Havana (CUBA), 9 February 2024 – The Secretary-General of the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC), Sheikh Manssour Bin Mussallam, on February 8 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Executive Director of the International Cooperation Group of Brazilian Universities, Dr. Rossana Valéria de Souza e Silva, in Havana, Cuba.
Through this historic agreement signed on the margins of the14th International Congress of Higher Education “Universidad: 2024” currently underway in Havana, the International Cooperation Group of Brazilian Universities provides up to 400 annual scholarships per year for Master’s and Doctoral degrees to students from the universities of the OSC Member States to study in Brazil.
The Memorandum recognises the necessity of South-South cooperation and solidarity to the emergence of a just, prosperous, and sustainable Third Way of Development which will transform the lives of students of the countries of the South. It further states that the “the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) and the International Cooperation Group of Brazilian Universities (GCUB), resolved to join efforts in service of their shared principles and common objectives, have reached an Understanding, expressed in this Memorandum, on the modalities of their collaboration in the implementation of a number of projects in line with the Strategic Plan for 2023-2030 of OSC Member States and Associate Members”.
During the signature ceremony, OSC Secretary-General stated that this Memorandum was a “historic step for the integration of our countries of the South to build the education we need”, and constituted simultaneously a “concrete agreement to shape the future we want through a Third Way of Development”. According to Sheikh Manssour Bin Mussallam, the “scholarships will have a transformative dimension in the lives of the beneficiaries”. “We should also note that the Memorandum of Understanding is a milestone not only, but also a concrete step in the way OSC has embarked on reshaping collaborative and win-win relationships between our countries of the South”, he added.
The GCUB is an association of directors of high-level international Universities that offers a wide range of academic and professional opportunities at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with a particular interest in the internationalisation of its member Universities.
The Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) was established on 29 January 2020 by countries and organisations from across the Global South at the International Summit on Balanced and Inclusive Education held in the Republic of Djibouti. As the first intergovernmental organisation of and by the Greater South, the OSC acts as an instrument of intellectual, technical and financial cooperation and solidarity between its Member States as well as its Associate Members in the pursuit of a Third Way of Development – from the South, for Humanity.
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