Denmark and Brazil are very different countries, with different institutions, political systems and societal challenges. Yet, it is precisely these differences that make collaboration in specific sectors valuable. Each of the sectors has its own specific challenges and we can learn from each other’s experiences.
This is the underlying principle of the Danish-Brazilian government-to-government cooperation agreement from 2015 that today covers a wide range of sectors, including energy, innovation and digitalisation, healthcare and sustainable urban development. The cooperation is based on partnerships between Danish and Brazilian public sector institutions, where experts work together on policy development, regulation, planning and implementation.
When knowledge becomes relationships
For more than ten years, Danida Fellowship Centre has been an integral part of this work. According to Terkel Borg, the sector counsellor at the Danish Embassy in Brazil responsible for digital government and intellectual property, the embassy has sent 520 Brazilian partners to Denmark to join Danida Fellowship Centre’s learning courses, including 200 from his own portfolio.
“When Brazilian public officials and experts come to Denmark, they have the opportunity to step outside their usual institutional context and look at their own challenges from a new perspective. They meet experts from Danish public authorities, our private sector and civil society within their area of professional expertise, and they return home with experiences that can subsequently be brought into the bilateral cooperation,” says Terkel Borg.
Watch the video with Terkel Borg, sector counsellor at the Danish embassy
One concrete example is the work on innovation in the public sector. Brazilian partners have, among other things, participated in Danish courses on behavioural insights and nudging facilitated by the Danish company iNudgeyou, that specialises in developing and testing new behaviour changing concepts.
According to Borg, the participants’ experiences during these courses have contributed to the subsequent dialogue between the embassy and the Brazilian government and helped inspire the development of the Brazilian initiative CINCO, a unit established in 2023 within the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services to spearhead the implementation of reforms within the public sector.
Read the article: Denmark’s support to Brazil’s innovation in public policy
From experience to solutions
“The point, however, is that Denmark does not provide Brazil with ready-made answers for digital government or intellectual property,” says Terkel Borg.
“On the contrary, our cooperation is about exploring what works and what doesn’t, and how experiences can be adapted to a Brazilian context, a process that Brazilians call “tropicalização”, best translated as “tropicalisation”.
The same principle applies to the energy sector, where Denmark and Brazil cooperate in areas including energy planning and the green transition. Here, Danish experience can be relevant, while Danish authorities and companies also have an opportunity to learn from Brazilian needs and experiences.
Danida Fellowship Centre supports the collaboration in ways that go beyond the learning courses. The Centre helps build the relationships and networks that make government-to-government cooperation work in practice.
When people meet, exchange experiences and bring new perspectives home with them, Danish knowledge can become local action in Brazil. The impact of the cooperation can reach far beyond the individual project.
Read Inudgeyou’s articles about Collaboration, building capacity and driving change in Brazil
See the list of 2026 courses that Danida Fellowship Centre offers to specialised professionals collaborating with Denmark in Danida funded cooperation programmes in Denmark’s partner countries. Participation in the courses are by invitation from the cooperation programmes.
