The number of countries interested in Brazilian expertise in technical cooperative projects has been increasing in the past years. It takes place because Brazil has achieved success in diverse segments, such as reduced poverty, social development, professional education, technical innovation, and environmental regulations, based on the solutions originally developed to overcome its challenges. Brazil and Germany have been partners for over 50 years on the scope of Sustainable Development, and they began an agenda of projects in 2010 still benefitting countries in Africa and Latin America nowadays. The Trilateral Cooperation Brazil-Germany Program is executed by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the Germann cooperative agency GIZ.
“The engagement of Germany in Brazil reflects our responsibility to these global public assets, especially combating climatic changes. Besides that, transversal themes are also emphasized, such as the importance of cooperating with the private sector, professional education, and fighting corruption,” emphasizes Christoph Rauh, who is head of the South American Division of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in December 2017, when Germany signed a commitment to contribute 332.4 million Euros to implement projects in Brazil in the fields of “the protection and sustainable use of tropical forests” and, “renewable energy and efficient energetic sources”.
“Germany is one of the most important partners of Brazil in the domain of bilateral and trilateral cooperation to benefit developing countries. The contribution made by the German government, throughout the past decades, has provided the means to strengthen domestic capacities and the scope of positive results in public policies, in the fields of tropical forest conservation, renewable energy, and efficient, energetic sources, including adapting to climate changes and sustainable urban development”, João Almino, the Ambassador, emphasized at that time, the former director of ABC.
Projects developed in Ghana and Mozambique
One of the projects promoted by the Cooperation Brazil-Germany program seeks to increase the efficiency and quality of the cashew production and processing in Ghana.
Throughout a year and a half while the project was being implemented, training was carried out on modern cashew harvesting, handling, and processing techniques, which took place in Brazil and Ghana; when over 150,000 seedlings were distributed to growers in 17 districts in Ghana and 5 Brazilian dwarf cashew trees resistant to plagues and diseases for experimentation in Ghana.
The program also strengthened the National Institute for Standardization and Quality in Mozambique (INNOQ). The project improved the overall situation of metrology in the country, as well as the quality and standardization system.
It started as a pilot project from 2008 to 2010, the following two phases of the project contributed to expanding the partnerships between the Institute and the private sector, increasing the parameters related to international quality standards.
During the implementation of the project, the Mozambican government invested in constructing a new building for the Institute, and its employee staff increased from fewer than a dozen to around 80. From 2011 to 2016, there was over a ten times increase in revenues from the calibration and certification services rendered by the institute.
There has been the institutional strengthening of the National Institute of Standardization and Quality in Mozambique, the development of risk management, and the prevention of natural disasters in Mozambique, and the creation of the Environmental Technological Center in Peru are three projects that have been put into effect up to now.
Developing high-level technical capacity is one of the work methods adopted by GIZ. The Human Capacity Development (HCD) program began in 2017 and promoted five courses in eleven different institutions. Seventy-two people have been trained up to now in Angola, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Brazil. The courses employ the expertise of important Brazilian organizations, as the National Service for Industrial Training (Senai), the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), and Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).
Potential for new cooperative projects in Africa
The partnership between Brazil and Germany can facilitate other projects in Africa. This subject will be discussed in the 2019 Brazil Africa Forum 2019 – Food Security: pathways towards economic growth that will take place in São Paulo on November 12th to 13th. The planning for the event includes business leaders and government representatives from both Brazil and Africa in a session named Agriculture 4.0, cultivating the green economy that will include the participation of Ulrich Sabel-Koschella.
Koschella is the head of the Agricultural Value-Added Chain in the African Department of GIZ. He has already gone on short-term missions to 50 c0untries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Among his noteworthy works is his supervision of the rural development programs in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Ruanda. He also participated actively as a researcher at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria.
The GIZ director is expected, as a lecturer, to present projects that are being carried out in Africa and that still may be put into effect.
Brazil and Germany, long-standing partners
Brazil and Germany have maintained diplomatic relations since 1871, right after the Unification of Germany and the creation of Imperial Germany. That partnership was broken due to the context of the II World War, but after that, the relations were restored in 1951.
The bilateral relationship – was escalated to the level of a Strategic Partnership in 2002 – that is solid and intense.
Germany is the fourth largest commercial partner to Brazil. German capitals have helped leverage the Brazilian industrial development since the first decades in the XX century. There are around 1600 German companies operating in Brazil, and they make up around 9% of the Brazil industrial GDP. São Paulo concentrates one of the largest industrial centers outside of Germany.
The trade between both countries has doubled from 1998 to 2008, increasing from 8.4 billion Euros to 18 billion Euros during that period. In 2018, trade between both countries decreased to 16.9 billion Euros, according to data from the Germany Federal Department of Statistics (Destatis)
