Angola's South Atlantic coast, a land of rainforests, savannas and agricultural highlands, is rich in natural resources and possibility. Our business operations and community partnerships there offer support to a population trying to improve its infrastructure and grow its economy.
The Peace Agreement of April 2002 marked the end of a nearly 27-year civil war that devastated the economy and had increased Angola's dependence on the oil industry. As the country recovers, Chevron has been responding to community needs. Our investments in health, education and economic development in Angola improve livelihoods and foster stable operating environments that contribute to our ability to conduct business.
Partnering for Sustainable Economic Growth
In 2002, we launched the Angola Partnership Initiative, with $25 million and a commitment to address needs beyond those near the vicinity of our operations, focusing particularly on regions most damaged by the war.
Following the Angola Partnership Initiative model, we are working to promote robust micro, small and medium-size businesses outside the oil industry. For example, we support the Luanda Business Incubator, a program to strengthen the operational and technical capabilities of service providers. The program has trained more than 200 entrepreneurs in business planning and helped create 143 new jobs in 2010.
"To many Angolans, the concept of entrepreneurship is new and needs nurturing," said Eunice de Carvalho, Policy, Government and Public Affairs general manager for Chevron in Angola.
We are also pioneering business programs for high school students. Working with the National Institute for Educational Research and Development and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, our $1 million contribution in 2010 is helping launch an entrepreneurship curriculum for more than 2,000 students in nine provinces. The Ministry of Education plans to roll out the curriculum nationwide, reaching 500,000 students by 2013.
In 2010, with support from the European Union, UNESCO and UNICEF, we partnered with the Ministry of Education and donated $1.5 million to implement a teacher training program. Nearly 400 teachers and administrators attended.
Promoting Economic Diversity
In 2007, Chevron became a minority partner in Banco Africano de Investimentos Micro Finanças (BMF), formerly called NovoBanco. Since then, BMF has made approximately $54 million in loans to Angolan entrepreneurs. From 2006 to 2010, BMF opened 10 branches in five Angolan provinces, and in 2010, BMF provided $9.9 million in loans to Angolan micro and small entrepreneurs. Also in 2010, we contributed $500,000 to expand BMF's operations in Cabinda.
Joaquina Manuel, an entrepreneur who exemplifies the country's optimism, established a wholesale and retail business in the 1980s, but a national currency crisis drove it into bankruptcy. She started over with a $3,000 loan. Success bred success, and additional loans allowed her to expand her business.
"These loans were like a rebirth for my business," said Manuel.
Cultivating Angola's Fertile Land
While the country was once a recipient of global food assistance, Angola's fertile soil, plentiful water, conducive climate and hardworking farmers led many donors to end support for food aid programs. But despite more of Angola's farmers cultivating the land, most are producing at a subsistence level. Still, they have enormous potential to transform their operations into businesses.
The ProAgro project, funded jointly by Chevron and the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2006 through 2010, facilitated sustainable business relationships between producers, banks, processors and distributors of cash crops. The project provided technical assistance to more than 5,500 farmers, who almost doubled their yields between 2007 and 2009.
Fighting Disease
Since 2008, when we funded a $350,000 vaccination campaign in Uige and Cabinda provinces, we have partnered with Angolan health authorities and UNICEF to provide vaccinations against the wild poliovirus.
Through these campaigns and the country's other efforts, polio was thought to have been eradicated in Angola and neighboring Republic of the Congo for a decade. But in November 2010, an outbreak erupted in Brazzaville, Congo. By December, it had killed an estimated 220 people.
We responded by sending people and financial resources to prevent the disease from spreading into Angola, supporting an emergency campaign that vaccinated 624,000 people in Cabinda in December 2010 and donating $950,000 to the national campaign to fight polio, specifically for the provinces of Cabinda, Lunda-Norte, and Lunda-Sul. More than 15,000 Chevron employees, family members and contractors based in Cabinda province were vaccinated as part of the campaign.
Polio is just one of the diseases that our programs address.
"In the past 20 years, Chevron and partners have invested more than $29 million in medical training and treatment for and education about infectious diseases and in support for blood banks and the construction of health facilities all over the country," said Dr. Ana Ruth Luis, Chevron's medical director in Angola.
We remain committed to helping stop the spread of disease through unsafe blood. With our partners—the Angola Ministry of Health, the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—we established a safe blood program in Cabinda province. Our nearly 20 years of support for this blood bank has allowed for more than 200,000 safe transfusions.
Fighting malaria remains an important battle in Angola. In 2010, we sponsored the first entomological course on malaria in the country. Organized by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and by the Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa, the course brought 41 health specialists from all 18 provinces to learn mosquito control techniques. In 2010, Cabinda's program treated 25,317 children under age 5 and 5,408 pregnant women.
"It takes community action and effective partnerships to fight a disease like malaria," said Alan Kleier, managing director of Chevron's Southern Africa operations in 2010. "We intend to continue working with the Ministry of Health and other partners toward prevention and treatment."
Updated: May 2011