Acacia in Angola

Initial Scan to Identify Potential Acacia Partners and Proposed ICT Projects in Angola

Project No. 101512 - September 2002

Peace at Last

Following several false starts to an enduring peace process in Angola it appears that the three-decade-long civil war has finally ended - and now rebuilding of a nation is running apace. There are, at last count, just over three hundred NGOs, aid agencies and CBOs active in Angola working to avert a potential humanitarian disaster of famine. The country's resources, infrastructure and capacity have been devastated - particularly severely in the last two years - and these bodies are engaged in a race against time to provide assistance to huge urbanised communities that have mushroomed around a dozen provincial capitals - with priorities in food distribution, water purification and sanitation, housing and agricultural production.

Communications Requirements

With an estimated eight thousand NGO workers and volunteers engaged in social rebuilding and food distribution activities in more than twenty centres around the country, the logistics of planning, managing and communicating with this enormous work-force requires the latest in communications technology. Inmarsat Mini-M sat-phones, Ham radio, HF backbone networks, VSAT stations, email and the humble long-distance telephone line are being utilised to support these efforts. The preferred mode of communicating with field staff is definitely email - due to its hard-copy format and improved speed over fax - and email is presently being carried over sat-phones, HF and ham radio equipment and slow-speed dial-up lines.

Angola NGO Network

The success of the first email service to be provided specifically to NGO's working in Luanda in 1996 (ANGOnet) resulted in a high demand for a commercial service - which was then started two years later as Ebonet. Since 1998 the Internet user market in Angola has grown from one ISP to three, and has reached a subscriber level of almost 7'000 users - in a country with only 90'000 phone lines. Public demand is taking off rapidly and is becoming very popular with young adults in Luanda and in five other provincial capitals where access is available in public Internet cafes. At this stage public access is still limited due to a very poor telephone infrastructure and lack of service access (POP's) in other centres.

Liberalisation of Telecoms in Angola

The liberalisation of the telecoms sector began in 2001 with the licensing of a second GSM operator to compete with the national mobile operator. In July 2002 four new competitive fixed-line operators were licensed to compete with the national monopoly operator. This sector will now become one of the most competitive and liberalised in SADC - resulting in a rapid investment in communications services - and benefits to society at large. This should encourage costs to fall and service take-up to increase rapidly.

SchoolNet in Angola

An assessment was made of the SchoolNet project that was initiated in 2000, and the results are good. The initial three schools are still on-line with the University and with a broadband radio connection to the service provider Ebonet. The services are being used by pupils - although not to the full capacity of the dedicated 256kbps radio links. Ebonet is keen to support further development of this concept and is working with several oil companies who are prepared to offer financial support for system set-up and establishment in other schools. In fact, a fourth school has recently (April 2002) been equipped with twenty PC's and Internet access thanks to a donation by Schlumberger, an international oil company. It is intended that up to twenty secondary schools will receive similar donations by Schlumberger in the next year.

The Impact of ICT in Angola - A Research Report

This research report gauges the impact of various ICT systems in NGO activities and provides an insight into the use of email services by NGO's and UN agencies working in Angola. It is obviously a very powerful tool and its service is popular where it can be accessed - but access to simple email service proves to be a costly and a difficult business in this country. The report includes an account of a three-day visit to the devastated city of Huambo in central Angola where some of the most intense fighting occurred during early 2000 and which has suffered severe destruction in recent years. This city provides a good example of a typical city in Angola and illustrates the impact that a very simple email service can have on NGO communications needs and the cost savings it can effect.

Every NGO cited the use of email as its preferred mode of communications - and their frustration at not having access to simple email services on a broad basis across the country. This lack of access means that alternatives are used - with a subsequent high