VZCZCXRO3720
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0317/01 1121701
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211701Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4746
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LUANDA 000317 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS TO USAID IMCNAIRN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON EAID KHDP AO
SUBJECT: REAPING THE BENEFITS OF PEACE IN KWANZA SUL 
 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Devastated during Angola's 27-year civil war, 
the once embattled province of Kwanza Sul is on the mend. 
Ongoing U.S.-funded demining programs are key to the 
government's success in reopening primary and secondary roads 
and agricultural land.  U.S. assistance in partnership with 
Chevron is also stimulating revival of once-thriving coffee 
production.  U.S. partnership with Esso is helping to address 
health and education needs.  Nevertheless, huge challenges 
remain, especially in inducing Angolans to return to the 
under-populated countryside and in completing the task of 
rebuilding the province's human and physical infrastructure. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
 
Kwanza Sul: Emerging from the ashes 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Kwanza Sul is a rural coastal province of 12 
municipalities covering 23,000 square miles.  Its population 
is estimated at 1,500,000; since the last census was 
completed in 1970, provincial authorities do not have more 
precise population data.  The province is strategically 
located; it shares borders with 6 other provinces and links 
Luanda with the central interior.  Kwanza Sul saw heavy 
fighting and changed hands multiple times during Angola's 
27-year civil war.  In town and across the countryside, most 
buildings and bridges were destroyed or damaged and primary 
and secondary roads were heavily mined, as well as other 
strategic points.  All colonial-era factories in the province 
were likewise destroyed, and economic activity, which once 
made Kwanza Sul extremely productive, including exports of 
coffee, cotton, and fish products, was reduced to 
subsistence-level farming.  During the war, a majority of the 
population fled to urban centers in search of security and 
work. 
 
¶3. (U) After six years of peace, Kwanza Sul,s economy is 
coming back to life.  The GRA is making extensive investments 
in building and repairing the province,s infrastructure, 
which has reconnected lush agricultural land in the interior 
with coastal markets. During his April 8-10 tour of the 
province, Ambassador Mozena heard from provincial governor 
Sarafim do Prado that all primary roads have been demined and 
main north-south roads have been paved; key secondary roads 
into the interior have also been demined, graded and 
repaired, and both temporary and permanent bridges have been 
erected. These investments cut travel time to remote parts of 
the province in half, and access to markets is pushing the 
rapid expansion of agricultural production.  Note: The 
quality of the road work is questionable at best; the roads 
often lack adequate drainage, and roads completed by Chinese 
contractors as recently as 5 months ago are already showing 
signs of severe degradation. End note 
 
¶4. (U) Investment is also underway in the province's urban 
areas.  Prado told the Ambassador that the GRA has contracted 
the Brazilian company, Odebrecht, to rebuild and repair 
infrastructure and key buildings in the urban centers of 
Sumbe, Porto Amboim, and Gabela through a Brazilian line of 
credit.  Five municipalities in Kwanza Sul are each receiving 
from the central government three to five million USD 
annually as part of the GRA's decentralization pilot program. 
 
Demining for Economic Growth 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (U) The landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO) that 
litter the countryside impede rapid expansion of agricultural 
production, threaten lives and restrict access to land and 
economic growth.  The 2007 Landmine Impact Survey identified 
269 areas of suspected landmine contamination, which affect 
169 communities in the provinces. 
 
¶6. (U) Demining projects by the USG-funded NGO Norwegian 
People's Aid (NPA), make clear role of landmine and UXO 
clearance in returning land to productive use, restoring 
access to water and enabling economic growth.  During the 
Ambassador's visit to a rural village demined by NPA in 2005, 
the village administrator thanked the USG for its assistance 
and described how cultivation of the demined fields led to 
increased agricultural production which, for the first time, 
enabled the village to produce beyond the subsistence level. 
Today, the village not only runs a thriving roadside market, 
but also sells its produce to distributors in the provincial 
capital of Sumbe. 
 
Opportunities Brewing for Angolan Coffee 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) The GRA is partnering with the USG-sponsored 
 
LUANDA 00000317  002 OF 003 
 
 
Cooperative League of the United States (CLUSA) and the U.S. 
oil company Chevron to breathe new life into the province's 
coffee industry.  Kwanza Sul's 18,000 hectares of coffee 
plantations and small farms currently average 130 tons per 
hectare, as compared with the 800-1000 ton colonial-era 
average.  CLUSA's programs have connected 4,000 small farmers 
with micro credit, training on modern coffee production 
techniques, and seedlings from the National Coffee Institute 
to help farmers replace old trees and increase production. 
As production increases, CLUSA is also connecting farmers 
with the market.  During the Ambassador's meeting with small 
coffee producers in Gabela, CLUSA representatives explained 
that the province's Amboim Robusta coffee is highly sought 
after for its blending properties, and that each year farmers 
cannot come close to the demand from foreign buyers. 
 
¶8. (U) In addition, the GRA is exploring ways to support 
increased production in the region's remaining large coffee 
plantations, which continue to face the twin challenges of 
lack of capital and manpower.  The governor stated that, in 
many cases, coffee growers cannot expand production because 
they cannot afford the manual labor needed in the province's 
rocky, hilly terrain, which precludes the use of mechanical 
means.  Coffee production in the colonial era was fueled by 
forced and contract labor brought into the province from 
southern Angola. 
 
Expansion in the Heath and Education Sectors 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) The GRA is increasing capacity in the health sector. 
All of the province's 12 municipal capitals now have 
hospitals, and health clinics are increasingly common at the 
district and sometimes village levels.  Many challenges 
remain, and a lack of qualified staff has delayed the opening 
of some hospitals and clinics.  The provincial government 
relies entirely on doctors and nurses contracted by the 
central government to staff hospitals and health centers; 
most are Cuban, North Korean, Russian or Vietnamese. 
Qualified medical professionals are rarely available beyond 
the municipal capital level, and even there facilities and 
resources are limited.  The Kibala Municipal Hospital 
pediatrician told the Ambassador that he diagnoses up to half 
of malaria cases by symptoms alone because he does not have 
time to use the rapid test kits, which are also regularly out 
of stock.  Local health professionals noted that malaria 
remains the number one killer of children under five in the 
province, and expressed appreciation for assistance from the 
President's Malaria Initiative's for helping defeat malaria, 
especially though training and the anti-malarial drug 
Coartem.  With PMI's assistance there is now sufficient 
Coartem to supply all heath facilities in the province; 
municipal administrators are currently working with the 
USG-funded NGO Africare to make the drug available at all 
levels of the health care system, and to improve diagnosis of 
malaria. 
 
More challenges abound in education 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) Progress and challenges are also evident in the 
education sector.  The governor told the Ambassador that 90 
percent of school-aged children are now in school, compared 
with only 55 percent in 2002.  These numbers, however, mask 
the fact that school is mandatory only through the eighth 
grade; past this level children are not considered "school 
age."  As there are no high schools outside of municipal 
capitals, most rural students never have an opportunity to 
continue beyond primary school.  Staffing also remains a 
problem, especially in the rural interior of the province. 
The Kibala municipal administrator told the Ambassador that 
the Ministry of Education has funded 100 teaching positions 
in the municipality, but this school year they were able to 
find only 48 qualified teachers.  The province is working to 
expand its teacher training program; people over age 18 and 
who have completed the 8th grade can complete a certification 
program to become teachers.  Provincial authorities are 
rightly concerned about the quality of education such 
"teachers" provide. 
 
¶11. (U) COMMENT: Kwanza Sul is a province in which the 
benefits of peace are manifested concretely by communities, 
villages and fields slowly coming back to life.  Hope is in 
the faces of many of the providence,s residents, and local 
government is generally committed to the enormous task of 
making life better for its citizens.  Despite the progress 
made over the past six years, the road ahead to reviving the 
cities, towns, and countryside of Kwanza Sul is long.  In 
addition to the task of rebuilding a human and physical 
infrastructure that was totally destroyed by decades of war, 
 
LUANDA 00000317  003 OF 003 
 
 
the province must attract back the thousands of residents who 
fled the war.  The dribble of returnees thus far underscores 
the enormity of this challenge. END COMMENT 
MOZENA