Abstract
According to its logical framework, the purpose of the MDP is to increase the accountability of municipal governments to the communities they serve and to achieve broad community participation in decisionmaking and oversight of local public investments. However, the performance of the program was not uniform in all municipalities. The sensitive political setting in Cabinda and the difficult socio-economic conditions in Cuito Cuanavale influenced on the relatively weaker performance of these municipalities in some outputs. One of the insights stemming from this is that, due to the approach adopted that privileged the adoption of a model that could be used for all municipalities, the program might have overlooked the different contexts where it operated, applying a standardized approach in all components for all cases. Whilst the alternative of applying different policy models for different municipalities cannot be considered realistic, finding ways to address the specificities of the municipalities in a diverse country like Angola is important to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of governance interventions like the MDP.