FOREWORD

Africa and Brazil were united by geography eons ago and by shared history since the sixteenth century, when they were linked by the transatlantic slave trade until slavery’s abolition. A hiatus in relations developed until African countries gained political independence, when a new relationship began to develop between Brazil and especially the Lusophone African countries. With Brazil’s rise as one of the world’s largest economies and with the advent of strong growth and dynamism in African economies, the relationship between Brazil and Africa has continued to burgeon, even beyond Lusophone African countries to other countries on the continent, and spans trade, investment, and knowledge
transfer. Bridging the Atlantic—Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa: South–South Partnering for Growth describes this growing engagement.

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Under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, ties between Brazil and Africa deepened and under the new Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, these ties are continuing to strengthen. From the African side, leaders have continued to engage and deepen partnership with Brazil.

For us at the World Bank, this report is timely because it comes on the heels of our newly approved Africa strategy, “Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Support to It.” Our strategy highlights leveraging partnerships, knowledge,
and finance, particularly with emerging growth-pole countries such as Brazil. We envisage this report as crucial in providing the knowledge base that will enable us, African governments, and the Brazilian government to continue to
forge concrete partnerships that will generate win-win outcomes for the two regions—in, for example, areas of social protection, tropical agriculture, energy/bioenergy, vocational training, and tropical medicine. We look forward to the lively discussions and concrete partnerships that dissemination of this important work will bring.

Obiageli Ezekwesili
Vice President, Africa Region
World Bank

PREFACE

The international economy is going through great changes. Developed economies—Japan, the European Union, and the United States—face a reduction in economic dynamism—for different reasons. Developing countries—led by
China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, South Africa, and Russia—have growth accelerating, with prospects of further expansions in income, domestic employment, and investment between the main emerging economies.

In recent years, there has also been a revival on the African continent, albeit patchy. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the economies of Sub- Saharan Africa, having grown 5.4 percent in 2010, will expand 5.2 percent in
2011 and 5.8 percent in 2012. The Middle East and North Africa, having grown 4.4 percent in 2010, should expand 4 percent in 2011 and 3.6 percent in 2012. In this reconfiguration of the global economy, Brazil has promoted a policy
of diversification of its international integration, engaging with developing countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, made 12 trips to Africa, visiting 21 countries. In the
opposite direction, Brazil received 47 visits of African kings, presidents, and prime ministers from 27 nations.
Brazil’s diversification policy remains the mandate of President Rousseff. In her first year in office, she visited Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa. The government also plans to design a special strategy for closer ties with the African
continent to facilitate exports of goods and services (mostly engineering), by creating new mechanisms to guarantee credit lines (a commodity account, for example, to facilitate payments).

As Bridging the Atlantic: Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa, South–South Partnering for Growth shows, trade with Africa
grew slowly between 2003 and 2008, and then fell between 2009 and 2010, with the worsening of the global economic crisis and the aggressive actions of the Asian countries in the region. President Rousseff also stresses the importance of Brazilians leaving “a legacy to Africa” in the form of technology transfer, manpower training, and social programs. Brazilian cooperation for development involves humanitarian aid and bilateral or multilateral interventions. Brazilian institutions act as partners in training to develop and strengthen institutions. It is thus encouraged by political solidarity, historical and cultural affinities, economic and political interests, and the knowledge produced by exchange and experimentation through partnerships. The portfolio of Brazilian cooperation projects in Africa covers agriculture, health, education, training, e-government, public administration, environment, information technology, urban development, sanitation, biofuels, air transport, tourism, justice, culture, human rights, and sports.

According to a recent survey, almost 60 percent of Brazilian technical cooperation resources went to African countries in 2010. This World Bank study, in cooperation with IPEA, sheds light on relationships that are deepening and
changing, producing different dynamics in the international integration of people, and promoting development partnerships.

Marcio Pochmann
President IPEA