The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said yesterday that it has $60 million available to finance projects in Angola but warned about constraints caused by bureaucracy.
For 2025, according to the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Angola, Gabriel Dava, the UN agency has a financial ceiling of $60 million (€50.8 million), with an execution rate of around 50%, with the health sector absorbing most of the funding.
“We have the health sector, which is the sector that absorbs most of our funding, through the Global Fund, where we finance interventions in the fight against HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as in vaccination and the purchase of essential medicines,” said the official.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on “Multilaterals and Development Financing,” held in Luanda, Gabriel Dava also listed UNDP support in the environment and biodiversity sectors, sustainable energy, agriculture, and irrigation.
Dava, who was one of the speakers on a panel about the vision of funders at this conference promoted by the magazine Economia & Mercado and the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), also talked about constraints caused by bureaucratic issues in implementing some projects.
According to him, bureaucracy in administrative processes is necessary but, he noted, there are situations where communication between two ministries for project approval “can take between three and four months.”
In any case, “UNDP, as a development agency, has the role of working with the Government to help overcome these constraints,” he told Lusa.
He also defended the need for Angolan authorities to regularly monitor projects funded by multilateral organizations, noting that monitoring cannot be done only by the funders.
UNDP “monitors the projects, the World Bank does as well, but we believe that, above all, the Angolan State must do the monitoring because these projects [funded by multilateral organizations] are meant to benefit the Angolan people,” he pointed out.
According to the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Angola, it is important that the authorities strengthen monitoring capacity to verify whether project funding meets the intended objectives.
Source: Lusa
