International cooperation for combating hunger: challenges between Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique

Abstract

International cooperation, based on the principle of reciprocity, has become a crucial instrument for addressing shared challenges within the international system. This article aims to analyze cooperation between Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique in the fight against hunger, in order to identify whether cooperation has acted as an instrument to mitigate or aggravate food insecurity. The research is guided by the following question: why have initiatives to combat hunger in Angola and Mozambique not achieved significant results from the perspective of Brazilian cooperation? The research is explanatory and, therefore, of a qualitative nature. Its research instruments are documentary and bibliographical analysis, guided by the hypothetical-deductive and comparative method. The scope of the research covers bilateral cooperation to combat hunger between Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique, during the period from 2005 to 2024. Angola and Mozambique stand out as two of the main beneficiaries of Brazilian cooperation on the African continent, and the year 2005 was marked by a significant increase in the number of projects developed by Brazilian cooperation agencies. The study concluded that the persistence of food insecurity in Angola and Mozambique is based on the lack of subsidies to strengthen family farming as a producer and supplier of food; on the instability of the state capacities of these countries, which are centered on the interests of the political elites in priority, before the immediate strengthening of assertive policies to combat hunger; and on the conversion of international cooperation into mere technical assistance incapable of producing long-term structuring effects.