The question came to me from a friend via email. Well, after my first day I could not say because I spent most of the time with my Brazilian hosts talking about Mozambique.
I was in Florianópolis in the south of Brazil visiting the marine aquaculture facilities at the Universidade Federal de Santa Caterina which is working in partnership with the University of Victoria to improve aquaculture in Mozambique (the most populous Portuguese-speaking country in Africa).
Shrimp and fish farming research, techniques and production are all being developed at Mozambique’s Eduardo Mondlane University and the Ministry of Fisheries with the assistance of both Brazilian and Canadian faculty and technicians.
UVic, and in particular Dr. Jack Littlepage from the Centre for Global Studies, go a long way back here in Brazil. The world class operation in Florianópolis – the shellfish, shrimp and finfish laboratories and culture facilities – were developed over the course of many years with the assistance of UVic and through CIDA funding under AUCC´s University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development Program. These original projects built the capacity that laid the foundation for the work in Mozambique.
Manecas Baloi, graduate student at UFSC and Dr. Jack Littlepage, University of Victoria. © Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC)
As with many things in the Canada-Brazil relationship, the project in Africa represents an evolution – in this case from North-South cooperation to North-South-South. Brazil is a leader on many fronts – international development is yet another one.
As the day wrapped up, I stopped to look out east across the South Atlantic. As I admired the view, I started thinking of what’s on the other side of the sea from here and it occured to me, one answer to my friend’s question “How’s Brazil?” – well, it’s quite close to Africa.
