Your thoughts on Brazil-Africa partnerships

Brazil and Sub Saharan Africa: Partnering for Growth On June 5, the World Bank will host an event focused on the ongoing relationship between Brazil and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The event will be web streamed. Panelists will discuss Brazil’s experiences in the areas of agriculture, social protection and vocational training, and ways in which African countries can benefit.

Ahead of the event, we’re seeking your questions and comments. Please read the recently launched report Bridging the Atlantic: Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa Partnering for Growth. The report highlights these key points:

• Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa are re-establishing a robust engagement, after over 200 years.
• Due to strong historic and cultural links and similar geological and climatic conditions, Brazilian technology is easily adapted to Africa.
• Brazil has emerged as one of the world’s strongest economies and is playing an important role in redefining “the global south” in the changing world architecture.
• Brazil’s economic growth, its success in narrowing social inequality and its development experience offer lessons for African countries. Brazil has expressed interest in learning from African experiences.
• Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have requested cooperation from Brazil in five key areas: tropical agriculture, tropical medicine, vocational training, energy and social protection.
• Brazil’s trade with Sub-Saharan Africa increased between 2000 and 2010 from U$2 billion to U$12 billion; with expectations of continuous growth in the coming years.

Submit any questions or comments on this blog. We’ll answer a selection of your questions during the event and will respond to others in a subsequent blog post.

Comments

That was a very interesting

That was a very interesting debate. I look forward to the next steps.

Role of Embrapa in SS cooperation programs

That was a great opportunity to present Embrapa's role in SS cooperation in agriculture. It is important to state that the scope of Embrapa's role is the contribution in institutional development, capacity building and validation of technology. Also, that Brazil took about 40 years to develop the expertise in tropical agriculture with full support of the Brazilian Government, including investments in research, infrastructure, credit and specific policies to both agribusiness and family farming systems. Taking these points in consideration, we believe that the contribution of projects with Embrapa is not sustainable without full participation of all partners. The achievement of the development objective of the project depends on the definition and establishment, by the Sub-Saharan African Countries, of their development model, infrastructure (roads and others), development of the whole value chain (from inputs, as a seed system, to storage and commercialization facilities), land property policies, credit policies, and other related factors. There are several similarities between Brazil and Sub-Saharan African Countries - environmental and cultural. But there are also marked differences that must be properly addressed, in order to reach the development objective of the cooperation projects.

Brazil - Africa

We're proud of our new status in Brazil. Suddenly we are able to define our commercial partners and set new standards for bilateral trade and investments. Hopefully these Brazil-Africa partnerships will develop and catalyse the efforts while building a strong economy.

Opportunities

As a Brazilian I've seen the action of many multinationals in Africa. Mainly on telecommunications and banking. I would like to know what kind of opportunitiesmay outcome from the rise of relationship and cooperation south-south. Do you see any potential for Brazilian entrepreneurs working with less capital? I appreciate your answer.

Responsibilities

I had the chance to participate on the “Brazil-Africa partnerships” conference held on last Tuesday (June 5, 2012). I found it very enlightening and interesting. But I have a question and a concern all stakeholders should consider. Currently, there is a growing interest in investing in the agricultural sector in Africa. On the other hand, there is a concern that these investments are not responsible in terms of preserving the ecosystem. Some even go to the extent of expressing the situation as “land grabbing.” My question is, what was the case in Brazil and how did they manage it? What is the stand of the Brazilian government towards ensuring a responsible investment in Africa, especially, related to its companies showing interest in investing in Africa?

reply: Responsibilities

The context of the development of Brazilians agriculture was different from what we face now. som 40 to 50 years ago, the green revolution was booming. There were not so much concern regard environmental impacts. However, sice late 1970's, these concernes became a moto for new develoment approaches. The cooperation projects being developed in Africa, today, has as one of the goals the environmental susteinability.

Potential

South-South relationships such as the increasingly important Brazil-Africa links are a fascinating subject. Make sure to follow the most recent developments of this development story on the Agogo post: http://agogopost.com/

Brazil has done a good survey

Brazil has done a good survey of where it can exert economic and political influence and Africa is a logical choice. It has in a way become the counter-weight to China's aggressive activities, and the U.S.'s passive activities.

Trade is surging between Brazil and African countries and these project foster goodwill and economic growth. Pivotal to increasing trade and growth between Brazil and Africa are private sector efforts, such as B2B trade portals like B2Brazil.com, which facilitates B2B transactions between companies. Companies can be promoted globally in English via www.B2Brazil.com, and can be promoted in Brazil in Portuguese via www.B2Brazil.com.br. These efforts will increase import/export activity for both Brazilian and non-Brazilian companies.