Portugal

Partnership overview

Portugal has been a member of African Development Fund (ADF) since 1982 and became a member ofthe African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1983.

Portugal supported the 2010 General Capital Increase VI and ADF XII replenishment of the African Development Bank Group.

Portugal’s development cooperation sets out to integrate multilateral action to promote development and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and security and human rights.

Relations with Africa are one of the essential pillars of Portuguese development strategy.
Since 1985, Portugal maintains bilateral cooperation with the AfDB in the form of a financial contribution one Technical Cooperation Fund and two Multidonor Trust Funds.

Portugal’s priority cooperation areas with AfDB are fragile states, good governance, private sector development, the strengthening of economic infrastructure, sustainable development, and the social sectors.

Joint Initiatives

Portugal Technical Cooperation Agreement: To finance technical assistance in priority areas identified by the Bank’s Medium- Term Strategy and also aims to enhance the Bank’s operations in lusophone countries and to improve the Bank’s communication capacity in the Portuguese language.
Portugal has provided bilateral support to the AfDB’s institutional capacity building, including targeted training programmes and translation of main documents such as the AfDB’s Annual Reports into Portuguese.
Portugal and the Bank also collaborated in a special internship programme, whereby fourteen Portuguese young professionals were seconded to the Bank between 2004 and April 2010.
Portugal contributes to the Debt relief for the poorest countries under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief (MDRI) initiatives.