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Angola Partnership Initiative
In 2002, as Angola emerged from 30 years of civil war, more than one-third of its population was displaced, and the social and economic fabric of the country was torn. ChevronTexaco, whose wholly owned subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited has operated in Angola since the 1950s, has been one of the largest foreign investors in the country. With the ending of the war, we resolved to expand our ongoing community programs to do something that would have a meaningful impact in helping the people of Angola recover from their decades of strife.
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| The Angola Partnership Initiative is helping more than 3,000 Angolan families through its support of small-scale farming. |
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After research and discussion with key stakeholders, ChevronTexaco initiated a major new program, the Angola Partnership Initiative. The mission of the Initiative is to build human capacity with a focus on the development of small and medium-size enterprises. The primary focus areas of the program are:
- strengthening the supply of vocational training,
- expanding the supply of micro-credit,
- introducing business development services, and
- strengthening the enabling environment for social and economic development.
Under the initiative, we have developed formal partnerships with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Together, we have established a combined goal to raise US$50 million to support this initiative. Additional partnerships and alliances are under discussion. ChevronTexaco has committed US$25 million to support this effort.
Two projects already launched under the initiative are a program to support the revitalization of the agriculture sector and the formation of a new micro-credit bank. Both projects focus on job training and creation, and provide technical assistance and financial stimulus for locally owned small and medium enterprises.
The agricultural effort combines immediate hunger relief to the most vulnerable segment of society and longer-term agricultural development through seed multiplication and seed variety experiments. It also supports the creation of some 200 farmer associations. This effort is designed to support approximately 160,000 rural families - representing more than 600,000 individuals - with the goals of increasing food security, decreasing reliance on importation of seed, creating better access to markets and information and, ultimately, increasing rural incomes.
The planned Angola Enterprise Development Bank will provide small loans and other banking services to low-income Angolans and small businesses. The bank intends to fill a need for small-scale credit not currently covered by the commercial banking sector. In addition to ChevronTexaco, the other shareholders in the bank are major European development institutions working for the first time in Angola.
In addition to providing ChevronTexaco a vehicle to contribute to Angola's recovery, our involvement in the Angola Partnership Initiative has provided us with invaluable experience in developing long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with nongovernmental and multilateral organizations. We also have found that it has helped us bring together interested parties to seek ways to be more efficient in our collective efforts.
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