Luanda - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Thursday in Luanda recognised progress in the proposed General State Budget for 2025, with an increase in funding in some sectors.
The position was demonstrated during a meeting that the United Nations agency held with the Members of the Parliament of the 5th, 6th and 8th Commissions of the National Assembly, as part of the consultation of the social partners, in the context of the specialised discussion of the General State Budget for the 2025 financial year.
According to Louise Moreira Daniels, head of social policies and social protection at UNICEF, this progress has to do with the increase in funds in various sectors such as the Kwenda programme by 140 percent compared to the previous year, primary education compared to secondary education, as well as the total increase of 195 percent in the lines identified by UNICEF for inclusion and disability, compared to the previous year.
Despite the satisfaction of this important world body, Louise Moreira was concerned about the amount budgeted and the amount executed, since in some cases the amounts allocated do not always correspond with the levels of execution.
Within this framework, for the health sector, given the national indicators and the impact of key interventions, Unicef recommends increasing allocations to the following sub-programmes within the National Health System Expansion and Improvement Programme: Nutrition Programme from 6.3 billion to 12.5 billion AOA, Vaccination Programme from 31.8 billion to 68.8 billion AOA, Community Health Programme from 520 million to 17.5 billion AOA.
In Education, the organisation is advocating to MPs to ensure that the amount allocated to the Budget Reserves is actually used by the sector, since 20 percent of its budget is allocated to the Budget Reserves.
Also in this sector, the separation of the ‘Pre-school and Primary Education’ line into ‘Pre-school Education’ and ‘Primary Education’ is advocated to ensure that the investment made in pre-school education can be monitored.
As for water, sanitation and hygiene, Unicef called on MPs to advocate for strengthening the allocation to the Basic Sanitation sub-sector and adaptation to climate change, since weaknesses in these services are linked to the main causes of child mortality (malaria and diarrhoea).
The organisation also hopes that the necessary investment will be more equitable, given that 58 percent of the entire allocation for Basic Sanitation in Angola goes to the Luanda Provincial Government.
In the field of social protection, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) hopes that the parliamentarians in the specialised debates will try to ensure that the amount allocated to the Kwenda programme is made available to guarantee its institutionalisation.
They also recommend improving the classification of social protection spending (avoiding the majority being categorised as ‘Other social protection services’) so that there is more clarity about the quality of investment.
As for child protection, Unicef expects advocacy for the creation of dedicated budget lines or specific allocations for child protection in the State Budget document, which are part of the social sector and receive an allocation of at least 4 per cent of the total State Budget.
Regarding support for people with disabilities, it recommends advocacy for the creation of a programme in the General State Budget solely dedicated to issues of support for people with disabilities to finance the recently approved PLANIAPED 2023-2027, as well as increasing the allocation to interventions that support people with disabilities, so that it reaches at least one percent of the General State Budget (at the moment it is only 0.04 percent).
With regard to gender equality, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) is calling for a progressive increase in the allocation to the Gender Equality Programme in order to ensure that the issue is addressed transversally and implemented properly at the level of each Provincial Government and MASFAMU.
General State Budget 2025
The General State Budget for 2025 is valued at 34.63 trillion kwanzas and represents an increase of 40.13% relative to OGE 2024.
The social component accounts for around 22 per cent of overall spending, with emphasis on the education, health, social protection, housing and community services sectors, all of which will see their budgets grow by over 40 per cent when compared to the previous year's budget.
The focus on improving basic infrastructure is also visible in this budget proposal, with 18 per cent of expenditure allocated to public investment projects, with emphasis on the production and distribution of drinking water, electricity, the construction and maintenance of roads, educational and health establishments, ports, airports and the extension of railway lines.
Overall, it predicts GDP growth of 4.1 per cent, strongly driven by the non-oil sector, which is expected to grow by 5.1 per cent.
This development will be supported by the acceleration of domestic demand through the increase in salaries and current transfers that increase the purchasing power of families, by public investment which is expected to grow by 2.24% of GDP, by the continued improvement of the business environment and by the dynamisation of the business fabric in the most varied areas of the economy, boosted by support measures to protect national production.
The proposal expresses the new Administrative Political Division, including resources so that the new provinces and municipalities created recently can function normally by the beginning of 2025. Resources have also been considered for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence. ANM/SEC/DAN/DOJ
