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Paper short abstract:

Southwest of Angola is home to around 3.5 million people, half of them living in rural communities. This region belongs to a transitory climatic area in which the rainfall pattern varies considerably, with droughts and floods. So, the main activity in rural areas is not agriculture, but livestock.

Paper long abstract:

Southwest of Angola is home 3.5 million people, half of them living in rural communities.This study involved field work in 18 villages, 6 in Huíla province, 8 in Namibe and 4 in Cunene. This region belongs to a transitory climatic area in which the rainfall pattern varies considerably, with droughts and floods. So, the main activity in rural areas is not agriculture, but livestock.

The households have in average 7 people, and half of them have an income of less then 20 Usd/month, which means less then 2.5 USD/person/month. Less then 10% of the households have more than a 200 USD/month income. Most of their rural activities are related to cattle but the large majority of people does not own it: they are but shepperds and their profit is milk and some animal labour. More than 90% of the households use wood both for cooking and lighting, because they can not afford other sources such as electricity. The charcoal produced is for sale. Almost all the people defecate in open air no further than 50 m from the houses. To access fresh water they spend between one and four hours until the source. After using the water they either give it to animals or use it to irrigate the crops.

Oher's studies on climate observed an increase in average temperature of 1.7 C from the 1960´s until 2000-17 in the region. If the pattern continues the conditions will tend to worsen.