Brazil is a founding member of the BRICS group, Latin America’s largest economy and the world’s sixth-largest economy. The Rising Powers in International Development (RPID) programme is looking at the growing role of Brazil in the field of international development cooperation.
The last decade has seen a growing international role for Brazil’s government and private sector, particularly in Latin America and Africa. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva instituted a policy of ‘looking towards the South’, while current President Dilma Rousseff has recently promised to strengthen links between development cooperation and trade from Brazil in Africa.
Led by a flagship ‘State of the Debate’ study, which analyses Brazil’s domestic policy debate on international development cooperation, the RPID programme aims to understand Brazil’s evolving role as a development actor.
The RPID programme also includes specific events focusing on Brazil. Past speakers have included Minister Marco Farani, Director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), Rômulo Paes de Sousa, former Vice Minister for Social Development in Brazil, and Dr José Luiz Telles, Director of the Africa office of Fiocruz, Brazil’s main public health think-tank.
As well as developing its own research, the RPID programme is also collaborating with existing initiatives, including the China and Brazil in African Agriculture project run by the Future Agricultures Consortium.
Image credit: D. Telemans / Panos
