U.S., Brazil expand aid cooperation

U.S., Brazil expand aid cooperation    The United States and Brazil this week have agreed to expand their joint technical cooperation in third countries.
   A 'protocol of intentions' builds on the existing collaboration between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC). The two agencies have worked together to advance food security in Mozambique and recently agreed to a staff exchange.
   The new agreement broadens the geographic scope of trilateral cooperation into more African countries and new ones in Latin America and the Caribbean. It will also explore cooperation on economic development, health, education, social inclusion and food security.

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   The joint activities will range from sending technical specialists from both countries to training of technical specialists from third countries in Brazil and/or the United States. USAID works in more than 100 countries, and ABC has expanded Brazil’s technical cooperation to over 81 developing countries.
   “Brazil has valuable lessons to share with other countries in this hemisphere given its successes in reducing poverty and achieving broad-based economic growth,” said Mark Feierstein, USAID assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, in a statement. “Working together will leverage scarce resources and will help us implement more effective and innovative approaches to some of the hemisphere’s tough development challenges.”