Angola and Fiocruz strengthen cooperation in education

In yet another step in the history of the partnership between Angola and Fiocruz, the Foundation received, on 11/27, a delegation from the Angolan Ministry of Health to continue planning cooperation actions between the institutions, with a focus on training health professionals. The visit took place two weeks after a delegation from Fiocruz visited the African country on a prospecting mission for the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS). The trips are the result of an agreement signed this year between the two governments aimed at strengthening the Angolan health system based on the training of human resources.

Foundation received a delegation from the Angolan Ministry of Health to continue planning cooperation actions between the institutions (photo: Peter Ilicciev)

The Angolan delegation on a mission to Brazil, led by the Minister of Health Sílvia Lutucuta, had already been to Brasília, São Paulo and Florianópolis. Fiocruz hosted part of the group, this time without the presence of the minister: the doctor and professor at the Agostinho Neto University, Job Monteiro António; the president of the National Council of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technicians, António Júlio Gomes; and the doctor from Clínica Girassol, Eugénio Albano. They met with representatives of Fiocruz units at the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp/Fiocruz), where they were able to discuss the demands of the Angolan government in light of the Foundation's capacity and possibilities.

It was agreed that the priorities will be sent by the delegation to continue planning bilateral cooperation actions. This process will take place over the next six months. "Depending on your priorities, we will coordinate cooperation and remain available to continue this movement seeking to strengthen our cooperation," said the Vice President for Education, Information and Communication (Vpeic/Fiocruz), Cristiani Machado, who gave a presentation on the Foundation with a focus on education and cooperation with Angola.

"Fiocruz has been an important partner in training Angolan professionals; we have a long-standing cooperation," said Job Monteiro António. "What we hope doing now, together with the Ministry of Health, is to strengthen training from the point of view of specializations, such as medical residencies, and capacity building of Angolan professionals. We would like this process to be bipartite, with Angolans coming here and Brazilians also going to Angola for the training of our professionals, to carry out complementary internships and get to know another reality."

“Fiocruz has been an important partner in the training of Angolan professionals; we have a very old cooperation”, said Job Monteiro António (photo: Peter Ilicciev)

According to Erica Kastrup,advisor to the Center for International Relations in Health (Cris/Fiocruz) who was part of the Foundation's delegation to Angola in November, some of the Angolan government's demands are already being planned, such as offering vacancies for Fiocruz's residency programs. A planning process is already underway for cooperation in the institutional development of Angolan national health institutes – an important aspect of structuring cooperation, a partnership in the process of strengthening health education and research institutions and support in the field of entomology.

During its visit to Fiocruz, the group also took part in the launch of the Observatory of Health Technicians at the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic Health School (EPSJV/Fiocruz), visited the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Hospital (INI/Fiocruz) and the Mourisco Castle.

History

In the context of Brazil's return to an active foreign policy, it was held, in April, the 7th Meeting of the Angola-Brazil Joint Commission, organized by the foreign ministries of the two countries to resume cooperation. On the occasion, Brazil's Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade Lima, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Angola's Foreign Minister, Téte António, to meet, among other things, their demand for large-scale training of health professionals, Kastrup explained.

Group visited the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Hospital (photo: Peter Iliciev)

In August, the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, visited Angola. Minister Nísia Trindade was in her entourage – which included Fiocruz – and met with the Angolan minister, Silvia Lutucuta, at which time they discussed cooperation in the field of health. In November, as follow-up, there was a prospecting mission to Angola by the Ministry of Health and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, with the participation of various federal government institutions that could meet this demand, in a process of strengthening global South-South cooperation. The Cris/Fiocruz, Vpeic/Fiocruz and Ensp/Fiocruz were part of the delegation and presented Fiocruz's training capacity of human resources for the Unified Health System.

This cooperation will be planned at a time of Angolan government investment in infrastructure, mainly in the hospital sector. "This cooperation is strategic to make up for a professional deficit in professionalized care in Angola, but there was also a demand for training in various areas of human resources training, such as technical training," added Kastrup.

Existing partnerships between Fiocruz and the Angolan government include the inauguration of the third Human Milk Bank (Fernandes Figueira Institute, IFF/Fiocruz) on the African continent, at the Lucrécia Paim Maternity Hospital, in 2019, and the Master's Degree in Public Health in Angola, in partnership with Ensp/Fiocruz, completed in 2012