LocationsAt the Rural Transformation Center, farmers, young people, and women entrepreneurs learn skills that they apply in their daily lives. Some are already beginning to pass these skills on to others.
Skills at the Center of Rural Transformation
September 10, 2026
SEIVA Angola
“The course really changed the way I think about managing the business,” says Teresa Baptista, a trainee at the Center for Rural Transformation (CTR). Her favourite topic was buying and selling. Today, she sees what a business needs differently: space, marketing, quality products, and, above all, customers. “We need to focus on the market and what customers want, as well as on prices, because customers also help us make money.”
This is a lesson that many rural regions—such as the municipality of Dombe Grande in Benguela Province—have been seeking to learn. Agriculture remains an important source of livelihood, and the lack of electricity is still part of daily life: “Talking about energy in Dombe Grande is still a challenge,” said Antonieta Tcionga, principal of Santa Ana School, where UNDP Angola launched the first pilot of the Kurima program in Benguela, in partnership with SEIVA and the Ondjyla Foundation, which were already providing technical assistance to farmers in the area.
To this end, the space was renovated. Twelve solar panels power an electric pump that brings water to a tank, and a solar oven allows food to be processed as long as the sun is shining. The oven also helps the Center become self-sustaining, thereby creating a source of income for the community through the sale of products made at the center itself. The CTR and the playroom, dedicated to children’s learning and development, were inaugurated in 2025.
Since agriculture is the backbone of the region, some of the training sessions take place right in the fields. In a “Field Laboratory,” farmers and agricultural technicians learned simple methods for soil analysis, how to interpret the results, and how to use them to make decisions about fertilization and cultivation.
The Center also has its first ginguba experimental field. Over the four sessions of training in ginguba production, 118 trainees followed the entire cycle, from planting to harvest and packaging, and gained a better understanding of what ginguba can yield.
Not all opportunities take place in the field.
In the Creative Sewing program, training begins with a specific technique but opens the door to other possibilities. Young people and women learn to design and produce their own garments, developing skills that can be applied to small businesses and income-generating activities. By valuing local talent and resources, the Center seeks to create new opportunities so that these initiatives can emerge and grow within the community itself.
In the Pastry course—which has currently run two sessions, 64 young people and women spent two weeks making cakes, savory treats, and sweets using local ingredients, including ginguba itself, and learned how to ensure the hygiene, quality, and presentation of their products.
Isaías Félix Andrade, uma vez formando, será agora formador.
SEIVA Angola
In the Low-Voltage Electricity training program, the 60 hours of hands-on training for 18 trainees covered residential installations, lighting, electrical outlets, electrical panels, troubleshooting, and safety—a skill set that paves the way for employment and self-employment, and that also supports other productive activities, such as agriculture and mechanization.
Knowing how to produce is only part of the business. In the third edition of the Management and Sustainability Course, 56 participants from rural communities studied financial management and accounting, entrepreneurship, SWOT analysis, and business strategy.
They also learned practical digital skills, such as creating an email account and registering with the AGT to formalize their businesses. After completing the course, all trainees continue to receive support from the Center to finalize the registration process with the AGT.
Vitória Lucinda Domingos, who took the Management course, came away with an insight: many businesses rely primarily on the technical side, and that isn’t enough. “To take our business to the next level, we have to be three in one: entrepreneur, manager, and technician.”
Some are already beginning to pass on what they’ve learned. Isaías Félix Andrade and Maria Tchakinda, graduates of the Pastry course, will now begin working as instructors.
Dombe Grande is one of the sites of Kurima, the UNDP Angola program that combines renewable energy, digital skills, and gender inclusion in rural communities. Across four provinces, 9,523 people—60% of whom are women—now have access to renewable energy, including for productive uses ranging from solar irrigation to food processing.
Today, in the provinces of Benguela, Huíla, and Uíge, Kurima continues to bring renewable energy solutions and new skills to rural communities. In Dombe Grande, some of these lessons are already beginning to take a new path: from those who learned to those who will now teach.
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