Navigating Post-Conflict Development: A Theoretical Framework for Analysing Systemic Education Challenges in Angola

This theoretical framework article addresses the critical need for context-specific analytical tools to understand persistent systemic challenges within Angola’s education sector during the post-conflict development period of 2021–2023. It argues that generic development models inadequately capture the complex interplay of historical legacies, institutional fragility, and socio-economic factors that hinder progress. To rectify this, the article constructs and justifies a novel, multi-layered analytical framework synthesising concepts from political settlement theory, institutional ethnography, and decolonial thought. This integrated lens enables a rigorous examination of how entrenched power distributions, contested resource allocation, and inherited colonial and conflict-era structures directly manifest in contemporary policy implementation gaps, curriculum relevance debates, and inequitable access. The analysis demonstrates that centralised governance, alongside a rapidly expanding yet under-resourced youth demographic, generates unique systemic pressures. The framework’s utility is for policymakers and researchers seeking to diagnose root causes of educational stagnation in post-conflict African states, moving beyond symptomatic analysis. It provides a structured methodology to interrogate the alignment—or misalignment—between national development ambitions, such as Angola’s 2022–2023 Education Sector Plan, and on-the-ground realities in schools and communities. Ultimately, this theoretical contribution advocates for a historically grounded, systemic analysis that centres African agency and contextual rigour in navigating the protracted journey from post-conflict recovery towards sustainable educational transformation.