Independent thinking on international affairs
Chatham House
  Click here for tips on searching
 

 

Angola: Fuelling Friendships

Indira Campos, June 2008

The World Today, Volume 64, Number 6

Members only contentAdobe PDF documentDownload article here

After almost three decades of civil war, post-conflict reconstruction is progressing quickly in Angola. The country has become a huge construction site. China in particular has played an important role in stimulating this building boom. Its private and state-owned firms are constructing schools, hospitals, low-cost housing and basic infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and railway networks. Development through infrastructure has worked in China, but will the boom have the desired effect in Angola where human and institutional capacity is so weak? Schools without teachers, or hospitals unable to operate, would not answer the public need.