Training of Angolan local development experts

FIIAPP, along with Spain’s National University of Distance Education (UNED) and Association of Local Development Professionals (APRODEL), arranged the visit of a delegation of Angolan experts made up of the officials and experts on local development and local economic development from the Angolan Social Support Fund (FAS).

The purpose of the visit is for the FAS experts and officials to improve their technical skills in local economic development to be able to provide a better advising and technical assistance service to small entrepreneurs in different Angolan municipalities.

During the visit, the experts visited various local development projects in the communities of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha. This enabled them to learn about local development experiences and good practices, particularly regarding rural development, job creation, entrepreneurship, local markets, and land use and management.

The members of the delegation also attended the seminars being held by the UNED ‘Local Development and Employment’ university specialisation course.

The visit was part of the FAS Capacity-Building Plan, within the framework of the ‘Local Development Project in Angola‘, which is managed by FIIAPP jointly with the FAS and financed by the European Commission. Under this plan, nine people from the institution are receiving specific training in local development with the aim of giving them ideas that will contribute to reflection on the role of the institution and its approach to local development, in addition to introducing improvements at the methodological level.

The projects visited by the experts during the one-week visit included the Escuela de Emprendimiento Agroecológico de Miguelturra agro-ecological entrepreneurship school and the Grupo de Acción Local Campo de Calatrava (Volcán de Cerro Gordo) local action group, in Ciudad Real, and the Grupo de Acción Local ‘Sierra Norte’ (GALSINMA) local action group, in the northern mountain zone of Madrid. There, they had the chance to learn about various agro-ecology and participatory rural development projects and rural development experiences oriented towards promoting handicrafts and rural tourism.

They also visited the Huertos Ecosociales en Azuqueca de Henares project involving eco-social vegetable gardens in Guadalajara, the Banco del Tiempo en Coslada time bank, and the local development agency in Getafe “Getafe Iniciativas”, the latter two in the Community of Madrid.