Aid in the Midst of Plenty: Oil Wealth, Misery and Advocacy in Angola

This paper examines advocacy initiatives by humanitarian and human rights organisations to address problems of governance in resource‐rich and conflict‐affected countries, focussing on the case of Angola. Humanitarian principles preclude the use of indiscriminate conditionality and point towards a cautious approach to advocacy aimed at assisting vulnerable populations. Furthermore, the relatively insignificant amount of aid supplied to resource‐rich local authorities means that individual agencies have precious little leverage, especially when commercial interests rather than humanitarian or ‘good governance’ principles influence the priorities of bilateral donors. A context of resource wealth calls for: high levels of coordination and cooperation between human rights groups, aid agencies and donors; balanced use of conditionality, based on the drawing, by donors, of a clear distinction between emergency and development‐oriented assistance; and a sustained effort to highlight the responsibilities of local authorities, foreign governments and businesses in meeting humanitarian and development objectives.