Strengthened cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries

29 April 2024

The International Social Security Association (ISSA) has recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), organized a meeting of the Focal Point for Portuguese-speaking Countries and participated in a CPLP ministerial meeting in Portugal.

On 26 March, ISSA Secretary General Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano met with Executive Secretary Zacarias da Costa at the CPLP headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal to sign a Memorandum of Understanding. The two organizations agreed to cooperate in building and sharing knowledge, promoting social security and contributing to each other's activities and events.

On 15 April, the ISSA Focal Point for Portuguese-speaking Countries organized a meeting in Porto, Portugal, to discuss institutional developments and how to advance social security. During the meeting, ISSA presented its work on operationalizing international social security agreements through tools to facilitate the international exchange of data. The meeting was organized in connection with the Regional Social Security Forum for Europe, which took place 16-18 April.

Secretary General Caetano then went to Lisbon to participate in an extraordinary meeting of CPLP Ministers of Labour and Social Security on 19 April. The CPLP countries signed in 2009 a Multilateral Convention on Social Security, and the Ministers discussed the objective to have it enter into force in the very near future. In the meeting, Mr Caetano highlighted the importance of international collaboration in social security, and that the ISSA is building knowledge and data on international social security agreements.

Photo: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa