Responsibility for Portugal’s foreign policy, including development cooperation, lies with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The MFA determines the strategic vision of Portuguese development cooperation and has responsibility over the Interministerial Commission for Cooperation and the co-ordination of multilateral cooperation.

The Portuguese Institute for Development Support (IPAD) is responsible for co-coordinating Portugal’s highly decentralised aid programme. The role of the IPAD includes promoting projects proposed by other public institutions and ensuring relations with and co-financing NGOs.

Portugal’s development cooperation is guided by the 2005 strategy paper “A strategic vision for Portuguese cooperation”. The strategy rests on the following five guiding principles

• Commitment to the MDGs
• Support to human security, in particular in fragile states or in countries in a post-conflict situation
• Support to education and training
• Sustainable economic and social development
• Active involvement in international debates

Activities in key cross-cutting areas for poverty reduction, such as gender equality, are not recorded, and there are no policy guidelines on the integration of gender in development. In 2010 a new Strategic Plan is under preparation and therefore the above priorities may change.

The Portuguese government aims to achieve an ODA target of 0.51% in 2010 and 0.7% by 2015. However, in 2008 Portugal committed €429 million to development cooperation, i.e. 0.27% of GNI. Portugal’s ODA ratio lags far behind the average country effort and will most likely miss this 2010 target.

Portugal’s share of bilateral aid was 60% in 2008, of that amount, 70% of Portugal’s bilateral ODA went to six countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Santo Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste.

Portugal’s bilateral aid concentrates on a handful of very poor countries, with a high proportion of bilateral ODA going to Sub-Saharan Africa. Partner countries include Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Principe and Timor-Leste. Portugal intends to support other countries with which it has historical ties – Indonesia, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa.

In terms of aid modalities, debt relief and technical cooperation dominate Portuguese cooperation. Projects and programme aid represent only 2% of bilateral aid. Portugal’s bilateral assistance is based country-specific Indicative Cooperation Programmes (ICPs) which constitute the strategic document for Portuguese cooperation in each priority country. ICPs are prepared every three years by IPAD in collaboration with embassy staff.

Portugal offers direct budget support to Mozambique, Cape Verde and East Timor.

Between 2005 and 2008, Portugal contributed an average of 43% of ODA to multilateral organisations. Portugal has always channelled the largest share of its multilateral aid to the EU (about €112 million in 2008). Contributions to the World Bank have increased to €29 million.
Portugal has strategic partnerships with many UN agencies including: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Population Fund (UNFP), and the Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
In 2008 Portugal contributed modestly to UNFPA, providing €200,000 and €3 million to the Global Fund.

Portugal’s efforts in population and HIV/AIDS programmes have been very modest. In 2008, total bilateral aid to the health sector was €5.4 million and population assistance amounted only €262,000 in 2008.  

Political and civil society interest in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) has increased in Portugal in recent years. This has been demonstrated through the Government’s intensified partnership with UNFPA.

The Portuguese All-Party Group on Population and Development has also been very active in advocating for SRHR, namely by hosting seminars and conferences within Parliament on SRHR and, more specifically, on Reproductive Health Supplies.

IPAD’s Department for Civil Society and Emergency Aid is responsible for relations with NGOs. This department relies on embassies to provide feedback on NGO projects, although field staff are not obliged to include information on NGOs in their regular reporting. Department for Civil Society and Emergency Aid works mostly with the Portuguese NGO Platform, financing some of its costs, as well as with five or six external organisations.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a marginal role in Portuguese development cooperation despite recent steps to increase their involvement. Portugal introduced ‘Law 66/98’ which aimed to address the legal status of NGOs.
The law was followed by a decree in 2003 changing co-financing procedures.

Allocation criteria and amounts are now decided on the basis of yearly calls for proposals. Among the selection criteria, projects of a European dimension, evidence of co-financing and partnerships with other countries, including from the South, are prioritised. Since 2001, a protocol between the MFA and the Portuguese NGO Platform¹  recognises the latter as an institutional structure as well as the heart of CSOs in country programming.

In 2008, 87 projects were submitted to the Portuguese cooperation agency, from 42 NGOs for an amount of €9.1 million. ODA bilateral disbursements to civil society in 2008 totalled €4.9 million.

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¹ Contact information can be found in the NGO Platform Contact Information section of this Guide.

Portugal Development cooperation http://www.euroresources.org/http://

OECD, Portugal DAC Peer Review.

Factsheet Portugal, CountDown 2015 Europe.http://www.euroresources.org/http://

Factsheet Millennium Campaign from End Poverty: What about Portugal?

Portuguese NGO platform

UNFPA 2008 report

The Global Fund pledges and contributions, April 2010 version