More than a decade after the end of Angola's year civil war, the country still faces a variety of socioeconomic problems, including poverty, high maternal and child mortality, and illiteracy.
Despite the country's rapid post-war economic growth based on oil production, about 40 percent of Angolans live below the poverty line and unemployment is widespread, especially among the large young-adult population. Fewer than half of women deliver their babies with the assistance of trained health care personnel, which contributes to Angola's high maternal mortality rate. Of the estimated , Angolans who fled their homeland during its civil war, most have returned home since In , the UN assessed that conditions in Angola had been stable for several years and invoked a cessation of refugee status for Angolans.
Following the cessation clause, some of those still in exile returned home voluntarily through UN repatriation programs, and others integrated into host countries. Angola's economy is overwhelmingly driven by its oil sector. Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for most of the people, but half of the country's food is still imported.
A postwar reconstruction boom and resettlement of displaced persons led to high rates of growth in construction and agriculture as well. Some of the country's infrastructure is still damaged or undeveloped from the year-long civil war However, the government since has used billions of dollars in credit from China, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and the EU to help rebuild Angola's public infrastructure.
Land mines left from the war still mar the countryside, and as a result, the national military, international partners, and private Angolan firms all continue to remove them. Lower prices for oil and diamonds also resulted in GDP falling 0.
