A Wish List from the Poorest Villages of Angola

In southern Angola, the Global Nature Fund (GNF) works closely with rural communities towards one common goal: a life with access to water and to energy and better, safe nutrition.

The Global Nature Fund and its Angolan partner organisation ACADIR can be pleased with the response from Mucusso, Savate and Caiundo. The three village communities are located in a sparsely developed region through which the Kavango River flows. The 1,700-kilometer-long river also feeds the biodiverse Okavango Delta with water. In some places, nature here is threatened by clearing, overgrazing and fires. Out of necessity, people overuse the ecologically sensitive landscape.

Since 2020, the Global Nature Fund has been involved in the communities, and in the summer of 2022, GNF Executive Director Udo Gattenlöhner visited Mucusso together with five rangers from ACADIR. 

"Starting point of the trip is Namibia's capital Windhoek. An unsigned dusty dirt road leads to the only border crossing to Angola in the northeast of the country. At the border, not only the language changes from English to Portuguese, but also traffic from the right to the left side of the road. During our week of travel, however, this doesn’t matter, since not a single vehicle comes our way.

Mucusso consists of several small villages along the Kavango. The rangers of ACADIR and I pitch our tents in the ruins of a hospital building destroyed during the civil war. In the coming days we talk to village elders, women's groups and the action groups organised through the project in the Mucusso settlements. The people are highly motivated and report increased harvests. 

ACADIR staff have taught them climate-adapted farming methods that also improve the soil. To this end, they have distributed tools and organised training courses. The crops grown are mainly corn, millet and sorghum. But despite sturdy barbed-wire fences, elephants eat a large part of the harvest. For this reason, the villagers would like to have an electric fence with a solar energy system. Access to electricity is completely lacking here so far.

Water is also not readily available. Donkeys or carts are rare. Mostly it is women and children who carry the water canisters from the riverbank on their heads to their homes. Only a few days earlier, I learn, a boy was seriously injured by a crocodile while fetching water. The hippos also pose a danger. The second big wish is more than understandable: a solar-powered water pump with storage tank in the village center.

ACADIR and GNF want to intensify the work in the region in the coming years. The plan of action is based on the wishes of the local people! A good way to sustainably improve the situation of the people in Angola."