Angola has launched a $1.5 million initiative to develop Municipal Master Plans (PDMs) for four municipalities in Huíla Province — Lubango, Matala, Chibia and Humpata — under the World Bank-backed Njila project, which aims to strengthen governance and improve service delivery across the country.
State Secretary for Urban Planning and Housing Conceição Cristóvão formally presided over the presentation of consultant DAR Angola, which has been contracted to produce the four plans. Speaking at the ceremony in Lubango, Cristóvão demanded that the plans be grounded in a thorough understanding of each territory, built through dialogue with local communities, municipal authorities and private investors.
The state secretary described territorial planning as a fundamental instrument for ensuring balanced, orderly and sustainable development of cities and municipalities, given accelerating population growth, urban expansion and rising demand for land for housing and economic activity.
Cristóvão instructed DAR Angola to deliver rigorous work anchored in an analysis of each region's potential and constraints, including structured consultation with those who live, govern and invest in the municipalities.
'We want plans that recognise the identity and particular characteristics of each municipality, while simultaneously being aligned within a broader territorial vision for Huíla Province,' he said.
He highlighted Lubango as 'an unmissable tourist destination', arguing that any integrated vision for the city must ensure that urban expansion is matched by infrastructure provision, that housing zones are articulated with industrial and agricultural areas, and that essential environmental corridors are protected throughout the process.
Cristóvão reaffirmed the commitment of the Ministry of Public Works, Urban Planning and Housing to deliver strategic territorial planning that anticipates structural problems and organises land use, preventing the absence of spatial order from blocking the reservation of land for essential public infrastructure.
He added that the new PDMs are intended to protect natural resources, promote access to adequate housing and create an attractive, predictable business environment for both citizens and investors.
Institutional coordination and strict adherence to deadlines, he stressed, are critical factors in ensuring that the documents become practical management tools — widely understood by local populations and respected by economic operators.
Alcibíades Guynhy, national director of Territorial Planning and Urban Development, provided the financial and technical details of the project. He confirmed that the four PDMs are budgeted at $1.5 million and will be completed within a ten-month timeline, with financing channelled through Component 2B of the Njila programme.
Guynhy explained that the objective is to equip the four municipalities with strategic territorial organisation tools that will transform their business environment and enhance local revenue collection.
'The financing is around one million five hundred thousand dollars, taking into account that these are four municipalities with distinct growth strategies, infrastructure levels, population sizes and challenges,' he said.
According to Guynhy, the strategic value of these instruments lies in their capacity to structure municipalities for private investment attraction — a spatial reordering that, he argued, will generate new employment opportunities, drive economic development and ensure greater social stability for local populations.
Beyond the financial impact, he said, the project focuses on social upliftment through the correction of disorderly urban growth. Based on a diagnostic of demographic dynamics, the new plans will promote the development of harmonious, sustainable human settlements equipped with integrated infrastructure.
The ten-month technical programme includes a public consultation period to ensure that local communities participate actively in consolidating the territorial strategy, Guynhy confirmed.
At the national level, Guynhy said the Njila programme envisages extending planning coverage by producing 33 new PDMs. This is intended to raise the current coverage rate, which stands at 29 approved plans published in the Official Gazette, across Angola's total universe of 326 municipalities.
He noted that the PDM roll-out has already been presented in the provinces of Uíge (two plans), Cuanza Sul (three), Icolo e Bengo (three) and Cunene (two), with Huíla now the latest province to be brought into the programme.
Hélio de Almeida, deputy governor for Technical Services and Infrastructure in Huíla Province, described the PDMs as important technical instruments for the territorial and urban management of any jurisdiction. He said the plans help validate and create conditions for all types of action — governance, investment and the day-to-day life of communities.
The event included technical presentations covering the PDM as a territorial management instrument, the monitoring and technical oversight framework for the plans, and the consultant's proposed schedule for producing the four master plans.
The activity was held within the framework of Njila's Component 2B, dedicated to strengthening institutional capacity for urban planning and territorial ordering, in coordination with the Ministry of Public Works, Urban Planning and Housing, the Provincial Government of Huíla and the four municipal administrations involved.
Municipal Master Plans serve as the primary instruments for guiding land occupation and use, organising urban growth, supporting public and private investment decisions, and promoting the sustainable development of municipalities.
Source: ANGOP / Original article: https://www.angop.ao/noticias/politica/governo-exige-rigor-na-implementacao-dos-pdm/
