'Here in the city, everything has to be paid for': locating the community in peri-urban Angola

The following article is a preliminary summary of research carried out for ADRA and the Development Workshop Angola about communities, solidarity and collective action in peri-urban areas of Angola. Full reports in Portuguese and English will be published as Development Workshop Occasional Papers. The strategies of development organisations in Angola have increasingly focused on 'strengthening civil society' and 'governance'. This is positive, though they cannot be seen as magic formulae. The many changes in Angolan society (before and after Independence) have had the result of weakening social cohesion, and migration to peri-urban areas as one of the most important changes. This makes it more difficult to develop the relationships of trust and the mechanisms of accountability that are the basis of a strong civil society and good governance. Strategies need to directly address these issues rather than assume that they exist.