On 30 October 2015, the eve of World Cities Day, UN-HABITAT's office in Luanda was officially inaugurated within the Financial Contribution Agreement of the Ministry of Urban Planning and Housing (MINUHA) with the Program for the development of the National Policy for Territorial and Urban Planning (PNOTU).
In 2016, UN-HABITAT prepared the Country Programme Document 2017-2021 for UN-HABITAT in Angola, endorsed by MINUHA, which aims to establish a strategic framework for the implementation of programmes, projects, and activities of the Programme, as well as serve as a platform to fundraise for the maintenance of UN-HABITAT in the country.
Within the framework of PNOTU, a legal, institutional and socio-economic spatial diagnostic of the country has been developed to support territory and urban planning. In addition, the main policy guidelines and the evolution of the policy were defined in line with the current country priorities.
The development of the National Housing Policy has already been approved by the Board of Directors of MINUHA, for which UN-HABITAT Angola in partnership with the Housing Unit of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, should support the Government to achieve.
Furthermore, UN-HABITAT provides high-level advocacy to civil society, academia, government agencies and development partners through discussions, lectures and technical assistance on the New Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development Goal 11, Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.
Impact
Urban numbers
Challenges
According to the National Institute of Statistics, Angola's urban population reached 62.6% in 2014. The majority of the urban population is concentrated in coastal cities, especially Luanda, Benguela, and Cabinda, with high exposure to the effects of climate change. Also, despite massive governmental investments on housing and urban infrastructure since the early 2000s, the urbanization process resulted mainly from an informal occupation of land. The biggest urban agglomerations are: Luanda, with 6,760,444 inhabitants (41.9% of the total urban population); Benguela-Catumbela-Lobito, with 1,083,417 inhabitants (6.70%); Lubango, with 600,751 inhabitants (3.72%); Huambo, with 595,304 inhabitants (3.69%); and Cabinda, with 516,711 inhabitants (3.20%). These cities concentrate almost 60% of the total urban population of Angola and 37.1% of the country’s total population.
According to the Census 2014, 87.2% of the private-owned urban housing stock of Angola result from self-construction, 57.2% of urban households have access to safe water, 81.8% have access to proper sanitation facilities, 50.9% have access to electricity and only 37.5% benefit from an adequate solid waste management system.