Author: Joshua Kurlantzick.

During three decades of civil war, a tiny elite in Luanda, An gola’s capital, siphoned revenues from the country’s oil deposits, the second largest i n Africa. Meanwhile, most of Angola’s 12 million citizens lived in dire poverty, survi ving in shacks across Luanda’s shantytown sprawl. In 2002, Angola’s government and rebels finally laid down their arms; peace offered an opportunity for the country, and for foreign aid organizations, to rebuild shattered social services and decrepit oil infrastructure. T o ensure Angola used the money wisely—Transparency International ranks Angola one of th e most corrupt nations on the continent—the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to conv ince the government to adopt provisions to slash graft and ensure that oil revenues went to social programs.