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Brazilian Health Cooperation in Africa: A Case Study of Promoting Pharmaceutical Production in Mozambique

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Brazil-Africa Relations in the 21st Century

Abstract

Cooperation in the health sector is one of the most important areas of Brazilian South-South technical cooperation with African countries. These initiatives were expanded in 2003, with an emphasis on cooperation with Lusophone African countries. Brazilian cooperation in the health sector is inspired by a number of domestic elements associated with the Brazilian public health system, particularly the constitutional recognition of the right to health and the provision of antiretrovirals through the public health system. In addition, the provision of cooperation in the health sector is connected to Brazil’s broader engagement in global health governance, where Brazil has historically promoted the rights and interests of countries of the Global South. The influence of these domestic and global dynamics, and their interaction with local conditions in Mozambique, is discussed in the analysis of how Brazil sought to cooperate in addressing HIV/AIDS by partnering with Mozambique to promote pharmaceutical production.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Rodrigues, the SMM was constituted in January 2009, and the company’s statute was published in the Mozambican Bulletin of the Republic (Boletim da República), the country’s official ledger (2014: 15).

  2. 2.

    Interview with Brazilian diplomat, Brasília, 6/08/2013.

  3. 3.

    Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 06/05/2011.

  4. 4.

    The chapter benefits from access to diplomatic communication exchanged between the General Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SERE - Secretaria de Estado das Relações Exteriores) within the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and different Brazilian embassies in Africa, particularly in Maputo (BRASEMB MAPUTO).

  5. 5.

    According to Decree 3201 of 1999, compulsory licensing was to be issued in “situations of national emergency and public interest.” The decree defined national emergency as “situations of imminent public danger” and public interest as “facts related to public health, nutrition, environmental protection as well as those deemed to be of primordial importance for the technological and socio-economic development of the country.” The decree is available in Portuguese at http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto/D3201.htm

  6. 6.

    FIOCRUZ is Brazil’s key public institution in research and training in the health sector.

  7. 7.

    See Access to Medication in the Context of Pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. CHR Res. 2001/33, UN Doc. E/CN.4/RES/2001/33 (2001).

  8. 8.

    Information provided during interviews conducted by the author with officials working at the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brasília, January 2014.

  9. 9.

    Telegram 310 from BRASEMB LAGOS to SERE, date: 17/05/2004.

  10. 10.

    Telegraphic dispatch 4 from SERE to BRASEMB LAGOS, date: 12/01/2004.

  11. 11.

    Telegram 310 from BRASEMB LAGOS to SERE, date: 17/05/2004.

  12. 12.

    Telegram 314 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 16/05/2001

  13. 13.

    Telegram 754 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 19/11/2001.

  14. 14.

    Telegraphic dispatch 497 from SERE to BRASEMB MAPUTO, date: 18/12/2001.

  15. 15.

    Telegraphic dispatch 213 from SERE to BRASEMB MAPUTO, date: 9/7/2003.

  16. 16.

    Telegram 246 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 25/04/2003.

  17. 17.

    Telegraphic dispatch 123 from SERE to BRASEMB MAPUTO, date: 23/4/2003.

  18. 18.

    Telegram 276 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 16/05/2003; Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 2/07/2003.

  19. 19.

    Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 2/07/2003. An analysis of Mozambican efforts to address HIV/AIDS up to the early 2000s is provided in Matsinhe (2006).

  20. 20.

    Telegram 692 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 21/10/2003.

  21. 21.

    Telegram 445 from BRASEMBMAPUTO to SERE, date: 25/07/2003.

  22. 22.

    “Palavras do Presidente da República, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, na visita ao Hospital Central de Maputo,” November 62,003.

  23. 23.

    “Palavras do Presidente da República, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, na visita ao Hospital Central de Maputo,” November 62,003.

  24. 24.

    Machungo served as prime minister of Mozambique between 1986 and1994.

  25. 25.

    Telegram 780 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 18/11/2003.

  26. 26.

    See “Visita Oficial ao Brasil do Presidente de Moçambique, Joaquim Alberto Chissano – Comunicado Conjunto.” Resenha de Política Exterior do Brasil 95, second semester 2004.

  27. 27.

    Telegram 296 from BRASEMBMAPUTO to SERE, date: 12/04/2004.

  28. 28.

    Telegram 296 from BRASEMBMAPUTO to SERE, date: 12/04/2004.

  29. 29.

    Telegram 515 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 02/07/2008.

  30. 30.

    Official Message 319 from SERE to Brazilian Ministry of Health, date: 7/5/2009.

  31. 31.

    Telegram 386 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 21/04/2009.

  32. 32.

    The legislation is available at http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2007–2010/2009/Lei/L12117.htm

  33. 33.

    Telegraphic dispatch 277 from SERE to BRASEMB MAPUTO, date: 15/04/2010.

  34. 34.

    Telegram 479 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 3/05/2010.

  35. 35.

    Telegram 982 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 14/09/2010.

  36. 36.

    Telegram 982 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 14/09/2010.

  37. 37.

    IGEPE is a state entity created in 2001, responsible for the managerial role of the Mozambican state, financially and institutionally autonomous from the Mozambican state but at the same time providing services to the state, including in terms of public-private investments.

  38. 38.

    Telegram 982 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 14/09/2010.

  39. 39.

    Telegram 982 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 14/09/2010.

  40. 40.

    Vale’s interests in coal reserves in Mozambique date back to the late 1980s, when the company was still fully owned by the Brazilian state and was named Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). The company was privatized by the Brazilian government in 1997 and had been operating in Mozambique since 2004, when the company won the rights to explore the carboniferous basins situated in the Moatize District, located in the northern Mozambican province of Tete. CVRD started the construction of the coal mine in Moatize in 2007, the same year as the company was rebranded as Vale. Further information regarding Vale’s operations in Mozambique is available at http://www.vale.com/brasil/EN/aboutvale/news/Pages/conheca-nossas-operacoes-mocambique.aspx

  41. 41.

    Telegram 1031 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 28/09/2010.

  42. 42.

    Telegram 1229 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 17/11/2010.

  43. 43.

    Telegram 1229 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 17/11/2010.

  44. 44.

    Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date 6/5/2011.

  45. 45.

    Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 6/5/2011.

  46. 46.

    Telegraphic dispatch 26 from SERE to BRASEMB MAPUTO, date: 21/01/2011.

  47. 47.

    Telegram 466 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 07/06/2011.

  48. 48.

    Telegram 174 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 25/02/2011.

  49. 49.

    Telegram 371 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 6/05/2011.

  50. 50.

    Telegram 1164 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 16/10/2013.

  51. 51.

    Telegram 770 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 11 /10/2012.

  52. 52.

    Telegram 15 from BRASEMB COTONOU to SERE, date: 16/01/2013.

  53. 53.

    Telegram 66 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 18/01/2013.

  54. 54.

    Telegram 174 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 13/02/2015.

  55. 55.

    See Relatório de Gestão para o Senado Federal do Embaixador do Brasil em Moçambique, Rodrigo Baena Soares, 21/06/2018.

  56. 56.

    Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “República de Moçambique-Informação ostensiva Junho de 2018”.

  57. 57.

    Telegram 1024 from BRASEMB MAPUTO to SERE, date: 02/11/2015.

  58. 58.

    For example, nevirapine, an ARV produced in Brazil and packed at the SMM in 2014, was replaced by more modern medication within HIV/AIDS treatment protocols (Rossi 2017).

  59. 59.

    Interviews conducted with Brazilian diplomats in Brasília and Maputo, September 2019.

  60. 60.

    As of early 2020, IGEPE was not able to find a buyer for Medimoc.

  61. 61.

    Author’s interview over Skype with Brazilian medical doctor with professional experience in the Brazilian National HIV/AIDS programme, 11 January 2016.

  62. 62.

    Author’s interview with representative of health-based NGO, Rio de Janeiro, January 2015.

  63. 63.

    Author’s interview with academic and HIV/AIDS activist, Rio de Janeiro, January 2015.

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Acknowledgements

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the institutions to which he is affiliated to. All translations have been made by the author, unless otherwise indicated. The author would like to thank the support provided by CAPES/PRÓ-DEFESA (edital n. 27/2018), CNPq grant 439044/2018-9 and FAPERJ grant E-26/202.732/2019.

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  1. Brazilian War College (ESG – Escola Superior de Guerra), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Danilo Marcondes

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  1. Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP), São Paulo, Brazil

    Mathias Alencastro

  2. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Estudos Internacionais, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro Seabra

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Marcondes, D. (2021). Brazilian Health Cooperation in Africa: A Case Study of Promoting Pharmaceutical Production in Mozambique. In: Alencastro, M., Seabra, P. (eds) Brazil-Africa Relations in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55720-1_7

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