► Ministry of Foreign Affairs
► Portuguese Institute for Development Assistance (IPAD)

Guiding Principles/Objectives

Programmes

ICT promote information and knowledge exchange, improve health and education services, encourage civil society participation and help have access to new markets. ICT are an integral part of the MDG’s and Portugal has also aligned itself to these important goals. Therefore ICT activities must be integrated in planning and implementation of development projects.

Following the recently approved guidelines of the Information Society action plans and the principles of Co-operation policy, the Portuguese Government will soon launch a strategy for ICT for development.

Portuguese co-operation policy towards ICT is based on the principle of recipient country ownership and should be in accordance with national and sectoral development priorities.

(See the “Questionnaire reply” section for more details)

Areas of Application:

The overall Portuguese development co-operation is geared towards four main strategic sectors of intervention, in which ICT play a relevant role:

► Education: ICT promote information and knowledge exchange, which are essential for the building of an Inclusive Information Society.
► Health: ICT improve health services.
► Capacity building and good governance: The usage of ICT encourages civil society participation.
► Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: ICT improve access to new markets.

In the Information Society Action Plan, axis 3 – Ensuring a Universal Presence - the development of ICT co-operation is foreseen in a continuous way.

► Electronic government consists upon one of the most relevant dimensions of this co-operation framework.
► The Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) is making efforts to coordinate the participation of its Member States in the World Summit on the Information Society.
► Portugal has participated actively in the conception of the E-Government Action Plan for Iberoamerica, developed by the Iberoamerican E-Government Working Group.
► The National Programme for the Participation of Citizens with Special Needs, approved in the current European Year of People with Disability, foresees co-operation for development initiatives. A digital gestual language processing programme is to be launched in 2004, in co-operation with Brazil and East Timor.

In terms of international co-operation frameworks, Portugal participates in several projects, mainly directed to African and Ibero-American countries:

► @LIS – Alliance for the Information Society
► CYTED – Ibero-American Programme for Science and Technology for Development [http://www.cyted.org]
► Observatory for the Information Society in Portuguese-speaking countries (UNESCO)

(See the “Questionnaire reply” section for details on the above mentioned initiatives and other activities undertaken in various areas)

Participation in Multi-donor Programmes:

(See the “Programmes” section above)

The Portuguese main development partners are Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PALOP: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé), East Timor and Brazil.

Ms. Isabel Beja e Costa, IPAD, isabel.costa@ipad.mne.gov.pt