THE PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY NETWORK AND SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: THE CASES OF MOZAMBIQUE AND ANGOLA

Abstract

Analyses of Brazilian development cooperation often take the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency as an institutional starting point. However, field research conducted by the authors in Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique suggest that it is necessary to provide greater analytical emphasis to the role played by executing agencies and policy networks of which executing agencies are part. Focusing on the health sector, this article takes the Public Health Policy Network as the basis for analyzing Brazilian cooperation in health in Mozambique and Angola. By analyzing the processes of formation and consolidation of the Public Health Policy Network, it is argued that the involvement of its agents in South-South cooperation projects must be understood in light of a broader process of international extension of their own policy network, an element that can be found in the portfolio of Brazilian health projects in the two African countries. Conclusions reached through this approach point, from the perspective of policy--making, to the need for consolidating what Brazilian copers term structuring cooperation. Increased investment in field work is required to expand our understanding of relationships between Brazilian copers and their partners in Lusophone Africa.

Keywords:
South-South Cooperation; Health; Public Policies Network; Mozambique; Angola