Context:
The UK and Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a Global Development Partnership in 2011, representing a unique combination of different aspects of development cooperation. This has allowed the two countries to go beyond the traditional implementation of technical cooperation projects to strengthening partnerships and promoting a broader range of innovative arrangements including a multisectoral approach and a joint context analysis to policy development. Both the UK and Brazil have been providing development cooperation for decades across multiple areas within countries on the African continent. Combining each partner’s unique strengths and experience presents a real opportunity for effective trilateral cooperation between the UK, Brazil and African countries, with potential for long-term meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships.
Focus:
Strengthening the voice of partners, working with Africa, rather than for Africa, is paramount to successful and inclusive sustainable development. This would contribute to a prosperous, more empowered continent, one less reliant on aid and more resilient to shocks and stresses. By approaching development cooperation through an innovative trilateral model and including “twin track” policy approaches at national and regional levels, the UK, Brazil and African Union Development Agency (AUDA)-NEPAD can combine their knowledge and experience in development to work with African countries to advance the sustainable development national plans and international agendas’ goals (UN Agenda 2030 and the Agenda 2063) across the continent.
Objectives:
This round-table dialogue will focus on how to strengthen and maximise opportunities for effective tri-partite development cooperation. It is being organised as a partnership between the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and other Brazilian government bodies, the Department for International Development (DFID) in Brazil and AUDA-NEPAD, with the support of the Mozambican government. It will bring together 50 people from Brazil, the UK and from a number of African countries where there are existing or potential development partnerships.
The meeting seeks to:
- identify fields where UK, Brazilian and African expertise and technical assistance would complement each other in order to ensure an equal partnership, providing ‘value-added’ to development outcomes;
- identify knowledge and capacity gaps in which trilateral cooperation can have the most impact to address development challenges;
- advance a more strategic approach to support long term sustainable development, prosperity and knowledge sharing in and between local contexts for all partners.
