education
- Impact of HIV/AIDS
- Juvenile delinquency
- Early pregnancy
- Prevention of infectious diseases
- Preservation of the environment
- Child labor
- Protecting the child against danger
- Importance of the family in the child’s life
- - At-risk
children
- - Sexual
exploitation
- - Child
trafficking and its consequences
- Neglect, abuse, violence against children
- - Instrumentalization
of children
|
1
|
Luanda
|
231
|
243
|
156
|
630
|
2
|
Kuanza Sul
|
120
|
230
|
135
|
485
|
3
|
Moxico
|
93
|
101
|
106
|
300
|
4
|
Bié
|
30
|
97
|
270
|
397
|
5
|
Cabinda
|
67
|
189
|
302
|
558
|
6
|
Huambo
|
271
|
87
|
113
|
471
|
7
|
Uíge
|
10
|
98
|
125
|
233
|
8
|
Bengo
|
30
|
67
|
93
|
190
|
9
|
Kuando Kubango
|
23
|
71
|
109
|
203
|
10
|
Kuanza Norte
|
37
|
124
|
83
|
244
|
11
|
Namibe
|
106
|
97
|
201
|
404
|
12
|
Zaire
|
128
|
270
|
285
|
683
|
13
|
Lunda Sul
|
39
|
23
|
78
|
140
|
14
|
Lunda Norte
|
10
|
73
|
67
|
150
|
15
|
Cunene
|
21
|
10
|
35
|
66
|
16
|
Huíla
|
210
|
121
|
243
|
574
|
17
|
Malanje
|
12
|
37
|
76
|
125
|
18
|
Benguela
|
132
|
204
|
137
|
473
|
Total activities
|
1,570
|
2,142
|
2,614
|
6,326
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- For
reports and complaints, the INAC created public service areas where it provides
counselling, conciliation and mediation for cases
of neglect, non-compliance
with parental obligations, failure to provide support and misunderstandings of
the progenitors, situations
that breach children’s rights. Other cases are
sent to the institutions with jurisdiction, such as the Criminal Investigation
Police, the Courts, the Court for Minors, etc., and this exercise produced the
following data:
Cases of Violence Reported to the INAC in
2007
|
Type of occurrence
|
Provinces
|
Zaire
|
Bié
|
Luanda
|
Bengo
|
Kuando Kubango
|
Total
|
Manslaughter
|
|
|
8
|
1
|
11
|
20
|
Involuntary homicide
|
|
8
|
|
|
|
8
|
Attempted murder
|
|
|
2
|
1
|
|
3
|
Bodily injury
|
9
|
17
|
25
|
2
|
6
|
59
|
Rape
|
1
|
4
|
17
|
4
|
|
26
|
Attempted rape
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
Prostitution
|
|
10
|
|
|
|
10
|
Infanticide
|
|
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
Indecent assault
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
10
|
Kidnapping
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Abandonment
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Mistreatment
|
|
|
1
|
|
2
|
3
|
Accusations of practicing sorcery
|
5
|
|
1
|
|
|
6
|
Neglect
|
30
|
132
|
2
|
7
|
|
171
|
Early pregnancy
|
3
|
97
|
|
|
|
100
|
Displacement
|
|
21
|
|
|
|
21
|
Total
|
52
|
289
|
67
|
15
|
19
|
442
|
- Since
the factors of child vulnerability to abuse and neglect persist, as well as
difficulties dealing with them, a National Strategy
to Prevent and Mitigate
Violence against Children was prepared. Now in the approval phase, one of its
objectives is to mitigate neglect
and abuse by carrying out a set of programmes
in conjunction with agencies of the State, the Government and civil society.
- For
children who are victims of abuse, there are programmes for counselling,
psycho-social rehabilitation, vocational training in
courses for cooking,
manicure/pedicure, electricity, shoemaking, information technology, locks,
mechanics, and child supervisors,
which seek social and family reintegration for
these children.
- Recent
data on gender violence incidents, collected monthly by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in Moxico province
(see table), indicated that in 2005
144 cases of domestic violence were reported, as well as 28 cases of early
marriage and ten cases
of sexual abuse of children in different localities in
the province.
Report on gender violence in September 2005
Moxico Province
|
Type of incident
|
Location and number of incidents
|
Luena
|
Luau
|
Cazombo
|
Lumbala N’Guimbo
|
Total
|
Previous month
|
Cumulative since January
|
Rape
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
13
|
Attempted rape
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
8
|
Child sexual abuse
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
2
|
10
|
Sexual harassment
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
5
|
Domestic violence
|
2
|
-
|
3
|
1
|
6
|
26
|
144
|
Forced marriage
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
2
|
1
|
8
|
Early marriage
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
3
|
28
|
Others
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
5
|
25
|
Total all types
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
11
|
39
|
241
|
Source: United Nations High Commission for Refugees
- A
survey was conducted by the MINFAMU and INAC with support from UNICEF, the UNDP,
UNIFEM and the UNFPA of 750 children, 410 of whom
were girls, in 9
municipalities of Luanda province, and covered urban, semi-urban and rural
areas. The study found that three-fourths
of the children (girls) interviewed,
or 78 per cent, between ages 14 and 18, had experienced physical, psychological
and sexual violence,
including early maternity as a consequence, while in the 12
months that preceded the survey, these events occurred in 27 per cent
of the
cases.
- The
survey also showed that school-age children between 12 and 17 years old, in the
school system and not in the system, were subject
to some type of violence. Of
those that were studied, 17.4 per cent were between 12 and 15 years old, and 6.3
per cent were between
16 and 17 years old; of those, 11.9 per cent are girls and
the percentage of boys is the same. For children not in the school system,
13.2
per cent were between age 12 and 15, and 6.6 per cent were 16 and 17 years old,
and 13.2 per cent were girls versus 6.6 per
cent were boys.
- Although
the measures that were taken have been positive, there is still much to be done
to reverse the trend. We note that there
are still difficulties, both structural
and functional as well as material and financial. The Action and Intervention
Plan against
the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, approved by Decree
24/99, has not been implemented with the required efficiency,
and the INAC has
undertaken a programme to evaluate the plan’s implementation, with the
expectation that the result will contribute
to planning actions to bolster the
strategy.
I. Periodic review of boarding conditions
- Based
on the necessity of providing shelter for many children who have been separated
from their families, shelters were created with
the necessary livability
requirements to enable the child to fully develop. Based on the verification
made of boarding conditions
by the MINARS supervisory and monitoring team, the
centres that did not meet the minimum requirements were closed.
- The
Government entered into partnership agreements with religious and other entities
to improve the boarding institutions through
integrated education and vocational
training activities.
VII. BASIC HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
A. National Health System
- Regulated
by Law 21-B/92 of 28 August, the National Health System consists of the
Ministry of Health (MINSA) and the national health
care network, which includes
the public and private service providers who ensure the right to assistance
during infancy and maternity
and recommends policies to pay particular attention
to children.
- The
National Health System provides orientation for the health units, public and
private hospitals, and their professionals to carry
out all activities related
to promotion, prevention and treatment in the area of health. The provincial
Governments are responsible
for the health care network in the respective
provinces in order to ensure that all the units operate.
- The
System has a National Health Commission established in accordance with article
No. 7 of the Framework Law. This is an advisory
body of the Government that
adopts policy measures on health. The figure below provides an overview of the
system that consists of
the MINSA and the national health-care services network
(with institutions and services that fall under it, other public institutions,
and private entities, both for-profit and not-for-profit) that provide health
care to the population.
National Health System in Angola
and the MINSA’s role
NATIONAL HEALTHCARE NETWORK
MINSA
NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES
OTHER GOVERNMENT ENTITIES
GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS AND SERVICES THAT ARE UNDER THE
MINSA
PRIVATE ENTITIES
FOR-PROFIT
NOT-FOR-PROFIT
NGOs
CHUR-CHES
Regulation
Policy-making
Planning
Evaluation
& Inspection
Source: 2002-2005 National Health Development Plan, MINSA
2002.
- The
primary level is composed of about 228 municipal hospitals and referral health
centres, around 1,450 health posts and an undetermined
number of community
organizers. At the secondary level there are 32 general hospitals, and the
provincial hospitals are included
in this group. At the tertiary level that are
8 specialized central hospitals.
- The
general framework on the outskirts of the cities (primary network and municipal
hospitals, which are the basis of the NHS), is
characterized by health units in
the municipal seats and a few additional units in the communal seats, but many
have precarious structures.
- The
expansion of the health network involved adding 14,071 new workers to the
national health system. However, despite the progress,
there are still many
problems. The primary network is dealing with even more problems in its
operations, mainly due to limited current
resources; this makes it impossible
for it to completely serve its purpose of screening out uncomplicated illnesses,
and users are
sent directly to the most referred units as an access portal to
the system; this overburdens the hospital level with illnesses that
could be
treated at the lower level. The reform of the health sector and the NHP seeks to
respond to these health challenges at the
national level, as well as the
regional and international level.
- The
decentralization of the Government entities, in progress since 2002, and the
weak regulations of the Framework Laws, have created
some constraints and
limitations to accessing health care, especially in the inland
provinces.
Reform of the System and National Health Policy
- The
MINSA is implementing a reform of the Health System for the purpose of devising
the new National Health Policy[13]
(NHP) and the medium-term strategic plan for the sector. Other activities are
being carried out in addition to these measures, namely
a revision of the type
of cooperation, the strategic plans for the public health programmes, studies on
NHS health unit costs, “Angola:
Despesa Pública no Sector da Saude
(2000-2007),”[14]
and conferences on the health sector to obtain a clear vision and
recommendations for the NHP.
- The
formulation of the NHP,[15]
supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), determines the guidelines that
are to be implemented through national health development
plans and operational
plans, taking the national poverty reduction strategy into account as well as
the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG). It defines the role of each party
involved, namely the communities, the national private sector, international
agencies, bilateral
cooperation and international donors in the process of
developing the health sector in Angola.
- According
to estimates, between 70 and 80 per cent of the health units were damaged or
destroyed during the war, and the current
health system covers just 30 per cent
of Angola’s population. There is a severe shortage of skilled health care
and motivated
health-care workers outside the capital city and the drug and
medical equipment supply and management system is weak.
Number of health units
|
Hospitals
|
Health Centres
|
Health Posts
|
Total
|
Operational
|
100
|
249
|
926
|
1,275
|
Not operational
|
12
|
28
|
790
|
830
|
Total
|
112
|
277
|
1,716
|
2,105
|
|
0.6/100,000 inhabitants
|
0.3/20,000 inhabitants
|
0.3/5,000 inhabitants
|
|
Source: GEPE/MINSA, 2004
- To
carry out programmes, the Government budget made the following amounts available
to the sector:
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated annually in absolute terms and in
percentages
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Upgrade and increase the offer of basic social services for the
populations
|
|
|
2,345,543,582.00
|
0.11
|
6,107,113,183.00
|
0.24
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Rehabilitate and build health units
|
13,615,634,905.00
|
1.42
|
13,783,700,735.00
|
0.63
|
15,549,304,270.00
|
0.62
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Prepare health units
|
|
|
396,554,200.00
|
0.02
|
4,529,829,985.00
|
0.18
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Build and revitalize the integrated social centres
|
4,342,14.00
|
0.00
|
|
|
|
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
- With
the end of the armed conflict in 2002, the decrease in the high child mortality
rates, as well as disease control, have become
the biggest challenges facing the
health system in Angola.
B. Health sector public expenditures
- Public
spending on health in Angola has risen in absolute terms, reaching US $447
million in 2005.[16] Compared to
the Government Budget, the summary table of expenditures by
programme[17] shows that spending
from the Government budget in 2006 and 2007 on the health sector rose 4.4 per
cent and 4.70 per cent respectively.
- Donor
contributions in 2005 reached approximately 59 million dollars. If the 15-20
million made available by the Global Fund are added,
they may reach 14 per cent
of total public spending. The total amount of the Government budget rose
substantially and funding available
for health doubled between 2005 and 2007. In
addition to this effort there are the contributions of the WHO, UNICEF, the
Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (GFATM), the
President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), the World Bank, the European Union
and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
- The
year 2006 marked the beginning of the implementation of major programmes to
purchase hospital equipment, build 13 municipal hospitals
with a capacity of 90
beds, nine health centres with a capacity of thirty bids, and renovate four
regional hospitals and two sanatoriums.
- The
process of decentralizing the government agencies affected the health sector
management model. The assessment entitled Angola:
Despesa Publica no Sector da
Saude (2000-2007) indicated that in 2006 there were 234 budgets for the health
sector versus 82 in 2000.
The financial decentralization of resources has been
determined by several factors, indicating that in some provinces where
decentralization
is more advanced, there is more than one budget per
municipality, while in others there is only one health unit outside the
provincial
capital that has its own budget. Due to a lack of resources in the
primary network, users have continued to be involved in a partnership
with
hospitals, particularly in the urban areas.
C. Health and assistance services
- The
health status of the people of Angola continues to be characterized by low life
expectancy (46 years) and high morbidity and mortality
rates. The
epidemiological context is dominated by malaria, acute diarrheal diseases, acute
respiratory ailments, tuberculosis, trypanosomiasis
(sleeping sickness), and
immuno-preventable diseases such as measles and tetanus, among
others.
- A
small number of diseases, namely malaria, acute respiratory infections,
diarrheal diseases and neonatal tetanus, are directly responsible
for two-thirds
of child deaths in Angola.[18]
- The
maternal mortality rate is high as well, with an estimated 1,500 deaths per
100,000 live births. MINSA sources indicate that institutional
coverage of
deliveries is quite low, with only 22.5 per cent of deliveries taking place in
health units, due to reasons of geographical,
economic and cultural
accessibility. The same proportion also represents the number of deliveries
assisted by skilled workers and
indicates that hemorrhages (33 per cent), unsafe
abortions (24 per cent), septicemia (17 per cent), toxemia (14 per cent), and
ruptures
of the uterus (9 per cent), are the leading causes of direct obstetric
deaths. The Maternal Death Prevention Committee held a workshop
in 2006 on the
strategy for implementing Maternal Death Prevention Committees with the purpose
of building the capacities of the
task force members of the Provincial and
Municipal Committees to reduce maternal deaths through technical information in
terms of
guidelines for the various interventions at the institutional and
community level.
- The
country’s epidemiological profile shows that malaria continues to be the
principal cause of death throughout the country
and was the leading cause of
morbidity and mortality. The most recent MINSA data indicate that in 2005
malaria accounted for 64 per
cent of all recorded cases and 65 per cent of all
reported deaths. The mortality rate varies between 15 and 30 per cent. Children
under five and pregnant women are the most heavily affected population groups.
Malaria accounts for roughly 35 per cent of demand
for health care, 20 per cent
of hospital stays, 40 per cent of perinatal deaths, and 25 per cent of cases of
maternal
mortality.[19]
Morbidity trend by transmissible diseases from 2003 to 2006
DISEASE
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
Malaria
|
3,027,514
|
2,080,348
|
2,125,718
|
2,329,316*
|
ARI
|
273,240
|
180,130
|
560,551
|
721,512
|
ADD
|
304,999
|
222,653
|
299,356
|
396,987
|
Conjunctivitis
|
24,342
|
19,400
|
-
|
-
|
Typhoid fever
|
23,163
|
20,616
|
75,171
|
89,019
|
Bilharziosis
|
17,480
|
9,663
|
-
|
-
|
Tuberculosis
|
12,303
|
9,539
|
36,480
|
48,103
|
AIDS
|
-
|
-
|
3,618
|
-
|
Marburg disease
|
-
|
-
|
252
|
-
|
Cholera
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
66,943
|
- Malaria data up
to June 2006
Source: MINSA/ 2006 – 2006 Government
Survey
- The
spread of trypanosomiasis is on the rise in Angola. With the 12 new mobile teams
and the use of new technologies in the area of
entomology, over 235 new cases
have been discovered out of a universe of 301,380 individuals observed in six
endemic provinces.
- The
five leading causes of illness and death continue to rise, and this became
critical with the upsurge in cholera in February 2006
which, by December, had
caused 66,943 cases and 2,715 deaths in all the provinces except Lunda Sul and
Moxico. Deaths are concentrated
in the rural areas without access to health
services and in the outskirts of the major urban areas where the people are
poor.
D. Children’s health (child mortality in children less
than five years old)
- The
Government has implemented specific programmes to promote a healthy lifestyle
for the purpose of survival and protecting children’s
development, and has
made significant strides in strengthening essential services for the
communities; the result is greater coverage
of the number of children and a
lower maternal-child mortality rate.
- The
MINSA is implementing the 2004-2008 National Strategic Plan to Accelerate the
Reduction in Maternal-Child Mortality in Angola.
The plan was readjusted for the
2005-2009 period[20] to expand
coverage and upgrade the quality of services in the primary network. This
includes health posts, health centres and municipal
hospitals and is being done
to provide greater access to health services for the people. This Plan created
the Municipal Children’s
Health Days, begun in 2007, which will contribute
to the main objective of the Strategic Plan in 59 municipalities at first.
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated annually in absolute terms and in
percentages
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Expanded immunization
|
175,082,710.00
|
0.02
|
|
|
|
|
Not available
|
|
Maternal-child health
|
1,393,237,453.00
|
0.15
|
519,643,450.00
|
0.02
|
587,266,609.00
|
0.02
|
Not available
|
|
Breastfeeding and nutrition
|
|
|
|
|
99,748,200.00
|
0.00
|
Not available
|
|
Malaria control
|
|
|
378,021,092.00
|
0.02
|
407,107,860.00
|
0.02
|
Not available
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Government Budget for 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007
- The
private sector is making a praiseworthy contribution to the provision of
services to the population, as it has increased its health
capacity by creating
new health facilities.
- Through
the current reform, targeted and controlled intervention programmes have been
implemented for all the components of the national
health service, including
preparing strategic and operational public health programmes, budgets,
management, monitoring and project
evaluation.
Amounts made available by UNICEF to the country,
in the context of cooperation with the Government for the
2005 - 2008 period
|
|
Regular resources ( in thousands of US
dollars)
|
|
Regular
|
Others
|
Total
|
Health and nutrition
|
3,200
|
17,000
|
20,200
|
Source: Government/UNICEF cooperation agreement.
- The
child mortality rate in Angola is one of the world’s highest according to
available data, with 55 per cent of deaths occurring
in children under
five.[21] The infant mortality rate
(less than one year old) is estimated at 150 deaths per 1,000 live births, while
the mortality rate for
children under five is one of the highest in the world,
at 250 deaths per 1,000 live
births.[22]
- The
main causes of child mortality and morbidity are acute respiratory infections,
diarrheal diseases and other illnesses. These are
caused in turn by poor access
to clean drinking water and adequate means for disposing of waste, in particular
in the rural areas
where many families (60 per cent) do not have access to
drinking water and others have no means to dispose of their waste (75 per
cent).
2005-2009 Strategic Plan to Accelerate the Reduction in
Maternal-Child Mortality in Angola
- As
part of the strategy to reduce maternal-child mortality and improve nutrition,
in 2004 the MINSA and its partners prepared the
2005-2009 Strategic Plan to
Accelerate the Reduction in Maternal-Child
Mortality.[23] On a national scale
they are implementing the essential package of maternal-child health-care
services, which is aligned with the epidemiological profile and the features of
the
national health system. This strategy aims to strengthen the technical and
management capacities of the provincial and municipal
levels and to foster
innovative initiatives to achieve the announced objectives.
- The
package consists of a series of integrated preventive, promotional and curative
interventions with the following objectives: lower
the mortality rate to 50 per
cent for children under five, lower the malnutrition rate for children under
five to 30 per cent and
lower the maternal mortality rate to 30 per cent.
- Another
low-cost high-efficiency package that is easy to implement is covering the
country to benefit vulnerable groups without access
to health services through a
fixed network of public health services that includes NGOs and churches. This
network was formed by
outreach and mobile health teams with three
community-based and family activities. Based on their competencies, the package
is implemented
by inter-related levels which complement each other to achieve
the objectives of the Plan for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal
and Child
Mortality, namely:
- (a) Clinical
care and prevention activities of the fixed public health services network;
- (b) The
provision of prevention services such as immunization, distribution of Vitamin
A, disinfestation, distribution of insecticide-treated
nets, education for the
communities and curative services for some current diseases such as malaria and
ADD, by outreach and mobile
teams;
- (c) The
provision of preventive and curative services by NGOs and churches selected by
the MINSA;
- (d) Basic care
and services at the community and family level.
- The
delivery of the intervention package to the target populations is guaranteed by
the health network of the National Health Service
(NHS) in the MINSA,
supplemented by the health services provided by churches, NGOs and private
entities. Care is provided primarily
by the primary level or primary health care
which is connected to the secondary and tertiary levels for treating emergency
obstetric
cases. Article 5 of the General Regulation on Health Units that are
part of the Ministry of Health establishes bases for subdividing
health
throughout the country into “Health Areas” (health map) to improve
the management process.
- The
MINSA established the bases for the
planning[24] and operationalization
of the maternal-child health programmes package in the health services network,
promoting participatory planning
from the bottom up, developing the capacities
of local employees and partnerships at the health unit level and the municipal
level
using national standards.
- Municipal
planning is based on the plans of each health unit, avoiding duplication, and
ensuring complementarity between levels, and
the territorial coverage of the
municipality’s population. At the provincial level, the municipal plans
are aggregated and
supplemented with provincial support activities.
The Strategic Plan to Accelerate Child Survival and Development
Programs
- In
the context of the Strategic Plan to Accelerate Child Survival and Development
Programs, supported by UNICEF, the UNFPA and the
WHO, whose principal goal is to
lower mortality in children under five, the MINSA provided resources to the
municipality of Kuito,
in Bié province, to consider projects to
revitalize primary health services.
- The
Government’s perspective is to increase and improve the child survival and
development package through the process of revitalizing
health services
throughout the country, beginning with 16 municipalities in five provinces, i.e.
Luanda, Moxico, Huíla, Cunene
and Bié. In this first phase, 32 per
cent of the total population of Angola will be covered. The package includes
antenatal
consultations, delivery care, post-partum and neonatal care,
prevention for children’s health, providing drinking water, sanitation
and
hygiene, as well as HIV prevention, providing antiretroviral pediatric treatment
and stopping the vertical transmission of HIV
from mother to child.
- To
honor the first commitment from the Third National Forum on Children regarding
life expectancy and the sustainability of the process,
the 2007-2013 Investment
Plan to Accelerate Child Survival and Development is being implemented in three
phases until the entire
country is covered. Invaluable support is being provided
by the donor countries, the United Nations agencies, and both domestic and
international NGOs.
Malaria
- Malaria
is the largest public health problem in Angola. According to estimates, malaria
accounts for 35 per cent of total mortality
in children under five, 25 per cent
of maternal mortality, 60 per cent of hospital stays for children under five,
and 10 per cent
of hospital stays for pregnant women. Malaria is responsible for
55 per cent of peripheral health network usage. Malaria prevalence
is estimated
at six million clinical cases per year in
Angola.[25]
- Angola
subscribed to the Abuja Declaration entitled Roll Back Malaria in 2000,
adopted the Africa Malaria Day Declaration and celebrates Africa Malaria Day
every year in April. These are international
commitments that were the reason
for the creation in 2003 of the National Malaria Control Program and the
implementation of the National
Strategic Plan to Control Malaria (Plano
Estratégico Nacional para o Controlo da Malária - PNCM). This is a
five year
plan (2008-2012) with the following goal:
- − Reduce
malaria prevalence by 50 per cent (estimated at six million clinical cases per
year).
- − Reduce
mortality due to malaria by 50 per cent.
- The
Government carries out priority prevention integrated vector control activities
at the national level by distributing Insecticide-Treated
Nets (ITNs) and Indoor
Residual Spraying as part of the PNCM. In 2007 the Government also distributed
826,000 long-lasting mosquito
nets and sprayed over 120,000 houses with
insecticide in the provinces of Huíla and Cunene in 2007; roughly half a
million
people were served.
Number of malaria cases in Angola
(1999-2006)[26]
Number of cases of deaths from malaria
in
Angola (1999-2006)
- The
apparent decrease in the different rates as shown by the charts above should be
interpreted based on the factors that may contribute
to this, namely the
deterioration of the reporting system in 2005-06, the stabilization of the
populations, the improvement in the
population’s nutritional status, the
improvement in laboratory confirmation of diagnoses, etc.
- The
malaria programme gave rise to another strengthened vector control programme
with new entomological measures including the use
of biolarvicides. With the
introduction of new drugs that are sensitive to the plasmodium, there have been
accelerated adaptation
courses for physicians, nurses and laboratory workers
throughout the country.
- New
technologies to control the major endemics have been introduced and accelerated
in the national public health programmes and malaria
vector control with
fumigation of the home and outside the home has been tested. In additions,
physicians, nurses and diagnostic
workers have been trained in managing malaria
cases throughout the country, and in the use of new antimalarials sensitive to
malaria
parasites.
E. Nutrition and breastfeeding
- In
partnership with UNICEF, the MINSA is developing a Nutrition Vigilance System,
and the first nutrition survey is now underway.
The National Nutrition Program
which began in 2001 has a module that was revised in 2006 to manage
malnutrition, which is an important
instrument for treating severe malnutrition
that the Nutrition Therapy Center will use. The module is based on the National
Protocol
to Treat Severe Malnutrition that was adopted in Angola in October
2000.
- Severe
malnutrition is managed by the community through Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food
(Alimentação Terapêutica
Pronta a Usar - ATPU), which
fosters the administration of food supplements at the supplementary food centres
for children for six
months at the local level and the purchase of therapeutic
milk.
- The
purpose of the Food Security
Program,[27] now under development,
is to support the initiatives of vulnerable population groups, distributing
arable land to them to increase
food production in the communities by providing
integrated packages of farming services, with the principal goal of preventing
hunger
and malnutrition and ensuring that the most vulnerable people have access
to the necessary food resources.
Source: UNICEF Angola 2005
- Estimates
from 2007 show that 5,710,463 children under five suffer from some type of
malnutrition; of these, 40 per cent have moderate
malnutrition and 12 per cent
have severe malnutrition. Malnutrition affects half of the Angolan population
under five years old and
causes two out of every three deaths in this age group.
- Activities
to lower the rate by 30 per cent by 2009 are carried out through food security
programmes and by upgrading health services,
water, etc. Among the extremely
poor groups, daily calorie consumption is less than one-third of the recommended
amount and in urban
areas just 25 per cent of families consume the recommended
number of calories per
day.[28]
- Deficiencies
in micronutrients also have a significant impact on the health and development
of children and women in Angola. Vitamin
A deficiency in Angolan children less
than five years old was 64 per cent in 2001, and it is estimated that 75 per
cent of the mothers
that breastfeed have a Vitamin A deficiency.
Source: UNICEF Angola 2005
- The
anemia rate in Angolan children was estimated at 70 per cent and seems to have
changed little in the last decade. There are no
data on pregnant women, but
according to estimates, two-thirds of them suffer from anemia, and this
contributes to considerable levels
of low birth weight.
- There
are no recent data on iodine deficiency diseases (ID), but the MICS found that
only 30 per cent of families consume iodized
salt. As part of the eradication of
diseases caused by iodine deficiency, in 2002 the Government approved the
Strategic Plan for
the National Salt Iodization and Iodine Deficiency Disease
Control Program.
- Massive
integrated campaigns to fight measles, polio and other diseases, including
Vitamin A supplements, have been carried out since
2003, and disinfestation of
children has been done for children nine months old, yet there are still many
constraints that limit
children’s access to routine services, Vitamin A
and albendazol, which are being addressed so that they can be
eliminated.
F. Immunization
- Although
vaccine coverage has not yet even reached the 50 per cent level, it has improved
considerably in Angola and the system is
being strengthened. In 2006 about 70
per cent and in 2007 100 per cent of vaccines and routine vaccines and the
pentavalent vaccine
from GAVI were purchased by the Government to accelerate the
process and honor the commitment to eradicate polio in Angola. The expansion
and
improvement of the cold chain network is still being supported by the
alternative solar energy system.
- With
support from the United Nations agencies and other social partners, the
Government carried out a series of activities to accelerate
the immunization
programmes, chief among which are:
- − Supplying
the standard vaccines, Vitamin A and immunization materials to support routine
BCG immunization, measles, DPT3,
polio and yellow fever for children less than
one year old;
- − Supplying
the tetanus vaccine for women from 15 to 45 years old;
- − Capacity-building
for 1,200 health-care workers in immunization;
- − Training
for cold chain specialists in 59 municipalities;
- − Supporting
the communities in 59 municipalities to monitor the immunization status of
children;
- − Supporting
for training adolescent girls, in the schools, to plan immunization for
tetanus;
- − Evaluating
and planning cold chain requirements at the provincial and municipal level;
- − Providing
materials and equipment for the cold chain to the municipal level;
- − Supporting
monitoring the immunization status of children less than one year old by the
community;
- − Designing
and carrying out social mobilization campaigns.
- Technical
support was provided to the National Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to
prepare technical materials and train trainers
for preparing microplans for 59
priority municipalities. In total, 1,981 health-care workers and 3,103 community
volunteer activists
were trained, which resulted in intensifying routine
immunization, and consequently, in significantly higher coverage rates.
Eradication of polio and
measles
- As
part of the national polio and measles immunization campaigns which began in the
second half of 2003, the Government is continuing
to intensify its activities to
eradicate polio in Angola, covering the target population in the entire country
in 2004. Five million
children under age five were vaccinated against polio, and
roughly four million received Vitamin A supplements during these
campaigns.
- There
were 12 confirmed cases of the wild poliovirus in the provinces of Kuando
Kubango, Namibe, Huila and Cunene from February 2005
to December 2006, and ten
cases from January to September 2007, as well as two others in the provinces of
Luanda and Benguela in
the same year. This was the reason for organizing
immunization campaigns in February 2007 and three national polio immunization
rounds
from June to September 2007; the first was held in conjunction with the
border countries (the Republic of Namibia and the Democratic
Republic of the
Congo).
Map 1.5.4.1: Epidemiological status of polio in Angola in
2007
Confirmed Cases of the Polio Virus from June 2006 to
August 2007
|
|
Source: UNICEF Health Section, 2007
Legend:
Ultima data de início 8 de Julho de 2006 = Last
starting date was 8 July 2006
- In
partnership with UNICEF, the WHO and others, the MINSA carried out a national
campaign in 2006 entitled “Living a Healthy
Life,” with many
projects. The campaign reached 100 per cent coverage and covered 3,218,676
million children under five years
old at the national level with the
administration of the measles and polio vaccines, Vitamin A and disinfestation.
Mosquito nets
were distributed in seven provinces with a high prevalence of
malaria. Routine Vitamin A administration and disinfestation are continuing
in
the health units where workers were trained and where Vitamin A and albendzol
tablets are available.
Legend:
Vitamin A and Albendazol from 2001 to
2007
Intensification of routine activities with Vitamin A and albendazol
in December 2007
UNICEF, Nov. 2007
- The
intensification of routine immunization in 2007 brought about a substantial
increase in coverage rates in the last years as figure
A shows for
covering children vaccinated during the three national polio immunization rounds
during the NIDs. Given the effectiveness
of the intervention package, and the
synergy and sustainability of its effects, the campaign made a major
contribution to the accelerated
programme to lower the mortality of children
under five in Angola.
Figure A: Angola: Coverage rates for the three national polio
rounds in 2007
Source: UNICEF Health Section, 2007
Table B. Estimated coverage of the National Polio
Immunization Days in Angola, 2005-2006
Year
|
Population
|
Total number of c children
vaccinated
|
Percentage %
|
2005 – phase 1 2005 – phase 2 2005 – phase
3 2005 - phase 4 SNID March 2006 2006 – phase 1
July 2006 – round 2 Sept. 2006 – round 3 Dec. 2007 –
round 1 June 2007 – round 2 July 2007 – Round 3 Sept.
|
5,366,468 5,366,468 5,366,468 5,366,468 1,812,308 3,800,535 5,563,896
5,563,896 5,701,416 5,701,416 5,701,416
|
5,369,118 5,376,558 5,662,741 5,803,547 1,794,380 4,152,567 5,669,128
5,708,622 5,932,313 6,108,586 6,108,586
|
100.5 100.2 105.5 108 99 109 102 103 103 107 107
|
Source: MINSA
Routine immunization coverage
- Routine
immunization coverage for children under one year old is still low, mainly due
to the lack of a network of operational health
facilities, logistical problems,
problems maintaining the cold chain, and the lack of extension services in many
zones. That is why
this is the weakest component in routine immunization. The
table below illustrates the percentage of coverage as a contribution to
the
routine immunization campaigns from 2003 to 2007. Map 6.2.b shows the percentage
of pentavalent coverage in January and March
2007.
Percentage of coverage by the routine immunization
campaign
Year
|
DTP3/Pentavalent
|
Measles
|
Polio 3
|
TT
|
2003
|
46
|
62
|
45
|
72
|
2004
|
60
|
70
|
57
|
78
|
2005
|
47
|
44
|
50
|
52
|
2006
|
40
|
48
|
44
|
56
|
2007*
|
59**
|
69
|
58
|
71
|
* From January to September 2007 ** Pentavalent vaccine in 2007
Map .6.2.b: Pentavalent Coverage, January-March
2007
Source: Health Section, UNICEF Angola, 2007
Legend: Pentavalent-3
Coverage, Jan-March 2007
muncipalidade = municipality
sem vaccinacao = not
immunized
[remainder illegible]
- With
technical support from UNICEF and the WHO, the Government designed a plan to
intensify routine immunization at the health posts
in order to reach the remote
zones through mobile teams in an effort to vaccinate children less than one year
old in 84 priority
municipalities that represent 85 per cent of the target
population. The vaccines include BCG, OPV, DPT and measles. UNICEF provided
the
OPV, DPT, BCG, TT, yellow fever and other materials.
Percentage of routine immunization coverage in 2006-2007
Source: UNICEF Health Section.
- To
increase routine immunization coverage, three additional rounds were carried out
from September to December 2007 and included activities
to eliminate TT in the
higher-risk zones as well as Vitamin A supplements and disinfestation.
- Although
routine immunization coverage (OPV-3) is still below 60 per cent in children
less than one year old, coverage has been on
the rise.
G. Children with special needs
- The
social policy for the most vulnerable groups carries out programmes to care for
disabled persons. The programmes ensure and monitor
their social insertion in
accordance with Executive Decree No. 4/03 that governs the duties of the MINARS,
and provides funding to
disabled citizens with permanent disabilities to take on
any job when they are not covered by any other social assistance and do
not have
their own financial resources, in accordance with Law No. 6/98 of 7
August.
- To
guarantee the rights of disabled children, the Government has a system that
determines the nature and severity of the disability
and facilitates access to
health-care services, rehabilitation, training and social reintegration, through
participation in socially
useful activities.
- Article
23 of the CL acknowledges the right of mentally and physically disabled children
to live a full and decent life under conditions
that guarantee their dignity,
further their autonomy and facilitate their participation in the active life of
the community, thereby
avoiding any discrimination based on their
disability.
- It
is acknowledged that there are a few legislative and policy gaps and that it is
necessary to guarantee the rights of disabled children
by adopting measures that
monitor and assess the programmes that are intended for them, with training of
special managers connected
to services that provide care, rehabilitation,
integration and active participation in the social life of this group of
children,
with sufficient funding to ensure their
sustainability.
H. National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS: 2004-2007 and 2007-2010 National Strategic Plan to
Control Sexually Transmitted Infections, HIV and AIDS
- Beginning
in 2002 the Government designed and implemented a National Strategic Plan for
HIV/AIDS[29] in partnership with
civil society and the United Nations System in an effort to combat the spread of
the disease. The strategy, divided
into Provincial Action Plans for the
2003/2004 period, culminated in the enactment in 2004 of a law with provisions
to protect children
affected by HIV/AIDS from stigma and discrimination and to
foster access to counselling, voluntary testing, antiretroviral therapy
and
prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) during pregnancy, delivery
and breastfeeding. Also, in 2005, the National
Institute and National Commission
to Fight AIDS were created.
- In
2006, the MINJUD, in partnership with UNICEF and with technical support from the
National Institute to Fight AIDS, launched the
HIV/AIDS leisure time awareness
programme in an effort to increase the level of knowledge in children between 15
and 18 years old
of how to prevent sexually transmitted infections. The campaign
is of great importance in the prioritization of activities directed
toward
children, primarily in the area of prevention, because they are a valid part of
opportunities to lower incidence rates. Two
years later, over 10,673 children
have participated in the programme combined with activities carried out on the
national scale.
- In
the context of monitoring, research was done for the Rapid Analysis and
Evaluation (RAAAP-ANGOLA) and preparation of the National
Action Plan for OVCs
due to HIV/AIDS. The preparation of the National Action Plan to Prevent and
Lower the Impact of HIV/AIDS on
Families and Children, in January 2007, was a
participatory effort coordinated by the MINARS and supplemented by governmental
agencies
that assist the Inter-ministerial Coordinating Commission for Early
Childhood Activities.
- Exponential
growth in the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been observed in all the provinces and
cumulatively in the country, and this gives
rise to concern for the health
authorities. UNAIDS estimates that in Angola there are nearly 450,000 persons
living with HIV, and
of these, over 76,000 cases are children under age 15.
Prevalence rates remain at around 2.7 - 2.8 per cent, and the highest rate
is in
Cunene province at 10 per cent. In 2006 the it was reported that the number of
cases compared to 2005 had doubled, with around
6,978 cases, which confirms a
steady increase in cases in the pandemic. In some areas of the country and in
specific population groups,
rates are higher at around 12 per
cent.[30] The magnitude of HIV/AIDS
infection is considered lower than the average of the countries of Southern
Africa, which is considered
the epicentre of the pandemic.
- Although
the estimated HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is relatively low (3.9 per cent), the
extremely limited knowledge and predominant
attitudes that conflict with desired
attitudes and knowledge are the principal factors in the projected increase in
prevalence for
the coming years. The number of Orphans and Vulnerable Children
(OVCs) due to HIV/AIDS is on the rise, and the rate is 9.2 per cent
in Cunene
province according to the indicators.
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated in absolute terms and percentages, per
year
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Prevention and assistance for persons with STDs
|
222,189,253.00
|
0.01
|
|
|
|
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
HIV/AIDS Control
|
1,270,455,430.00
|
0.13
|
1,159,421,410.00
|
0.05
|
2,215,506,063
|
0.09
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
Amounts made available by UNICEF to the country,
in the context of cooperation with the Government, for the
2005 - 2008 period
|
|
Regular Resources (in thousands of US
dollars)
|
|
Regular
|
Others
|
Total
|
Youth and HIV/AIDS
|
2,000
|
6,000
|
8,000
|
Source: Government/UNICEF cooperation agreement
- A
recent study on the behavior of youths in Angola found that even though 90.5 per
cent of youths had already heard of HIV/AIDS, very
few felt that they were at
moderate or high risk of infection, and few have sufficient knowledge of how to
protect themselves and
to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. In Angola the age at which
both boys and girls have their first sexual relations is
15.[31] The vast majority of sexual
encounters are unprotected, and only 9 per cent of youths stated that they had
sometimes used a condom.[32]
Moreover, the 2001 MICS also found that 32 per cent of Angolan women had never
heard of HIV/AIDS, and that just 8 per cent were knowledgeable
enough to protect
themselves from infection. It is predicted that in 2010 the seroprevalence rate
will rise to 18 per cent, resulting
in the infection of roughly 1.6 million
persons with HIV/AIDS, and that in Angola there will be a total of 200,000
OVCs.[33]
I. Social security and child care services and
facilities
- In
the context of support for disabled persons, implementation continued in the
2005/2006 two-year period of the Community-Based Rehabilitation
Program (Program
de Reabilitação Baseada na Comunidade - RBC), and the Equal
Opportunity Promotion and Community Participation
Programs (Programas de
Promoção de Igualdade de Oportunidades e de
Participação Comunitária),
with the purpose of lowering
dependency rates for this vulnerable group of the population. Services were
provided to 20,877 disabled
persons including children, which is roughly 30 per
cent of the goal.
- The
S.O.S. Criança Program in Luanda province, whose purpose is to receive
reports and refer cases to the police, justice and
child protection
institutions, is in an expansion phase to the provinces of Benguela, Huambo,
Uíge and Zaire.
- Based
on the necessity of social protection of children, the Iluma Social Center was
created in Luanda province. This centre provides
services for female children
who are victims of abuse and sexual exploitation and who come from low-income
families, as well as for
street children. At the centre they are given manicure
and pedicure training, child supervision and cooking. The Projovem Center
hosts
male children and provides courses in electricity, locks and mechanics. In the
other provinces, in a partnership consisting
of the MINARS, MAPESS, MINFAMU and
churches, children are given vocational training in shoemaking, carpentry,
apparel-making, cooking,
pastry-making and information
technology.
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated in absolute terms and percentages, per
year
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Child assistance
|
414,557,954,00
|
0.,04
|
471,144,524,00
|
0.,02
|
936,694,511,00
|
0.,04
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
J. Standard of living
- The
context of peace generates economic growth, with a major increase in the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) beginning in 2005. The actual
cumulative change in GDP
from 2002 to 2006 was 89.6 per cent, so that it nearly doubled in the period.
This is remarkable performance
without parallel in Africa, after Equatorial
Guinea. This cumulative increase reflects an average annual change in GDP of
13.6 per
cent.
- Although
the oil sector dominates the Angolan economy, there has been, however, and for
the same period, a significant recovery in
the non-oil sector. The cumulative
change was 81.4 per cent, which is an average annual change of 12.7 per cent.
Diamond mining increased
in the same period for a cumulative change of 79.3 per
cent (with an average annual growth rate of 12.4 per cent), while the other
sectors of activity, including agriculture, fishing, the processing industry,
energy and water, construction and services, reported
61.63 per cent cumulative
growth, which is an annual average growth rate of 10.1 per cent.
- Nevertheless,
in 2005 and 2006 the non-mineral sectors radically changed their growth dynamic.
In cumulative terms, the change amounted
to 44.1 per cent, which is an annual
average rate of 20 per cent. This is an excellent record and justifies high
expectations for
improving living conditions for the people and doing a better
job of meeting their basic needs, and the needs of children in
particular.
- The
Government Programme implementation strategy established several priorities due
to the necessity of making the dividends of peace
more visible. Thus, the
recovery in national production and improving the people’s living
conditions were considered two key
requirements of the programme. To strengthen
them, public investments and policies should converge into a logic of maximizing
the
associated synergistic effects.
- The
general indicator for achieving these objectives is the GDP growth rate. Because
it is a synthetic index, it is not possible to
include immediate improvements in
the people’s well-being. Nevertheless, the growing association between the
economy and jobs
demonstrates that, whenever the GDP growth rate is high,
general living conditions tend to improve.
- According
to estimates, the actual national GDP growth rate in 2006 was 18.6 per cent,
versus 19.5 per cent as projected and 20.6
per cent in 2005. Factors that
contributed to not reaching the projected goal were lower growth in oil (13.1
per cent versus 21.6
per cent as projected), diamonds (30.9 per cent versus 41
per cent as projected), construction (30 per cent versus 66.2 per cent
projected
for the sector) and energy and water (13.25 per cent versus 28.3 per cent as
projected). Despite these swings, in 2006
the country maintained the highest
growth rate in Africa since Equatorial Guinea did not exceed 5 per cent.
- Indeed,
in 2006, non-oil GDP, which consists of activities in the areas of diamond
mining, agriculture, forestry, livestock and fishing,
the processing industry,
construction, energy and water and all market services, were up by 25.7 per cent
versus a projected 17.2
per cent and rose by 14.7 per cent in 2005. The reason
for this performance can be attributed to the processing industry and market
services, which experienced a near-exponential growth phase, as well as
agriculture, whose projected growth was negative, and the
dry weather in certain
regions of the country that affected a few crops, eventually resulted in an
actual change of 9.8 per cent.
- In
terms of employment (a crucial variable in domestic economic integration and
ensuring national reconciliation), available data
show that the unemployment
rate in 2006 was around 25.2 per cent, which is four percentage points lower
than the estimated value
for 2005, which was 29.2 per cent, certainly due to the
dynamics of job creation in the construction and fishing sectors and, to
a
certain extent, in non-market services.
- As
a corollary to these excellent results, there is the change in per capita GDP.
Although synthetic, it is an indicator of general
level of living conditions.
This figure was about $2,565.20 in 2006 (in current prices), as opposed to
$1,984.80 for 2005, which
is a 29.2 per cent increase over 2005. It should be
noted that in 2005 the increase in the value of per capita GDP was 57 per cent
over 2004, and per capita income was approximately $1,265.
- Real
growth in the average income of Angolans was 15.3 per cent in 2006, for a
demographic growth rate of 2.9 per cent (in 2005 this
increase was around 17 per
cent). Although the distribution of national income remained asymmetrical, it is
likely that there was
some improvement in the poverty rate.
- Actually,
combined with real growth, public investments in the social area, effective
inflation control (31 per cent in 2004, 18.5
per cent in 2005 and 12.2 per cent
in 2006), and the social inclusion policies of the General Government Program,
it is likely that
in 2006 the poverty rate fell to 50 per cent (note that the
2005 Survey calculated a value of 56 per cent for this year, 12.2 percentage
points lower than in 2000, which is when the Family Expenditures and Income
Survey was conducted).
- Public
investment, estimated at roughly $1.5 billion, grew by 76.5 per cent over 2005,
and served as a major catalyst for the national
economy, not just from the
standpoint of providing incentives for private investment, which was estimated
at $11.4 billion, but also
from the standpoint of an improvement in the
people’s general living conditions.
- Indeed,
of the total amount Government investment expenditures, the social sectors
received 28.3 per cent, the economic sectors obtained
8.3 per cent, and the
infrastructure sectors, including roads, railways, energy and water, received
around 36.9 per cent. Therefore,
it can be said, although just in general, that
the policy in the 2005-2006 General Government Program of linking public
investment
to the creation of conditions for growing the productive sectors is
improving the people’s well-being and has had concrete
and positive
results.
- As
for the policies to strengthen non-oil production, the following should be
highlighted: the primary sector (agriculture, livestock
and fisheries); the
generation and distribution of energy and water; and the processing industry.
Growth rates in the added values
in 2006 show that this is the beginning of a
process that could lead to repositioning capacities, increasing the
economy’s
production potential, and integrating the domestic
market.
- In
2006 budget execution was an important component for stabilizing prices in the
country and for regaining confidence in the national
currency; through the
execution of public investments, structural conditions were created to improve
the people’s living conditions
and to ensure a sustained recovery of
non-mineral production.
- With
regard to social well-being, the MINJUD is implementing the youth lending
project, which aims to support around 20,000 youths
that have business
initiative, with a view to promoting employment for themselves and to support
vulnerable youths.
- The
improvement in the standard of living is dependent on many factors that were
addressed in the national strategy to fight poverty.
The implementation of the
programmes in the strategy are coordinated and linked institutionally, and there
is effective integration
of policies in all areas. There is institutional
coordination and linkage in the implementation of strategy programmes, and
policies
are effectively integrated in every area, but there is room for
improvement. Consequently, this is an obstacle to transposing them
to the
current challenge.
K. Water and environmental sanitation
- In
cooperation with its social partners, the Government intensified programmes to:
increase and improve water quality; strengthen
supply services to the people;
promote basic sanitation and hygiene; increase access to drinking water to 48
per cent of persons
in rural areas and 76 per cent of persons in urban areas;
and provide access to safe means of waste disposal to 32 per cent of persons
in
rural areas and 79 per cent in urban areas.
- Although
slow, progress in national coverage for supplying drinking water is positive.
The Water Act, “Law 6/02,” brought about in-depth reforms in public
policies for the sector to accelerate coverage by expanding partnerships
and did
so through integrated water resources management.
- In
2005, with UNICEF support, and in cooperation with the European Union (EU) and
UNESCO, the MED evaluated the status of water and
sanitation services in schools
in 41 municipalities.
- An
integrated approach to the water and sanitation sector was created in a logical
framework to be included in the national water
system. Implementing this process
involved the participation of all the provinces, sector partners, national and
international NGOs,
and the private sector. Data from the surveys laid the
groundwork to identify gaps, requirements and solutions to carry out the plans
and programmes necessary to orient all the programmes in the water and
sanitation sector at the national level in the next year.
The results
complemented the National Information Management System for Water and Sanitation
and the System of Information Management
for Education.
- In
the area of the Schools for Africa program, bathrooms and equipment for water
were built in seven schools, benefiting a total of
3,735 students, 1,796 of whom
were girls and 1,939 were boys, and 115 teachers as well. The Schools for Africa
program merged the
education and water/sanitation programmes into one
comprehensive holistic school package. As the evaluation showed, a national
strategic
package for health and hygiene in the schools is being implemented in
cooperation with the WHO, the WFP and UNICEF. This package
aims to contribute to
lowering child mortality and morbidity and to support the education of children
by improving water supply,
sanitation, and by promoting hygiene in the schools
and in the communities.
- The
water and sanitation programmes included community participation for
implementation and maintenance, and water user groups and
parents’
committees were created as a way to ensure the sustainability of the water and
sanitation projects. Women were trained
and were included in the water and
sanitation coordinating committees for the community of water user groups.
- For
the urban areas of the largest cities, efforts were undertaken to rehabilitate
and build the water supply and sanitation system,
with priority on the urban
areas throughout the country, in order to achieve the ambitious goal of
increasing coverage to 76 per
cent in 2006.
- In
2006, programmes concentrated on finalizing the execution of projects for
specific areas in Bié, Huambo, Benguela, Uíge
and Huíla. As
a result, 62,000 new users were given access to drinking water supply services,
for a total of 1.2 per cent
of the rural population that has access to better
water supply systems, lowering by 2.5 per cent the gap in terms of the MDGs. The
Huíla provincial authorities agreed to finance 50 per cent of the water
supply systems. A total of 49,000 students from 53
primary schools gained access
to better water and sanitation services at school.
- The
“National Water, Sanitation, Environment and Hygiene Project (ASAH) by the
European Union was designed for the 2007/2008
period to be implemented in a
partnership with the Government and other key players at the national and
provincial level. The consultation
prior to the project provided the opportunity
to supplement the Provincial Action Plans (PAP) for the ASAH and to obtain
additional
funding through the Government and the provincial authorities in
Cunene and Huambo.
- In
accordance with the policies identified for this sector, activity in the area of
energy and water continued to be oriented toward
improving the supply of these
services, from production to distribution, in order to ensure a steadier
provision of the services
and to meet the growth in consumption caused by
economic development and the access of a growing number of citizens and
population
groups.
- As
for the capacity of the water supply systems in the localities and other water
supply sources, the situation is reflected in the
tables. With the investment
effort carried out in this period, there have already been benefits in the
quantity and quality of the
water that has been produced and distributed,
although a greater impact on access to this service for the target population
has been
more significant to the extent that current projects are now being
completed, with a growing coverage rate, with the execution of
home connections
and the installation of fountains as planned by late 2008.
Legend:
Capacities in m3/day of water supply systems – provincial
capitals
Provincial capital 2004 (starting data) 2005 2006 Change (%)
Available
Nom. Cap.
Available Projected/ Projected/ 06/04
Available Available
Totals
Average per capita
Source: MINEA
(1) The average per capita in liters/inhabitant/day was estimated for an
urban population of 7,000,000.
(2) The storage capacity limitation and the distribution network limitation,
as well as restrictions on the supply of power for the
systems, restricts the
volume of the water that is supplied
- The
available capacity of the systems as of the end of this two-year period rose by
27 per cent compared to 2004. This increase was
well below the projected goal
for the two years, which was 113 per cent. However, in the same way, this
increase reflects per capita
consumption, which can also be interpreted as a
large number of inhabitants that obtained access to this service.
Nevertheless, the increase in available drinking water production capacity
does not yet reflect in the same proportion the quantity
of water actually
distributed to the population. This is because of limits in water storage
capacity and the distribution networks
in some of the supply systems, and its
intermittent functioning or conditioning, due to electricity supply restrictions
that were
still occurring in most localities that have service.
Legend:
Number of Water Points (boreholes) by
province
Provinces Existing in 2004 (1) Existing in 2005 2006 Change
(%)
Projected Existing Existing 06/04
Totals
Beneficiary
population (1)
Source: MINEA
(1) – The existing figure for 2004 is
taken as the starting data
(2) – It is considered that the average
number of beneficiaries per water point is 250
- For
the water sector the preparation of the regulations on the general use of water
resources and the public supply of drinking water,
sanitation for residual water
and urban rain drainage has been completed and submitted to the appropriate
level for approval. Moreover,
in the context of the development plan approved
for this sector, efforts continued to create and develop local business entities
that will assume responsibility for operating and managing the water supply
systems at the level of the localities and provincial
seats.
- In
2006, investments in the energy and water sector, as in previous years, were
almost entirely provided by the Government. The reason
for this lies in the set
of reforms to bring about private-sector participation in the preparatory phase,
including the largest problem,
which is the pricing policy.
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated annually in absolute terms and in
percentages
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Basic sanitation
|
8,202,010,018.,00
|
0.86
|
15,338,140,117.00
|
0.70
|
16,892,798,305,00
|
0.67
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Water supply
|
15,998,938,220.00
|
1.67
|
11,966,041,754.00
|
0.55
|
17,136,694,687,00
|
0.68
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Environment
|
18,823,084,444.00
|
1.97
|
2,084,406,683.00
|
0.10
|
39,069,419,482,00
|
1.56
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
Amounts made available by UNICEF to the country in
the context of cooperation with the Government, for the 2005 - 2008 period
|
|
Regular resources ( in thousands of US
dollars)
|
|
Regular
|
Other
|
Total
|
Water, environmental sanitation and hygiene
|
1,920
|
7,000
|
8,920
|
Source: Government/UNICEF agreement.
- Notwithstanding
the increase in programmes, the indicators in the initial report
(CRC/C/3/Add.66) quoted the 2001
MICS,[34] according to which 81 per
cent of the Angolan population do not treat their water before they drink it,
about 40 per cent do not
take water from safe sources, 33 per cent use water
brought into their homes or fountains, and 29 per cent use water from other safe
sources such as boreholes, wells and protected springs. These statistics would
be close to actual figures if a survey were conducted.
- In
the rural areas just 22 per cent of inhabitants have access to clean water for
consumption and 26 per cent have access to sanitation
services. In the urban
areas, the figure is relatively higher. Only five cities in Angola have partial
sewer coverage: Luanda, Huambo,
Lubango, Lobito, and Benguela. Sanitary methods
to dispose of waste are not used by 41 per cent of households.
- It
was also observed that despite being included in the sector programme, it has
not yet been possible to change all of the systems
to recover and increase some
existing capacities due to the imperious necessity of restricting the
construction of the respective
projects due to available financing
capacity.
- Due
to the lack of an urban policy in the zones on the outskirts of localities,
there has been a growing use of fountains and boreholes
for water supply. This
situation is described in the following tables, in which the principal changes
can be observed.
- The
number of fountains and boreholes reached consists not only of the new water
points that are drilled, but also the rehabilitation
of some existing ones, both
of which contribute to interventions to increase the population’s access
to safer sources of supplies
of drinking water. Although the number of fountains
projected at the end of the two-year period was not reached, the increase was
30.7 per cent over 2004, which exceeded the projected goal by 20 per cent. For
the number of boreholes, the 4 per cent increase meets
the goal planned for the
two-year period.
- Compared
to 2005, the increase in water supplied in 2006 was 9.2 per cent, a rate lower
than the growth rate for the capacity of the
systems in the same period. Several
projects are being implemented and became decisive in 2006 and, in addition to
contributing to
an increase in existing capacity soon, they will also
significantly increase the use of these capacities.
VIII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A. Education, including vocational training and
orientation
- Primary
education consists of six years of schooling, all of which are mandatory,
beginning at six years of age. Secondary education
consists of two cycles of
three classes each. The first is consolidation and strengthening of learning
from the first cycle and preparation
for the second cycle. The second is the
development of abstract thinking, the ability to carry out scientific analysis,
and preparation
for the job market and/or higher education.
- Adult
education is considered a subsystem in itself, with primary education literacy
and post-literacy programmes, as well as the
first and second cycles of
secondary education, as provided in general education, to serve youths and
adults who are at least 15
years old who, for any reason, did not enter the
education system or did not finish their primary schooling.
- In
implementing the enforcement strategy of Law No. 1/06 of January 18, the MAPESS
took several measures that seek to build a set
of integrated solutions for
youths from 14 to 30 years old and to provide them with vocational training. The
law created training
centres and facilities, rural training schools and
facilities to provide quality training and/or complementary training for youth,
the right to free schooling for youths, a decrease in and containment of the
rural exodus, diversification and increased training
capacities in the rural
areas, full integration of the regions and communities in rebuilding the
country, a guarantee that youths
will have a perfect mastery of the professions
or occupations they choose, raising production and productivity
levels.
- Teacher
training consists of programmes to train instructors for preschool education and
general education (regular education, adult
education and special education).
This is standard mid-level education, organized for graduates of the first cycle
of secondary school.
It lasts from two to four years depending on the area of
study.
- Higher
education of teachers is intended to meet the needs of secondary education and,
if necessary, preschool and special education.
Teachers are educated in upper
schools and educational sciences institutes. Technical and vocational training
consists of basic-level
vocational training and mid-level vocational training.
The former seeks to develop technical knowledge, attitudes and practices to
practice an occupation. The latter seeks to provide technical and general
knowledge for entering the job market and accessing higher
education.
- Higher
education is divided into under-graduate (bachelor and license [licenciatura])
and post-graduate. Special education is considered
a means of cross-cutting
education for the general education of adults, and is intended for individuals
with special needs, under
the responsibility of the National Institute for
Special Education.
- The
harmonious development of the child’s personality and the creation of
conditions for them to be integrated into and participate
in active life,
seeking to implement economic, social and cultural rights, in education,
vocational training, culture, access to
first jobs, at work, in social security,
in physical education, in sports and in the enjoyment of free time, was
established in article
30 of the CL, which further establishes in article 49 the
State’s duty to promote access for all citizens to education, culture
and
sports, and to guarantee the participation of various individual agents for
implementing it.
- An
overview of the sources of financing for education in Angola shows that the
principal source of funding is the Government through
the Government Budget.
Education receives roughly 7 per cent of the Government Budget, distributed as
shown in the table below.
Spending on education, 2004 – 2007
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
|
AMOUNT
|
AMOUNT
|
AMOUNT
|
AMOUNT
|
GOVT. BUDGET FOR EDUCATION
|
69,637,027,360
|
100
|
55,561,821,774
|
100
|
85,523,557,267
|
100
|
140,394,653,720
|
100
|
PRESCHOOL
|
─
|
─
|
─
|
─
|
9,706,214
|
0.01
|
84,444,000
|
0.06
|
PRIMARY EDUCATION
|
3,265,346,418
|
4.69
|
3,203,609,358
|
5.77
|
3,207,381,676
|
3.75
|
10,134,228,803
|
7.22
|
SECONDARY EDUCATION
|
2,771,420,202
|
3.98
|
1,455,950,052
|
2.62
|
2,037,644,219
|
2.38
|
4,938,272,980
|
3.52
|
TECHNICAL/VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
|
2,405,286,895
|
3.45
|
2,082,148,406
|
3.75
|
19,379,977,853
|
22.66
|
45,151,136,117
|
32.16
|
ADULT EDUCATION
|
7,626,434
|
0.01
|
18,550,000
|
0.03
|
238,366,882
|
0.28
|
1,619,276,481
|
1.15
|
HIGHER EDUCATION
|
4,524,661,497
|
6.50
|
7,413,593,783
|
13.34
|
7,768,011,432
|
9.08
|
12,914,856,492
|
9.20
|
OTHER EDUCATION SERVICES
|
56,662,685,914
|
81.37
|
41,387,970,175
|
74.49
|
52,882,468,993
|
61.83
|
65,552,438,847
|
46.69
|
Source: Ministry of Finance
- The
percentages of spending by level of education are very low, taking into account
that the majority of expenditures at these levels
are concentrated in the
“Other Education Services” category. This makes it difficult to
determine the exact breakdown
of expenditures within the education sector.
Current reorganization of the education sector
- According
to the new organization as set forth in the Fundamental Law on the Education
System (being implemented gradually since 2004),
the Ministry of Education is
responsible for the subsystems of general education, adult education, teacher
training, technical-vocational
training, and higher education. The education
system in Angola consists of three levels of education: primary, secondary and
higher
education. Preschool, which is meant to serve as preparation for access
to primary education, has its own organization and is the
responsibility of the
Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration.
- This
report on the Convention was prepared at a time when the education sector was
undergoing considerable reform, since it is a decisive
strategic vector for the
people’s well-being and the country’s development. With the
enactment of the Framework Law on
Education, Angola is going through a
transition phase in this sector, which essentially entails implementing the
Education Reform
(ER), now in progress, and whose experimental phase began in
January 2004.
- ER
is manifested by significant strategic changes, with a primary education model
of six classes, with mandatory attendance, with
just one instructor per class,
and three years for each of the two secondary education cycles. Implementation
is in stages and began
with an experiment in the first year of primary and
secondary education in a small number of schools at the national level. It is
scheduled to be completed in 2010, and the general implementation phase that
began in 2006 will be completed in 2011.
- One
of the main objectives of ER is to meet the pressing need of raising the
quantitative and qualitative levels of education and
learning, both of which are
particularly important in primary education.
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated annually in absolute terms and in
percentages
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Education reform
|
*
|
|
1,115,977,000.00
|
0.05
|
2,160,781,297.00
|
0.09
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Improving the quality of education
|
89,850,000.00
|
0.01
|
**
|
|
**
|
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
* Programme was
replaced by education reform
- The
plan is thus to make a decisive contribution to the equitable universalization
of this level of education, with a view to achieving
a real enrolment rate of
100 per cent by 2015 in accordance with the World Education Forum and the
Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs),[35] and eliminating gender
disparities in access to all levels of
education.[36] To achieve these
goals, the contribution of several factors in different areas is essential, the
most important are the training
of teachers and trainers, the creation of
infrastructures to support training, revamping curricula and programmes, and
improving
the education management and administration system.
Education for all in the Angolan education
system
- The
programmes to achieve education for all are being carried out under the
Government Strategy to Rehabilitate and Develop the Sector,
approved in August
2001. With the enactment of Law 13/01 of December 31, the groundwork was laid
for the New Education System and
was the principal basis for the Education
Reform activities. In order to achieve universal education for primary school by
2015,
based on an educational policy of improving access and fairness and system
efficiency, a National Education for All Plan was prepared;
it consists of three
separate yet complementary phases, i.e.:
- (a) The
preliminary Phase (2001-2002) of preparing the methodological process to design
and develop the preliminary draft of the Plan;
- (b) The
emergence phase (2003-2004), characterized essentially by the need to meet and
strengthen the basic technical, physical and
financial conditions for the full
implementation of the next two phases;
- (c) The
stabilization phase (2005-2008), indicated by the start of implementing the
fundamental components of the new education system
in the Basic Law on the
Education System; and
- (d) The
expansion, enlargement and development phase (2009-2015), whose objective is to
strengthen and consolidate the programmes,
plans and projects of the previous
phases.
- The
coordination and liaison systems among the ministries and provincial bodies were
strengthened considerably by the MED to implement
education reform, which seeks
to broaden access to primary and secondary education and to implement the 2006
– 2015 Integrated
Strategies to Improve the Education System in terms of
Gender, Literacy and Rehabilitation of Children Left Behind, for special
education,
the MED Strategic Plan to Fight HIV-AIDS, and the Back-to-School
Campaign.
Taxa Bruta de Matrículas nas Escolas
- In
2005, with the involvement of UNICEF, the WHO and the WFP, the MED carried out
the Amigas da Criança Schools Project as
part of the School Program for
Africa in order to improve access to and the quality of primary education
throughout the country.
The objective of the programme is to provide a healthy
environment in the schools for all children, and lay the groundwork for a
national strategy as part of the Schools for Africa program. A package of
standards and guidelines for infrastructure renovation
is being developed. As a
result, 219 schools have already been built, and 110 primary schools in 17
provinces have been renovated
and are serving 88,830 children. Water and
sanitation facilities were built in 72 Amigas da Criança schools
throughout the
country.
- In
2006, an intersectoral task force formed by the MED, in a partnership with the
MINSA, UNICEF and the WHO to promote school health
in Angola, conducted a study
on the prevalence of intestinal worms in school-age children in the provinces of
Cabinda, Zaire, Uíge,
Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul and Bengo. The result was
a comprehensive strategy to build the capacity of schools and to deliver basic
messages about children’s health. This ensuing intersectoral programme
seeks to provide education for health and respond to
the prevalence of
intestinal parasites [37] (>75 per cent) in
school-age children. Six provinces and Luanda, the capital city, were
disinfested and albendazole [38 ]tablets were
distributed to 916,000 school-age children. The programme was expanded to the
national level in 2007, involving parents,
educators and teachers for delivering
basic messages about sanitation and hygiene. In total, 4.5 million children,
101,000 schools
and 10,600 teachers were involved.
- A
campaign to fight cholera in the schools began in November 2006 in a partnership
with UNICEF, and continued in 2007 in 14 provinces
in the country, with seminars
for teachers (training of trainers for 20 to 30 teachers) for the purpose of
covering all the students
and the communities in general.
Teacher training
- Teacher
training in Angola is a priority for implementing educational policies, mainly
for the ER. It was found that over 50 per cent
of all working instructors do not
have suitable academic credentials and do not have professional training for
teaching.[39] ER requires teachers
with suitable professional skills so that they can follow changes and new
programmes that come about with the
increase in class sizes in all the cycles
for pedagogical issues due to the fact that there is one instructor for six
classes.
- The
MED has implemented measures that seek to discourage teachers from practicing
physical and psychological violence, abuse and the
sexual exploitation of
minors.
- ER
became a reality in the entire country in 2006 and with it several programmes
were carried out, including the Teacher Training
Master Plan and the creation of
the National Institute for Manager Training to better coordinate the reform of
teacher training.[40]
- The
goal was to cover 70,000 primary and secondary school teachers, to upgrade the
quality of education for about 4.6 million students
throughout the country, to
cover 36,660 primary school teachers, 180 primary school principals and 67
provincial education managers
(department directors and education inspectors).
As a result of this coordination, a team from the Teacher Training Master Plan
was
set up and is carrying out substantial teacher training activities at the
national, provincial and municipal levels.
- In
this context of implementation, a Framework Education System Law created a
Teacher Training Subsystem as one of the six education
subsystems. It was an
indicator of strategic value for the quality of education and the
country’s development. The Teacher
Training Subsystem recommends a
substantive reform of training and professional qualification for teachers and
other educators, and
this requires a statutory framework which has only been
partially developed.
- In
addition to the Framework Education System Law, the current standard framework
of the emerging subsystem can be found in the Teacher
Training Subsystem Act,
enacted in September 2004, which establishes the continuing education of
teachers as one of the methods of
professional qualification for primary
education after the teacher has begun teaching.
Preschool education
- The
preschool education subsystem, which is the basis of education and serves young
children, is organized into daycare centres, children’s
centres and PICs
for children up to five years old. Responsibility is shared by the MINARS and
the MED, and first grade (which is
the last year of
kindergarten).
- In
2004, the First Forum on the Care and Development of Young Children was the
incentive for the Early Childhood and Preschool Education
Expansion Program. The
following activities were carried out:
- − 153
PICs were built throughout the country (46 in 2005 and 107 in 2006) to benefit
around 35,000 children;
- − 51 PICs
were established in the provinces of Luanda, Bengo, Bié and Huambo;
- − 130
kits were distributed to educators and child supervisors in the provinces of
Bengo, Bié, Huambo, Huíla,
Luanda and Namibe.
- − At the
same time, the Milk and Baby Food Project covered 6,887 children, with 4,076
cartons of Nan1 milk, 3,626 cartons of
Nan2 milk, 5,968 cartons of whole milk,
and 1,997 sacks of whole milk weighing 25 kg
each.
Legend:
TABLE 01 – STUDENTS
REGISTERED IN FIRST GRADE
PROVINCE
TOTAL
...data not
available
Source: Ministry of Education
Table 2.1: Services for five-year-old children in public and private
institutions in
2007
PROVINCES
|
CIE
|
Crs
|
CIP
|
Crs
|
PIC MINARS
|
Crs
|
PIC NGOs
|
Crs
|
# of Inst. For
Children
|
Total Crs
|
BENGO
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
34
|
6,800
|
10
|
2,000
|
44
|
8,800
|
BENGUELA
|
3
|
450
|
3
|
360
|
9
|
2,329
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
3,139
|
BIE
|
1
|
250
|
3
|
298
|
16
|
4,000
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
4,548
|
CABINDA
|
1
|
450
|
3
|
194
|
1
|
525
|
6
|
360
|
11
|
1,529
|
CUNENE
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
516
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
516
|
HUAMBO
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
840
|
20
|
5,000
|
5
|
641
|
32
|
6,481
|
HUILA
|
4
|
1,000
|
23
|
4,600
|
25
|
6,250
|
0
|
0
|
52
|
11,850
|
KUNDO KUBANGO
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
KWANZA NORTE
|
4
|
600
|
0
|
0
|
10
|
447
|
0
|
0
|
14
|
1,047
|
KWANZA SUL
|
3
|
308
|
1
|
250
|
4
|
365
|
1
|
120
|
9
|
1,043
|
LUANDA
|
5
|
2,000
|
80
|
24,000
|
8
|
2,000
|
38
|
5,200
|
131
|
33,200
|
LUNDA NORTE
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
180
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
180
|
LUNDA SUL
|
1
|
133
|
3
|
0
|
2
|
500
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
633
|
MALANGE
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
677
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
677
|
MOXICO
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
250
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
250
|
NAMIBE
|
7
|
604
|
1
|
250
|
4
|
950
|
4
|
859
|
16
|
2,663
|
UIGE
|
1
|
180
|
1
|
250
|
13
|
1,799
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
2,229
|
ZAIRE
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
600
|
2
|
544
|
5
|
1,144
|
|
30
|
5,975
|
125
|
31,042
|
161
|
33,188
|
66
|
9,724
|
382
|
79,929
|
- An
improvement in attendance for girls can be noted, with the parity ratio rising
from 0.88 per cent in 2004 to 1.07 per cent in 2006,
and projections show it
reaching 1.19 per cent in 2007.
- The
crude enrolment ratio for this class was higher than 100 per cent in 2006 and
shows that children over five years old continue
to be registered in this class.
In many schools, the number of children who were left behind in first grade is
significant, and it
demonstrates the unsuitability of the methods and the lack
of clarification about the objectives of this preparation and motivation
phase
for regular enrolment. Trend in the number of students in First Grade between
2003 and 2007 [sic]
- In
the context of training, in January there was a National Seminar for Trainers
for first-grade educators, supervisors and teachers.
The seminar lasted 15 days
and took place in children’s centres and PICs as part of the Education
Reform. This was organized
jointly by the MINARS and the MED with technical and
financial support from UNICEF. There were 120 participants, including child
educators, heads of children’s sections, educators from the centres and
PICs, and educators from the Government and private
centres and PICs in Luanda.
In a partnership with the MED, in July 2007 the MINUA held a course on Education
and Environmental Awareness
with 60 persons trained.
- This
seminar focused on civil servants from the MINARS and the MED. Its principal
goals were to build the technical capacity of trainers
and to analyse the
methodologies to be used in the preschool education subsystem to better orient
first-grade educators, supervisors
and teachers in the Children’s Centers
and PICs on aspects related to the Education Reform
process.
Amounts made available by UNICEF to the country, in
the context of cooperation with the Government for the 2005 –
2008 period
|
|
Regular resources (in thousands of US dollars)
|
|
Regular
|
Others
|
Total
|
Basic education
|
2,544
|
16,000
|
18,544
|
Source: Government/UNICEF Agreement
Primary education
- Education
System Reform began in 2004, when only the first four years of basic education
were mandatory for children, and when this
period was extended to six years, or
six grades (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th), in an attempt to streamline the
education system
structure at the national level, with the principal goal of
phasing in new curricula at all levels to ensure quality education. Primary
Education is compulsory and is for the ages shown in the table
below.
- The
number of students attending primary school rose between the 2004 and 2006
school yeas. The average annual growth rate was 5.6
per cent. If this average
growth rate continues, there will be 3,558,605 students in
2007.
- The
growth rates demonstrate a relative difference between the inland provinces
(66.3 per cent) and the coastal provinces (33.7 per
cent) in 2006. This
disparity merits the utmost in dedicated Government attention because it is a
consequence of the end of the armed
conflict. As for opportunities by gender,
the female category continues to be more disadvantaged in the system, despite
the slight
improvement in the parity ratio, which climbed from 0.73 per cent in
2004 to 0.94 per cent in 2007.
Students registered in primary school between 2004 and
2007
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 (Estimates) |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
3,022,461 |
1,273,711 |
3,119,184 |
1,508,281 |
3,370,079 |
1,629,601 |
3,558,605 |
1,720,763 |
Source: Ministry of Education
Source: Ministry of Education
- This
increase in students resulted in a higher enrolment ratio, which was up from
118.1 per cent in 2004 to 118.2 per cent in 2005,
122.1 per cent in 2006 and
projected to be 127.1 per cent in 2007. Since it is greater than 100 per cent,
this rate demonstrates
that the majority of students in primary schools are
outside the official enrollment age group, which is from 6 to 9 years of age,
and is the basic group involved.
- With
this growth in the number of students, between 2005 and 2006 the Ministry of
Education created roughly 7,500 positions for instructors
(primary and secondary
education). The number of primary teachers rose gradually from 73,006 in 2004 to
75,569 in 2006, and this
was reinforced with the intensification of instructor
capacity-building and training to overcome the deficiencies in
teachers.
Status of primary education instructors in
2005
Status
|
%
|
No or insufficient academic credentials
|
36
|
Have acceptable academic credentials
|
64
|
- The
higher number of students caused a change in the student/teacher ratio to around
43 and also the ratio of students per classroom.
This apparent national average
conceals major differences that demonstrate the existence of noteworthy
disparities since there are
teachers who teach one group, a class of 35 or 45
students who have two lecture shifts, but with one class that has over 100
students.
- The
higher number of students did not follow the number of school facilities in
terms of infrastructure. Consequently, the student/classroom
ratio has risen to
above 100 students for the three periods. Under conditions that have worsened
due to the physical deterioration
of the facilities, the lack of teaching
credentials for the instructors and the use of the triple system, the
teaching/learning process
will necessarily have to pay attention to the area of
school facilities.
- Available
information indicates that education successes are low. Failure and dropout
rates show averages of 23.9 per cent and 18.5
per cent respectively. This is
thus synonymous with the loss of resources and students remaining in school for
longer than desirable
amounts of time and above the appropriate ages. They
occupy space, take up teacher time and use other educational resources. One
of
the biggest constraints in the lack of school success is the poverty of
families. Of every 1,000 students who enter the first
grade, about 37.2 per cent
reach the sixth grade. Thus, retention is extremely low compared to the average
in Sub-Saharan Africa,
where 71 per cent reach the sixth grade.
- The
primary school completion rate rose from 32.1 per cent in 2004, to 33.8 per cent
in 2005 and 35.5 per cent in 2006. The comparison
between crude enrollment
ratios (greater than 100 per cent) and completion (under 40 per cent, which
means that fewer than five out
of ten children complete primary education),
shows that retention is poor in primary education, due to the failure and
dropout rates.
- With
an average passing rate of 57.2 per cent versus 58.3 per cent, males are at a
slight disadvantage compared to females, with girls
performing slightly better
than boys.
Secondary education
- Secondary
education has two levels; the first is for the 7th, 8th and 9th grades, and the
second is for the 10th, 11th and 12th grades
based on the structure in the table
below:
Cycles
|
Grades
|
Ages
|
|
|
|
|
7th
|
12 years
|
1º
|
8th
|
13 years
|
|
9th
|
14 years
|
|
|
|
|
10th
|
15 years
|
2º
|
11th
|
16 years
|
|
12th
|
17 years
|
Source: Ministry of Education
Source: Ministry of Education 2007
- The
first cycle of secondary education represents less than 10 per cent of the
school population pyramid. The trend in terms of students
may be observed in the
following table with the gender bias in favor of females:
Trends in student populations |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 (Estimates) |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
MF |
F |
197,735 |
107,152 |
233,698 |
126,640 |
270,662 |
146,671 |
316,664 |
171,599 |
Source: Ministry of Education
- Crude
enrollment ratios (25.2 per cent in 2004, 28.9 per cent in 2005, 32.5 per cent
in 2006 and 36.9 per cent in 2007) are low, and
this demonstrates not only the
insufficient school network to guarantee meeting the demand for education, but
it also points out
the problems of the transition between the first and
secondary levels. To counterbalance the situation, the MED is implementing a
vast programme of building 53 secondary schools and polytechnic institutes in
order to minimize the shortage and include over 78,720
students.
Right to education for male and female children who belong to
minority ethnic groups
-
Non-discrimination as one of the fundamental principles of the democratic State,
established in the CL, in harmony with the Convention,
is the basis for
promoting economic, social and cultural solidarity among all the regions of the
Republic of Angola, and seeks to
ensure the harmonious development of the entire
Nation of Angola. This constitutional principle serves as a legal basis for one
of
the Government’s current and future priorities of gradually eliminating
the disadvantages faced by children living in the less
developed urban and rural
areas of the country, with an impact on the lands of minority ethnic
communities.
- For
example, take the children in the Khoi San community, an ethnic minority in
Angola, who are integrated normally into the community
just like any other
children in the country with access to schools. However, since they are a very
conservative community, they carry
out prevention measures among themselves and
awareness campaigns to foster their integration in the region to which they
belong.
They are also involved in recreational and cultural activities as well
as leisure activities under equal circumstances and treatment
as all children.
- Some
special programmes in the area of transhumance seem to stem from the necessity
of ensuring access for children of nomadic populations
from Namibe, Huíla
and Cunene provinces to social services, namely education and health.
Education for children who are left behind
- The
enactment of the Framework Education System Act, Law No. 13/01, adjusted to the
Education Reform Program in progress, simplified
the educational system
structure, and phased in new curricula to ensure quality education. With this,
the 2006 – 2015 Literacy
and Catch-up Strategy was adopted, among other
strategies.
- In
the context of lowering illiteracy in the country and implementing the Ministry
of Education’s Literacy and Catch-up for
Being Left Behind Program, in
partnership with UNICEF, the sector recorded positive indicators. In Luanda the
attendance rate is
above 30,000 persons for the 2007 school year, including
persons who are at least 15 years old. The programme seeks to accelerate
learning with the use of self-teaching and the certification of skills acquired
in various contexts of formal and informal education.
In several groups
throughout the country, the method enabled about 80 percent of students to read
and write in just three months..
- Circular
Letter No. 19/ SCM/ 2006 approved the Strategic Plan by implementing the School
Meal Program for the 2007/2008 Period. The aim of the programme is
to make the child the centre of attention for education due to the importance of
the physical and emotional
stability of children as promoters of the future and
development, keeping in mind that the fight to reduce poverty begins with child
advocacy.
- The
Government designed and implemented the programme and allocated financial
resources for 2007 to all the provinces. In 2007, the
programme covered the
provinces of Cabinda, Luanda, Kuanza Sul, Huambo, Benguela Moxico, Bié
and Uíge, and was of benefit
to 355,034 students in 454 schools. For
2008, the plan is to implement the programme throughout the
country.
Legend:
3. Primary Education
4. Secondary Education
6. Higher Education
7. Special Education
Education objectives
- Education
is a process that seeks to objectively and harmoniously develop physical,
intellectual, moral, civic, esthetic and work-related
capacities, to prepare the
individual for the requirements of political, economic and social life and to
develop in a human environment,
the family circle, in labor relations,
educational institutions and through cultural and gymnastic/athletic
events.
- Articles
1, 2 and 3 of Framework Law No. 13/01 on the Education System provides for
legislative, administrative and educational measures
that guarantee the
objectives of State Education, with the task of teaching the young generation
(children) respect for national
values and symbols, human dignity, tolerance,
the culture of peace, national unity, preservation of the environment and the
attendant
improvement in life, promotion of the law and respect for life,
liberty and personal integrity.
B. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities
- The
MINCULT, through its specialized agencies, carries out various programmes for
the purpose of guaranteeing access for children
to cultural and leisure
facilities and to cultural products through the preparation of the Culture
Development Plan, which includes
various child-related projects and programmes.
In 2007 the “Children’s Book Garden” was
reinstated. The fundamental objective of this annual event is to promote books
and reading among children; national coverage
is planned.
- The
Angola National Library is an entity that promotes reading. In 2006 it carried
out the “Third Reflection Days on Books and
Reading” with the theme
“For the Future of Angola We Will Cultivate the Enjoyment of
Reading.” The main focus will
be children and this event will be combined
with activities such as lectures, launches of child-youth books, and reading
sessions.
Throughout the 2006 – 2007 period a training programme was
carried out for promoters of reading, lectures on topics related
to the
promotion of books and reading incentives, various reading sessions in the
library, in schools, reception centres and other
venues with the participation
of 1,926 children, in addition to launches of children’s books, including
the book entitled O
Balão Vermelho, by Cremilda de Lima, with a special
edition that was distributed free of charge.
- As
part of its activities, the National Anthropology Museum organized: (a) exhibits
(open daily, including Saturdays, Sundays and
holidays), (b) guided tours for a
total of 23,970 children from five to twelve years old and 12,501 from 13 to 18
years old, and
(c) 37 didactical lectures and debates (in the museum and
elsewhere). The museum also cooperated to produce a guided tour of its
facilities for a child and the tour was broadcast during the children’s
programme entitled Carrossel on Angola Public Television.
- As
part of its activities, the National Natural History Museum organized: (a) the
Vacation Program with the participation of 50 children
from eight to fourteen
years old, (b) the Christmas Workshop, attended by 30 children from age three to
12, (c) the Film Week on
the Natural Sciences, with the participation of 200
children from age eight to fourteen, (d) the contests on elephants and the world
of insects, with the participation of 300 children from ten to fourteen years
old, (e) lectures and temporary exhibits entitled “The
Crocodiles of
Angola,” Palanca Negra Gigante,” the burning insect “Ferro em
Brasa,” and “Sexually Transmitted
Diseases,” with the
participation of a total of 1,150 children between age twelve and
fourteen.
- The
MINJUD is carrying out a sports programme entitled "Despontar," which focuses on
the social insertion of children from age 7 to
18 through sports, i.e. football,
chess, basketball, track and field and roller hockey, with the first phases in
the provinces of
Zaire, Benguela, Cabinda, Huambo, Huíla, Luanda, Lunda
Norte and Moxico. In cooperation with the Brazilian Ministry of Sports,
the
MINJUD is carrying out the Pintando a Liberdade Project, which manufactures
balls for children in detention centres (16 - 18
years old), as a mechanism for
their vocational training and social reintegration, and the manufactured balls
go to institutions
that support the creation and promotion of sports activities.
- As
part of the Executive Plan to Support Youth, the MINJUD is carrying out the
Casas da Juventude (Youth Houses) Project, which aims
to build social service
and support infrastructure for children who lack intergenerational
relationships. There is also vocational
training, how to spend leisure time and
promoting information technology, not to mention other objectives. The
Viana/Luanda Youth
House has already been built, the Kuanza Sul house is in the
official opening phase, and the houses in Uíge, Huambo, Zaire,
Cabinda,
Malange, and Benguela are now being built.
- Through
the National School Social Action Office, the MED is organizing and carrying out
programmes in partnership with the specialized
sectors of the Government:
(MINCULT, MINJUD, etc.) and social partners (Fundo Lwini, OPA, etc.). The
purpose of these cultural and
recreational programmes in the schools is to visit
historical venues and museums, conduct training visits, hold Olympiads in
several
educational disciplines, provide incentives to reading by creating
school libraries, patriotic activities (raising and lowering the
flag and
commemorating astronomical events), children’s camps, recreational and
cultural activities such as theater, Carnival,
musical contests, drawing,
composing manual works, and handicrafts, in addition to regulating access to
sporting and recreational
venues in the schools.
IX. SOCIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
- The
State fosters and implements special protection policies for all children who
are victims or are vulnerable, i.e., protection
for young children, legal and
judicial protection, protection inside families that are disintegrating or in
extreme poverty, protection
from all types of violence, thereby complying with
point D7 of the committee’s final observations, and with articles 22,
38,39,40,
37 (b), (c) and (d), 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the Convention.
A. At-risk children
Refugee and displaced children in inland areas
- In
achieving its goals and in observance of recommendation No. 59 of the Committee
of Nations for the Rights of the Child, the Government
is implementing a
programme to again return and resettle the dislocated populations, refugees and
other persons directly affected
by the armed conflict, the general purpose of
which is to ensure that these people return to and resettle in their areas of
origin,
with special attention to children.
− The programme, designed in the post-conflict period, involves the
Government’s social partners and has a Government
poverty-reduction
strategy component (2004–2006) with the purpose of carrying out
sustainable reintegration programmes in areas
in which repatriated and
dislocated persons are concentrated, with the following priorities:
− Upgrading basic services in the areas to which these people are
returning;
− Renovating the productive and social infrastructures in the areas to
which these people are returning;
- − Income-generating
projects that have a rapid impact and create jobs;
− Promoting campaigns of peace, reconciliation and human rights,
including
children’s rights.
Children in armed conflict
- After
the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Government and the
Cabindês Forum for Peace in Cabinda, the Cabinda
provincial government
carried out a series of programmes to provide special services to children in
the context of reintegrating
the vulnerable groups directly affected by the
armed conflict in that part of the country. The traditional authorities are
involved
in protecting and promoting the rights of the children that live in
these jurisdictions, and fundamentally to combat all types of
violence against
children, the birth registry, psycho-social rehabilitation and
literacy.
- The
project to support the reintegration of vulnerable groups includes a training
package in cooking and pastry-making, decoration,
laundry services, sewing and
embroidery, skills for life based on micro-lending, child protection, and
primary health care, including
HIV/AIDS.
- According
to the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.66), unexploded mines and explosives (UXOS)
are a lethal danger, especially for children,
and are a serious obstacle to
economic and social recovery. It is extremely difficult to locate these
explosives. Despite the involvement
of several governmental institutions such as
the INAD and the CNIDAH, which cooperate with United Nations agencies and NGOs,
the
work of mapping, de-mining and removing explosives is a challenge, and those
that have not been located or removed continue to create
victims, including
children.
- Clearing,
information and social awareness efforts about mines and explosives have been
important in preventing and protecting children
from the danger they represent
and several social players are involved, including the Armed Forces, the
National Police, the National
Social Protection Commission, churches, United
Nations agencies, domestic and international NGOs, local governments,
specialized
companies, traditional entities, and networks to promote and protect
the rights of the child. They organize lectures, stage plays,
provide brochures
and various graphic materials and carry out other relevant activities.
- To
overcome these difficulties that still exist, the Government is continuing to
establish partnerships and raise, human, physical
and financial resources for
the purpose of strengthening the programmes under development and providing
better safety conditions
for children.
Orphans and vulnerable children
- As
extended or foster families continue to be the best solution for placing
children orphaned as a result of the war or other reasons,
these families are
unable to provide care for and protect children who have been orphaned and made
vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
- The
Government carries out activities at the national level to serve vulnerable
children and is finalizing and implementing the National
Plan to Prevent and
Reduce the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Vulnerable Children and Families, as well as to
expand the policy of serving
vulnerable children in a manner consistent with the
National Strategy for Vulnerable Children, with the purpose of decreasing
vulnerability
of children to abuse and exploitation. This is being done
by:
- − Strengthening
family capacities and the community’s ability to respond to orphans and
vulnerable children;
- − At the
national level, bolstering institutional capacities to expand services for
orphans and vulnerable children;
- − Upgrading
social protection mechanisms through political and legislative reforms in
accordance with the national poverty reduction
strategy.
- The
group of vulnerable children includes all children in conflict with the law,
those deprived of parental care, those deprived of
shelter or street children,
those who are exposed to abuse and mistreatment, sexual and economic
exploitation, orphans, neglected
children, children who take care of and live
with other children, those who have parents or guardians who are terminally ill,
those
who live in houses led by elderly people, those who are victims of
violence, disabled children, those who are not in the education
system, those
who are at risk of infection, displaced children, and those who are experiencing
an emergency.
- The
Networks for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child are in the
process of being created, strengthened and expanded
at the local, municipal and
provincial levels. They will identify the needs of vulnerable children and are
key to orienting and implementing
activities in health services, education,
reporting, awareness, conciliation, mediation, respect for anonymity, privacy,
confidentiality,
and non-discrimination, to mention a few.
- By
2009 a child vulnerability survey will be taken in all the provinces in an
effort to protect children who do not receive parental
care and those whose
rights are violated. Data will be collected at different levels and will be used
to:
- − Improve
basic services for vulnerable children;
- − Improve
resources to strengthen programme coordination;
- − Financially
support microlending for the most vulnerable communities and families by
increasing farm production and supporting
small businesses;
- − Build
the capacities of employees at the provincial and national level who are
implementing and monitoring the Plan;
- − Build
the capacities of the NGOs, religious organizations and community leaders to
stimulate local initiative, technical response
and networks;
- − Expand
existing vocational courses to cover the OVCs .
Resources made available during the period
|
Programme
|
Amounts allocated annually in absolute terms and in
percentages
|
2004
|
%
|
2005
|
%
|
2006
|
%
|
2007
|
%
|
Government Budget
|
Child assistance
|
414,557,954.00
|
0.04
|
471,144,524.00
|
0.02
|
936,694,511.00
|
0.04
|
NOT AVAILABLE
|
|
Source: 2004, 2005, 2005 2006 and 2007 Government Budget
Amounts made available by UNICEF to the
country, as part of cooperation with the Government for the
2005 - 2008 period
|
|
Regular resources (in thousands of US
dollars)
|
|
Regular
|
Others
|
Total
|
Social policy, advocacy and communication
|
2,920
|
3,000
|
5,920
|
Intersectoral liaison
|
8,000
|
11,000
|
19,000
|
Source: Government/UNICEF cooperation agreement
- It
is obvious that the armed conflict is the main reason there are orphans in
Angola, but HIV/AIDS has increased the size of this
vulnerable group of
children, estimated at 15,000.00 [sic]. Of these, 160,000 are HIV/AIDS orphans,
37,552 of whom are in Cunene
province. Of this total, roughly one-third (11,533)
are reportedly vulnerable orphans, i.e., they are living with families that are
extremely poor.
- The
child vulnerability mitigation programme, designed before the armed conflict
ended, was not implemented for several years, but
now it is beginning to be
implemented in the current context. During those years, attention was focused
primarily on the programme
to locate and reunite separated children and orphans
with their families. Many children orphaned by the war were placed in extended
or foster families.
- In
earlier contexts, when an orphan child was reintegrated or placed, the guardian
family actually took care of the child in the same
way they treated their
biological children. In the current context, studies on OVCs suggest that
children who are orphaned are more
likely to care for themselves or receive care
from an elderly relative. They are also at a disadvantage in terms of direct
access
to education compared to other biological children who receive primary
care.
- Orphaned
children also have difficulty accessing food and are more likely to start
working at an age when they are developing, to
live in the street, to be
exploited in order to increase the income of the family who is caring for them
and, under other circumstances,
to be abused and instrumentalized to commit
crimes, which in turns results in high levels of school dropout rates.
- The
inheritance of the deceased parents is subject to expropriation by the closest
relatives who claim guardianship and protect the
child. Based on experience in
Angola, these children are more likely to be accused of sorcery.
B. Children in conflict with the law
Administration of justice to minors
- The
Total Legal Protection System for Children In Angola is characterized by the
public political levels, namely: the basic social
necessities for all children;
social assistance for those who need it; special protection for children who are
victims; and guarantees
of rights for children who are in conflict with the
law.
- The
administration of justice to minors includes guarantees of rights, in which the
State has sought to provide deferential treatment
for them for matters related
to legislation and other measures applicable to children in conflict with the
law, perpetrators of offenses
or, when they become victims, giving them
guarantees of children’s rights in the context of implementing standards
for justice
for minors in accordance with articles 37, 40 and 30 of the
Convention.[41]
- The
Court for Minors Act and the Code of Procedure for the Court for Minors are the
instruments that guarantee the administration
of justice for minors in Angola.
They are operating standards for the Court for Minors, an entity with
jurisdiction over matters
of social protection and crime prevention for
children. They identify the statutory parameters of jurisdiction over children
who
are in social danger or a pre-delinquent situation, as well as procedural
standards essential for implementing social assistance
through its judicial
entities, and for the other public and private entities called upon to become
involved in implementation.
- The
purpose of the Court for Minors is to ensure that minors under its jurisdiction
receive judicial protection, that their rights
and interests are defended, and
that they receive the statutory protection given to them by the law through the
implementation of
guardianship measures for their care, assistance and
education. The Court for Minors Act provides for other complementary bodies
and
units that seek to make it more efficient in protecting the rights of the child,
and their operations depend on the approval
of appropriate regulations that will
lead to expansion to all of the provinces in the country and strengthen the
process.
- To
implement the Court for Minors Act, the Government carries out reflection
programmes and regulates social-educational measures
for preventing crime for
children in conflict with the law. These statutory instruments are essential for
the successful implementation
of the measures to provide services to the
community and for probation.
- The
process has been implemented in several stages, namely the design of the outline
for the programme, preparation of the statutory
bases, evaluation by everyone
involved of the documents, and capacity-building.
- There
was also a Capacity-Building and Awareness Seminar, attended by court
magistrates and the Office of the Prosecutor, as well
as officials and employees
of the social sectors involved. The theme was The Court for Minors and the
Protection of Children’s
Rights,” held in September 2006 on the
regulamentação das
medidas.[42]
- The
challenges of effectively implementing Law 9/96 and the Code of Procedure for
the Court for Minors in the country obviously remain,
particularly in terms of
expansion and strengthening. After the process was implemented, there was a
recent evaluation to determine
the status of the infrastructure, the operation
of the Court for Minors and related organizations, so that some progress has
been
made in implementing Law 9/96 and the supplemental
legislation.
- The
evaluation also found some constraints in the implementation of justice for
minors. The effectiveness and efficiency of the system
for administering justice
to minors depends on other actions, namely building and regulating the
operations of rehabilitation centres,
allocating funding, and hiring and
training personnel, which are matters that are dealt with by the governmental
entities in the
short term.
- The
conclusions will clearly identify the role and responsibilities of the different
institutions involved in the system of administering
justice to minors, the
obligation of having them assume responsibilities, scheduling programmes that
lead to implementing the law
throughout the country, as well as the creation of
technical, structural and financial conditions that guarantee that the system
will be sustainable and effective.
Children who are detained or in
custody
- Since
there are no rehabilitation centres, two alternative measures for detaining
children who are in conflict with the law have been
taken and rules have been
made for implementation in accordance with Law 9/96, and they
are:
(a) The community services measure rule, article 17 paragraph (d) of Law 9/96 of
April, the Court for Minors Act;
(b) The probation rule, article 17 paragraph (e) of the same
Law.
- To
monitor the implementation of these measures, the Government created by law the
Minor Guardianship Commission, for which there
is also a rule to improve its
performance.
- In
the Court for Minors, the National Juvenile Delinquency Department monitors the
implementation of parole and part-time detention
measures ordered by the judge
through police supervision of special police officers from that department.
- Building
assistance or education centres for part-time detention and for detaining
children in conflict with the law or in social
danger, preparing and approving
the respective regulations, as well as hiring personnel, are the challenges the
Government and its
partners are facing.
C. Street children
- Despite
the fact that the number of children who live on the street or who spend most of
their time there is still significant, there
has been a considerable decrease
due to the relative improvement in the lives of the citizens.
- According
to Angolan law, street children, orphans, abandoned children and other
vulnerable children are to be reintegrated into their
families or placed in
foster families. The Family Tracing and Reunification Program has guaranteed
this right throughout the country.
- After
over 2,000 activists were trained for the campaign, activities were carried out
in the provinces of Luanda, Benguela, Moxico,
Malange, Uíge and
Bié to support separated children in temporary institutions and host
families, which reunited more
than 10,000 children with their
families.
- Data
on children that spend much of their time in the street or that live on the
street, provided by the successive surveys until
2006, have not been adjusted to
the current reality because of the fast pace of the programmes that reintegrate
hundreds of children
and place them with their biological families, with foster
families, in homes and in institutions.
- The
factors that cause the “street children” phenomenon have not yet
been entirely eliminated. The results of the studies
on the causes of voluntary
separation in Luanda province showed that there are 1,545 street children that
have been picked up and
hosted in Casa Pia de Luanda 600 in an effort to
reintegrate them into their biological families. To this end, cooperation
agreements
are being initialed with different Government partners to implement a
programme to develop and upgrade the private institutions to
which street
children will be taken, and there will be integrated education and vocational
training programmes.
C. Espaços Amigos da Criança (EAC)
- The
formal idea behind the “Espaços Amigos da Criança,”
implemented in late 1999, was to provide safe haven
to children as well as care
and protection in several provinces ravaged by war during the conflict period.
EACs were the only recognized
public venue where children could be visible and
be included as agents of society during that period. These Espaços Amigos
da Criança offered psycho-social support for the children and also served
as centres for education, mine awareness, information
on HIV/AIDS, and family
tracing.
- In
the post-conflict context, the EACs are contributing to protecting
children’s rights as they are one of the alternatives
that guarantee this
right and the right of children to participate in the development of their
personality.
D. Child trafficking
- With
UNICEF support, the Government has investigated child trafficking patterns and
has begun to develop national strategies to implement
measures to prevent
children from leaving the country without the oversight of the appropriate
authorities.
- The
action plan adopted by the Huíla region (Matala) and Kunene (Santa Clara,
a border locality), also has a national component
to prevent child trafficking.
- Monitoring
is carried out by the structures are involved and there was an evaluation in
September 2004. The lessons learned from the
evaluation were used to take ad hoc
measures, and the experience evolved into preparing a national strategy to
strengthen various
contributions, culminating with the second evaluation planned
for 2008.
- The
Networks for the Protection of Children’s Rights and the Prevention of
Trafficking are now being created, strengthened and
expanded at the national,
provincial and local levels to prevent and fight trafficking.
- The
Multilateral Cooperation Agreement to Fight the Trafficking of Humans, and of
Women and Children in particular, in Central and
West Africa during the
Ministerial Conference of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
and the Economic Community
of Central African States (ECCAS) against Human
Trafficking in 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria, will contribute significantly to creating
a coordination system to prevent and fight transborder trafficking. Kidnapping
and trafficking are considered violence. By design,
the strategy being adopted
by the Government with UNICEF support placed priority on the implementation of
programmes that are part
of it and that will have major partners such as the
WHO, ILO, Terre des Hommes, etc., and will be preceded by regional research
efforts
that have already been planned.
- The
purpose of the Agreement is to create a common front in the National Force
against Human Trafficking in order to prevent, fight,
eradicate and punish human
trafficking through joint cooperation at the international level. It also seeks
to protect, rehabilitate
and return trafficking victims to their original
environment when necessary, and to provide mutual assistance in investigating
and
detaining traffickers through cooperation between the authorities with
competent jurisdiction of the signatory States. In 2007, in
São Tome e
Príncipe, the Government of Angola participated in the preparation of the
Joint ECCAS/ECOWAS Action Plan
against the Trafficking of Humans, and of Women
and Children in particular.
- It
is understanding that the trafficking uses routes such as: origin (countries or
exist points of children who are trafficking victims
to a domestic or
international destination); transit (countries, locations or points where
traffickers and victims spend some time temporarily for geographic or logistical
reasons); and
destination (countries or arrival points in the traffic pattern).
The lack of systematized information and the country’s current
context
make it impossible to determine where this is taking place in Angola. This
objective situation causes the authorities that
protect and promote the rights
of the child to consider this objective situation extremely troublesome, and it
should be the focus
of attention for children’s policies and
programmes.
E. Violence against children
Violence against girls
- Domestic
violence is by far the most common type of gender violence perpetrated against
female children. In Angola this situation
is of extreme concern. According to
Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women, violence
against women is defined as any act of gender-based
violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public
or
private life.
- In
an attempt to update the Action and Intervention Plan against the Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children, enacted by Decree
24/99, the INAC is evaluating
its implementation in the hopes that the results will contribute significantly
to planning actions
to strengthen the strategy.
- There
have been situations of extreme concern regarding violence against women and
against female children in particular. Recent data
on incidents of gender-based
violence collected monthly by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
in Moxico province (see
table below) indicate that, in 2005, 114 cases of
domestic violence were reported, as well as 28 early marriages and ten cases of
sexual abuse of children in different localities in the
province.
Report on Gender-Based Violence in September 2005
Moxico Province
|
Type of incident
|
Location and Number of Incidents
|
Luena
|
Luau
|
Cazombo
|
Lumbala N’Guimbo
|
Total
|
Previous month
|
Cumulative since January
|
Rape
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
13
|
Attempted rape
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
Sexual abuse of children
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
10
|
Sexual assault
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Domestic violence
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
6
|
26
|
144
|
Forced marriage
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
8
|
Early marriage
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
28
|
Other
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
25
|
Total, all types
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
11
|
39
|
241
|
Source: United Nations High Commission for Refugees
- A
survey was performed by MINFAMU and the INAC with support from UNICEF, the UNDP,
UNIFEM and the UNFPA. The survey studied 750 children,
410 of whom were girls,
in nine municipalities in Luanda province, covering urban, semi-urban and rural
areas. The study concluded
that three-quarters of the children (girls), or 78
per cent of them between age 14 and 18, experienced physical, psychological, and
sexual violence, including early motherhood as a consequence.
- The
survey also showed that school-age children between 12 and 17 who were not in
the school system were subjected to some type of
violence. Of those that were
studied, 17.4 per cent were between 12 and 15 years old, while 6.3 per cent were
between 16 and 17;
of these, 11.9 per cent were girls and an equal percentage
were boys. For those who were not in the school system, 13.2 per cent
were
between 12 and 15 and 6.6 per cent were between 16 and 17 years old, with 13.2
per cent girls and 6.6 per cent boys.
- As
part of the administrative measures, within the National Criminal Investigation
Division, the Violence against Women and Children
Section was created by Order
No. 242 of 11 October by the Commander General of the National Police, for the
purpose of paying more
attention to the cases of violence that occur frequently
in families and in the community. In 2006, this measure was supplemented
with
the creation of Brigades, whose activities at the provincial level are to
prepare the guidelines for preventing this phenomenon
and for providing
information about the situation in the respective provinces.
- On
13 September 2003, due to the growing number of cases, the National Police
School Brigade was created to protect students, ensure
their safety and
eliminate crime in the schools.
- The
Family Tracing and Reunification Program, run by the MINARS, continues in
effect. Its purpose is to reintegrate children who are
at physical and social
risk into their natural and/or foster families so that they can develop. In 2003
action plans were adopted
at the local, regional and national level in order to
prevent violence, protect victims and supervise them in the educational and
vocational training process with multisectoral monitoring of victims and
families.
Children accused of sorcery
- Some
traditional practices encourage acts of violence, and thus children are accused
of sorcery. This originated in the northern provinces
of Uíge, Zaire and
Luanda, and has spread, with some cases being found nearly everywhere in the
country, and especially in
some of the southern provinces.
- Between
2001 and 2005, 423 children accused of sorcery were exposed to situations of
extreme vulnerability in the streets of M'banza
Congo; from there they were
taken to the Santa Children’s Center run by the Catholic Church in that
city. The destructive presence
of traditional practices and allegations of
sorcery and witchcraft against children caused the families to categorically
refuse to
deal with them.
- As
a result of the scope of problems related to the abuse and abandonment of
children accused of sorcery in Angola, in 2005 the INAC
performed a study on the
“Impact of Accusations of Sorcery against Children in Angola” to
learn about the event from
an anthropological perspective and based on the
rights of the child. This study, designed to develop an action plan to protect
children
and to build a platform for coordinated intervention by the
governmental institutions, is strengthening the power of the legal systems
and
of the communities and is creating holistic protection for children who are
victims of violence. This study was an important
contribution to the
comprehensive study on violence against children that was submitted by the
Secretary General of the United Nations
in 2006.
Economic exploitation, sexual exploitation and child labor
- The
MAPESS has published and is continuing to disseminate the legislation on
employment, training and vocational rehabilitation policies,
whose
implementation strategy in Law No. 1/06 of January 18 contains, among other
things, the following measures:
- Integration
of youth into active life, which aims to develop and promote jobs
for youths through integrated policies that meet the needs of youth looking for
their first
job, at every step along the way of occupational insertion,
stimulating and improving the diversity of choice and their contribution
to the
country’s overall development;
- Training
of youths in the learning system, which enables youths from 14 to 25 years old
who are looking for their first job and who
have at least six years of primary
school to obtain the essential occupational license to facilitate the transition
from the education
system to the working world;
- Technical
and financial support for vocational training, for the public and private
sectors and social partners who plan to develop
vocational training
programmes;
- Temporary
jobs for youths with activities of interest to the community, with the goal of
keeping young people occupied temporarily
with jobs that meet the needs of the
localities and/or areas where they reside, in particular jobs with a civic
character that are
innovative and that occupy free time for the purpose of
acquiring occupational skills, adjusting to the qualities of the working
world,
and participating in community activities;
- Support
for employment and vocational training of young girls, which seeks to build the
capacities of the youngest groups of women
and build their capacities to find
their first jobs, giving them the opportunity at the personal and professional
level to acquire
skills for self-employment and/or access to family
income;
- Local
employment programmes, which are part of local leadership and development to
foster programmes that create jobs at the local
level for youths looking for
their first jobs;
- Support
for the socio-professional integration of moderately disabled youths looking for
their first jobs, to promote capacity-building,
qualification and vocational
rehabilitation for social-professional integration and the job market for youths
who are moderately
disabled and are looking for their first jobs, to raise the
awareness of employers and other entities that offer incentives for placing
or
hiring moderately disabled youths. It also aims to carry out individual and
family socio-professional projects for persons with
disabilities;
- Support
for the socio-professional integration of youths who are socially at-risk and of
working age, which seeks to integrate youths
who are of a working age (14-30
years), who have repeatedly failed in primary school and are at risk, orienting
them to alternative
lifestyles, in order to prevent them from becoming socially
marginal by teaching them the basics of motivation that include projects
for a
dignified and professional life.
- These
measures, taken in harmony with the objectives of the International Labor
Organization (ILO) and Convention 182, aim to gradually
eliminate the worst
forms of child labor (hazardous labor, commercial sexual exploitation, child
trafficking, slavery, etc.).
- Cases
of violations of children’s rights, especially sexual abuse,
discrimination, neglect and violence in the family, urban
and rural communities
and involvement in the worst forms of child labor (in diamond mines, border
localities, airports, markets and
bus terminals (and economic exploitation
(hazardous activities, such as high-seas fishing in the South in Namibe
province), and much
mention was made of these issues in creating themes for the
status of the child. The commercial sexual exploitation of children and
street
labor are visible, particularly in the urban centres where the most vulnerable
groups are orphans and homeless children.
- Measures
to counter the situation are being taken in the national strategy to prevent and
mitigate violence against children, without
neglecting the urgent necessity of
revising the National Action and Intervention Plan against the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation
of Children adopted through Resolution No. 24/99, which proved to
be unsuitable for the current context, and whose activities to
meet these needs
are in progress.
F. Use of drugs
- The
Government created the Committee to Fight Drug Use, which coordinates
multisectoral activities to combat the possession, trafficking
and consumption
of narcotics.
- Drugs
are consumed by citizens beginning at age 15. The choice of drug depends largely
on the user’s buying power, and usually
starts with cannabis. The poorest
frequently use inhalants (simple rags with gasoline), and street boys are the
predominant users.
This produces a sensation of euphoria and excitement,
interferes with hearing and sight, and can even cause hallucinations. Repeated
inhaling of solvents can destroy the neurons, resulting in a loss of reflexes,
difficulty concentrating, and memory problems. The
majority of inhalants depress
the central nervous system, with acute effects quite similar to those from
alcohol. Actually, many
inhalant users also use other drugs at the same time,
and alcohol in particular, which can lead to sudden death.
- In
this context, the National Criminal Investigation Department of the National
Police recorded 950 crimes as of 2007, committed by
1,207 children of both sexes
broken down as follows: in 2006, 646 crimes committed by 777 male children and
62 female children; in
2007, 304 crimes committed by 350 male minors and 18
female minors. The crimes committed are varied, but primarily there are the
possession and use of narcotics (3 per cent) and the sale of narcotics (2 per
cent).
- Programmes
to prevent and fight this problem are carried out in several government
programmes that include moral, civic and patriotic
education, awareness and
social mobilization, as well as other control measures that have not yet proven
to be as effective as necessary
because measures were included as part of the
national strategy to prevent and mitigate violence against children.
Annex 1
List of participants in the process of preparing the
report
- Representatives
of Government bodies, namely:
- Ministry
of Assistance and Social Reintegration (MINARS);
- Ministry
of [sic] (MINSA);
- Ministry
of Education (MED);
- Ministry
of Justice (MINJUS);
- Ministry
of Family and Women’s Empowerment (MINFAMU);
- Ministry
of the Interior (MININT);
- Ministry
of Foreign Relations (MIREX);
- Ministry
of Youth and Sports (MINJUD);
- Ministry
of Culture (MINCULT);
- Ministry
of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security (MAPESS);
- Ministry
of Planning (MINPLAN);
- Ministry
of Urban Development and the Environment (MINUA);
- Ministry
of Social Communication (MCS);
- Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER);
- Ministry
of Finance (MINFIN);
- Ministry
of Energy and Water (MINEA);
- National
Children’s Institute (INAC).
- Provincial
governments;
- Local
governments;
- School
Security Brigade of the Provincial Command of the National Police in
Luanda;
- Representatives
of religious entities:
- Oblate
Sisters;
- Dom
Bosco;
- Pastoral
da Criança;
- Centro
Arnaldo Jansen;
- REMAR;
- Representatives
of civil society and others:
- Legal
Reception Centers of the Organization of Angolan Women (OMA);
- Women’s
Network;
- Kandengues
Unidos.
- Representatives
of United Nations agencies:
- UNICEF
- OHCHR
- Of
children.
- Provincial
children’s assemblies
- Others
- Social
referral centres: Kilamba Kiaxi; Ingombota; Sambizanga.
- Coordinating
teams for the Network to Protect and Promote the Rights of the Child in the
provinces of Huíla, Luanda, Uíge,
Zaire and
Benguela.
Annex 2
The Voice of the Child
To ensure that they participated effectively in the process of preparing
the report, children from the 18 provinces, in age groups
(10 - 13 and 14 - 17),
met and discussed topics on HIV/AIDS, Education, Violence against Children, the
Birth Registry, and Freedom
of Speech and Association. Their statements
follow:
In our school there is no first aid, and we want to discuss issues
such as early pregnancy and diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
We are
entitled to protection against violence, physical aggression, robberies,
mistreatment, abandonment, exploitation and sexual
abuse. We ask our parents or
educators to pay more attention to this during the school year, as well as the
teachers, and to refrain
from using obscene words that are morally and
psychologically offensive to us.
We are entitled to a name, a
nationality, to be registered, and to have an identification card so that we are
able to register for
school.
Children of the province of Namibe
There
should be awareness campaigns with lectures, seminars, and workshops in the
schools and churches and in the municipalities to
shed light on sexually
transmitted diseases and on HIV/AIDS in particular.
We call on the
government to create mobile health posts in the schools.
In our
province, our parents or educators take children out of school to help with
farming, carry heavy loads, care for babies, and
carry water over long
distances; we are spanked with objects such as paddles, hangers, and we are
punched and whipped.
Children of the province of Kuanza Norte
In our province there is a need to
build more hospitals, centres, health posts, maternity centres, to train
employees in pediatrics,
and we are entitled to receive care for the various
epidemics such as malaria or measles, diarrheal diseases, etc., and methods
should
be implemented to reduce child mortality. We deserve dignified services
for a better and healthy country.
We are entitled to be
protected. There should be lectures on violence throughout the province. Adults
should be made aware that they
must stop using violence against us, such as
sexual abuse, mistreatment, contempt, moral harm, etc.
Children of the province of Zaire
We ask the government to ensure
conditions so that circles of interest to us are created, and to have children
participate in meetings
and children’s radio programs. We want to
participate in various activities, lectures and awareness meetings.
We want there to be more control over epidemics such as HIV/AIDS
and other diseases. We want better food in hospitals. We want more
hospitals
built, especially in remote localities. We want campaigns to prohibit induced
abortion, sexually transmitted and other
diseases, improvements in patient care,
especially for children, efforts to prevent the high number of infant deaths
that continue
to be recorded, with more nurses in the municipalities and other
localities.
Children of the province of
Uíge
We
know that freedom of speech exists because Article 13 says we are entitled to
learn about things and speak our mind through speech,
writing or drawing, and
here the right of speech is still not practiced properly due to lack of means.
Many people speak on the Uige
and Negaje radio stations as well as in schools.
We have teachers that allow us to speak. We know about discussing our rights as
children and how to pursue them. We are entitled to freedom of speech at home,
on the streets, in the schools and in churches.
We are entitled
to receive proper care in the hospitals and medical centres and posts, to be
informed of various epidemics, to receive
information in school, in the family,
and even on the street on how to prevent HIV/AIDS.
In our school
the teachers mistreat the students. They offend them morally, beat them and
expel them from the classroom. Also, in
the communities, mother and fathers
spank children, burn them and we can’t say anything, because if we tell
the police, they
believe we are lying and we are arrested for libel.
We are entitled to be registered because it is important. Without
the identification card we cannot register as students and will
not be
considered a being in society, because without the registry we do not have a
name and no way to identify ourselves, for example,
a citizen without a name is
not recognized at the national level.
We ask our parents to
listen to the child speak first before acting, because we have this right and in
many cases we have good ideas.
Children of the province of Kuanza Sul
-----
Bibliography
AP (1992) Constitutional Law of the
Second Republic
AN (2005) Law No. 7/05 of October
15r
AN (2006) Law No. 1/06 if January 18
AN
(1996) Law 9/96 on the Court for Minors
AN (2002) Law 6/02,
Water Act
CIVIL CODE Portuguese Colonial Law in effect in
Angola
DNIC (2004-2007) Annual Reports
FAMILY CODE
(1988) Codification of Family Rights
GOVERNMENT(2000-2007)
Evaluation of Public Spending on the Health Sector
GOVERNMENT
(1999) Decree 24/99 Action and Intervention Plan against the Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children
GOVERNMENT (2005) Decrees 50
and 52/05 of August 8
GOVERNMENT(2004-2006) Government
Budget
GOVERNMENT National Plan to Prevent and Reduce the
Impact of HIV/AIDS
GOVERNMENT (2003) Initial Report on the
Implementation of the CRC in Angola
GOVERNMENT (2007) Findings
of the Third National Forum on Children
GOVERNMENT National
Strategic Plan to Control HIV/AIDS
GOVERNMENT (2001-2015)
National Action Plan for Education for All
GOVERNMENT (2005)
Report on the Implementation of the National MDG Action Plan –
Government of Angola
GOVERNMENT (2007) Report on the
Implementation of the Action Plan to Create a World Fit for
Children
GOVERNMENT (2007) Joint Report on Human Rights
Treaties
INAC/UNICEF (2007) Impact of Accusations of Sorcery
against Children in Angola, “Uma análise na perspectiva dos
Direitos da Criança”
INE Multiple Indicators
Survey
MINADER Food Safety Program
MINARS
Findings of the National PPD Conference
MINARS Program for
Action, Analysis and Rapid Evaluation (RAAAP)
MINARS
Localization and Reunification Program
MINIPLAN (2006)
Government Program Survey
MINSA National Reproductive Health
Strategy
MINSA National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS -
MINSA
MINSA Strategic Plan for the Accelerated Reduction of
Mother-Child Mortality
MINSA Expanded Program on
Immunization
OAA The Angolan Legal System
STATE AND
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Sectoral reports and other official
documents
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
UNICEF “Best Estimate”
UNDP (2006)
Human Development Report
[∗] In accordance with the
information transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their
reports, the present document
was not formally edited before being sent to the
United Nations translation
services.
[1] The Committee
considered Angola’s first report (CRC/C/3/Add.66) at its 991st and 992nd
meetings (CRC/C/ SR. 991-992), held
on September 27, 2004, and adopted its final
observations and recommendations at its 999th meeting held on 1 October 2004
.
[2]
HRI/MC/2004/3.
[3]
CRC/C/3/Add.66.
[4] See sub-chapter
4 – National Action Plan.
[5]
Law No. 9/96, the Court for Minors Act, with implementing regulations adopted by
Decree 6/03 of 28 July.
[6] See the
information on the birth registry in chapter IV –
Rights.
[7] These are part of the
municipal governments; they record births and issue identification cards
pursuant to aforementioned Decree
No.
31/07.
[8] Both are published in
Official Gazette I Series No. 48 of 20 April
2007.
[9] Ombudsman Status
Act.
[10]
http://www.minfin.gv.ao/docs/dspSinteseGeralOGE2007.htm.
[11]
Pioneer is the name given to children that are members of the OPA, a
children’s organization located throughout the country
in schools and
communities that carry out moral and civic educational and social solidarity
activities..
[12] A unit in the
Ministry of Culture that is responsible for generating, applying and auditing
the activities and programs that seek
to develop the country’s artistic
and cultural potential and preserve and promote values that identify the natural
culture
and the knowledge of the values of African and Universal
Culture.
[13] National Health
Policy. “ Por uma Vida Saudável para Todos”. 3rd draft
2007.
[14]Angola: Despensa
Publica no Sector da Saude (2000-2007) , Editorial Principia,
Cascais. Led by the Office of Research, Planning and Statistics (GEPE) in the
MINSA. The study was prepared by
MINSA in conjunction with the Ministry of
Finance (MINFIN). Technical support was provided by the Health Sector Support
Program (Programa
de Apoio ao Sector da Saude - PASS), and financing came from
the European Commission, a partner that has been supporting the sector
for over
a decade.
[15]
Ibid.
[16] Angola: Despensa
Publica no Sector da Saude
(2000-2007)
[17]
http://www.minfin.gv.ao/docs/dspSintese2007-5.htm
[18]
National Public Health Department/UNICEF: Pacote Essencial de health
materno-infantil: Bases normativas para a sua operacionalização,
Luanda, 2007.
[19] MINSA,
National Public Health Department, Luanda
2007
[20] 2005-2009 Strategic
Plan to Accelerate the Reduction in Maternal-Child Mortality in Angola.
Investing in Human Development. MINSA, National Public Health Department in
partnership with the WHO, UNICEF and the
UNFPA.
[21] The mortality rate
for children under five is the likelihood (expressed in a rate of 1,00 live
births) that a child born in any given
year will die before reaching age five,
if current mortality rates for this age are used. UNICEF statistics. http://childinfo.org/areas/childmortality/methodology.php
http://childinfo.org/areas/childmortality/u5data.php
[22]
UNICEF: Best estimate, Luanda
2007
[23] 2005-2009 Strategic
Plan to Accelerate the Reduction in Maternal-Child Mortality in Angola.
Investing in Human Development. MINSA, National Public Health Department in
partnership with the WHO, UNICEF and the
UNFPA.
[24] Essential
Mother-Child Health Package: Standards for making it operational.
MINSA.
[25] “2008-2012
National Malaria Control Strategic Plan:” National Public Health
Department. National Malaria Control Program.
Ministry of Health Angola.
[26]
Ibid.
[27] The program is caried
out in the context of implementing the integrated projects of the United
Nations, NGOs and government
departments.
[28] Ministry of
Plannning: Strategy to Fight Poverty, Luanda
2003
[29] National Strategic
Plan to Fight HIV/AIDS, government of
Angola.
[30] National AIDS
Institute: 2004 Activity Report, Luanda 2006.
[31] Knowledge, Attitudes,
Practices and Behavior of Youth in: PNLS, PSI, UNICEF, USAID (2001),
[32] PNLS, PSI, UNICEF, USAID,(
2003).
[33] Futures Group: PNLS,
UNICEF, UNDP, (2003).
[34] MICS:
Multiple Indicator Survey,
[35]
Objective of the Millennium Summit, New York, September
2000.
[36] UN (2002). Angola: os
Desafios do Pós Conflito Armado, Avaliação Conjunta do
País. Luanda: United Nations
System in Angola.
[37] The presence of intestinal
parasites in a person’s organism generally causes anemia, poor physical
and intellectual development,
and thwarts the ability to learn, thus affecting
the quality of education for
children.
[38 ]Albendazole is a medication
that can easily be chewed and is easily administered to children by their own
teachers.
[39] The number of
educators (teachers without the appropriate professional qualification) for the
8th grade and even for the 6th grade
is very high, mainly due to the shortage of
skilled human resources, mostly in the communes and municipalities that are
farthest
from the provincial
centres..
[40] 2001-2015
Integrated Strategy for Improving the Education
System.
[41] Recommendation No.
71 of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in the Final
Observations
(CRC/C/SR.991-992)
[42]
Participants: Judges and the Office of the Prosecutor responsible for the
enforcement of Law 9/96 in each province, two magistrates
(one from the court
and one from the Office of the Prosecutor) from the Family Section of the Luanda
Provincial Court, two magistrates
(one from the court and one from the Office of
the Prosecutor) from the Criminal Section of the Luanda Provincial Court, six
justice
officers and directors of the provinces of Benguela, Huila, K. Kubango,
Uíge, Huambo, and Moxico and 18 directors from the
MINARS.
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