Angola

The 2022 National Budget extended social protection coverage to children under 5 living in extreme poverty.

A programme based budget manual and associated action plan was also developed by an inter-ministerial working group led by the Ministry of Finance. It outlines specific actions aimed at improving the financial governance of the social protection system.

Social protection coverage in Angola is very limited, and 54% of Angolans experienced multidimensional poverty in 2020. Accordingly, the government prioritised social sectors by establishing objectives, goals, and targets in their 2018 – 2022 National Development Plan, which aimed to fight poverty and increase social protection equitably and sustainably.

In this context, the project “Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management in Angola” aimed to support the Government of Angola in enhancing the country’s social protection system, including building a national social protection floor towards achieving SDG target 1.3. With this aim, the project carried out strategic actions that promoted the implementation of the National Development Plan, facilitated capacity building and coordination between the main social protection actors and strengthened the management of public finances for durable and sustainable investments in the sector.

The project focused on four key points:

1. 1. Supporting the development of a Social Protection Policy through an Assessment Based National Dialogue (ABND) process, including identification of the coverage gap, cost estimations to establish a social protection floor and fiscal space analysis to identify options to fill the financing gap.
   2. Conducting a series of strategic actions for the preliminary implementation of a performance-based budgeting model in social protection institutions.
   3. Improving coordination of the social protection system.
   4. Strengthening the capacity of public institutions to improve budgeting and delivery of social protection services.

Key results achieved

The SP&PFM project in Angola:

• conducted in 2020 an in-depth stakeholder mapping, consulted key actors in the national social protection and the public finance management systems, and defined key activities for enhancing the synergies across the different sectors;

• engaged with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Promotion of Women (MASFAMU) and the Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security (MAPTSS), which resulted in an unprecedented collaboration between these national institutions to work towards improving the social protection system in Angola;

• supported the government during the revision of the National Policy for Social Action by providing technical inputs, which were incorporated into the new text approved by the Council of Ministers in December 2020 — a milestone that demonstrates the government’s renewed commitment to expanding social protection and provides the policy framework for advancing the SP&PFM project activities in the country;

• progressed significantly in engaging with the Ministry of Finance, particularly with the establishment of a programme-based budgeting and gender-based budgeting. As a result, the 2022 National Budget was the first to include both approaches, representing a key event in the ongoing budgetary reforms supported by the UNICEF’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Finance;

• held several working meetings in 2021 with various social protection institutions in the country, such as the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Women’s Promotion (MASFAMU) and the Ministry of Public Administration (MAPTSS), which enabled the collection of relevant information on the coordination of the social protection system as a whole and their evaluation using a SWOT analysis;

• provided technical support in conducting an Assessment Based National Dialogue (ABND) to inform the Action Plan within the National Policy for Social Action Strategy, following the Presidential Decree No. 37/21 that approved the policy in February 2021. The project has advanced significantly in the diagnosis of the current Angolan social protection system, including the mapping of existing schemes and programmes, population and contingency covered, adequacy of benefits and the update of the ILO Social Security Inquiry (SSI) tool;

• held a joint series of ten webinars with over 14,000 attendees entitled “Simplifying the Budget” in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, which provided a digital advocacy platform on increased transparency and participation in the management of public finances;

• organised two round tables on COVID-19 responses and participatory budgeting, with the participation of international organisations such as the World Bank, World Health Organisation, Angolan governmental institutions, and UN agencies.

The project has also successfully implemented various capacity building activities, including the following:

• Multisectoral Dialogue on the New National Policy for Social Action attended by 52 senior officials of 17 different government bodies, social partners, civil society organisations and development partners, including the MASFAMU Minister, both MASFAMU Secretaries of State and the Minister of State for Social Affairs, organized in partnership with the ILO ACTION/PORTUGAL programme.
• Training on the extension of social protection to workers in the informal economy for 12 members of the National Commission for the ILO composed of representatives of the government and social partners, in partnership with the ACTION/PORTUGAL programme.
• TRANSFORM Decision-Makers training package for 41 senior government officials and members of the multisectoral committee for the implementation of the National Policy for Social Action, organized in partnership with the UNICEF-EU’s APROSOC Programme.

• TRANSFORM Decision-Makers training package delivered to 37 senior officials, including ten Members of Parliament as well as senior officials directly involved in the discussion of the 2022 State Budget submitted to the National Assembly for approval, organized in partnership with UNICEF-EU’s APROSOC Programme.

• Round table discussion on the extension of social protection to informal workers and family-friendly policy options attended by 44 participants from different government institutions, informal organisations associations, social partners, civil society organisations and development partners organized in partnership with UNDP Angola.

• Round table discussion on the extension of social protection to refugees and migrant workers and their families, attended by 65 participants from different government institutions, informal organisations associations, social partners, civil society organisations and development partners organized in partnership with UNDP Angola and UNHCR Angola.

Resources

• Development cooperation project document
• National Policy for Social Action, 2021 (In Portuguese)

News & Events

Project partners

The project was developed jointly by the ILO, UNICEF, the Delegation of the European Union office in Luanda and the Government of Angola through the Ministry of Public Administration, Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Women Promotion, the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Finance, the National Social Security Institute, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.

Contacts

Ms Joana Borges, ILO, Social Protection Specialist, borges@ilo.org

Ms Denise Monteiro, ILO, monteirod@ilo.org

Ms Lizeth Joaquim, ILO, joaquiml@ilo.org  

Ms Louise Moreira Daniels, UNICEF,  lmoreiradaniels@unicef.org 

Ms Kamia Cristina Carvalho Abambres, UNICEF, kcarvalho@unicef.org

Ms Mónica Teresa Augusto Manuel, UNICEF, momanuel@unicef.org 

Mr Marcelo Cohen dos Santos Freeman, UNICEF, mcohen@unicef.org