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Angola: Countries
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In the last decade of the colonial period, Angola was a major African agricultural exporter. Because of severe wartime conditions, including extensive laying of landmines throughout the countryside, agricultural activities were brought to a near standstill, and the country now imports about half of its food. Small-scale agricultural production has increased dramatically over the last 3 years as internally displaced persons (IDPs) are returning to the land. Some efforts at commercial agricultural recovery have gone forward, notably in fisheries and tropical fruits, but most of the country's vast potential remains untapped. Coffee production, though a fraction of its pre-1975 level, is sufficient for domestic needs and some exports. Recently passed land reform laws will attempt to reconcile overlapping traditional land use rights, colonial-era land claims, and recent land grants to facilitate significant commercial agricultural development.
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Angola is an economy in disarray because of a quarter century of nearly continuous warfare. Despite its abundant natural resources, output per capita is among the world's lowest. Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for 85% of the population. Oil production and the supporting activities are vital to the economy, contributing about 45% to GDP and 90% of exports. Notwithstanding the signing of a peace accord in November 1994, violence continues, millions of land mines remain, and many farmers are reluctant to return to their fields. As a result, much of the country's food must still be imported.
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Angola has a fast-growing economy largely due to a major oil boom, but it ... ranks in the bottom 10% of most socioeconomic indicators. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Angola's real GDP increased by 23.4% in 2007. Aside from the oil sector and diamonds, Angola is recovering from 27 years of nearly continuous warfare, and it remains beset by corruption and economic mismanagement. Despite abundant natural resources, and rising per capita GDP, it was ranked 161 out of 177 countries on the 2006 UN Development Program's (UNDP) Human Development Index. Subsistence agriculture sustains one-third of the population.
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The country of Angola has deforestation of its tropical rain forest, in response to both international demand for tropical timber and the domestic use for fuel. This results in loss of biodiversity. The country’s population pressure influences the overuse of pastures, and the subsequent soil erosion and desertification. The soil erosion contributes to water pollution, siltation of rivers and dams, and inadequate supplies of potable water.
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With renewed fighting in 1998, Angola's ruling MPLA put the country's coalition government on hold, saying that UNITA had failed to meet its peace-treaty obligations. It suspended all UNITA representatives from parliament and declared that it would no longer deal with Savimbi, instead recognizing a splinter group, UNITA Renovada. In 1999 the United Nations voted to pull out all remaining troops stationed in the country, while continuing humanitarian relief work with over a million refugees. UNITA was able to finance its activities, including an estimated 30,000 troops stationed in neighboring Zambia and Congo (Kinshasa), with some $500 million a year in diamond revenues from mines it controlled in the country's northeast. Fighting continued, with Angola's army inflicting several defeats on UNITA beginning in late 1999, weakening UNITA's still sizable forces. International restrictions (2001) on sales of diamonds not certfied as coming from legitimate sources ... hurt UNITA, and the death of Savimbi in battle in 2002 was a severe blow to the rebels, who subsequently signed a cease-fire agreement and demobilized.
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According to the World Bank's latest review of the external debt position of developing countries, Global Development Finance, Angola's total external debt stock stood at $10.16 billion at the end of 1997. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit this debt will rise to $10.7 billion for 1998.248 The government's relationship with the World Bank was strained in 1999. The World Bank in May announced that it would stop further lending to Angola unless economic reforms were implemented, including controlling corruption and transparency in the oil and diamond accounts, key features in negotiations between the government and the World Bank for several years. Revenue from oil has been the source of huge speculation as its use has been shrouded in secrecy. The World Bank and IMF have insisted that the oil account be audited before they agree to any new projects.
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