On 15 April, the Government of Flanders approved the new strategy for cooperation with Southern Africa. With this strategy "Flanders and Southern Africa: Partners in a changed world", the Government of Flanders wants to relaunch its bilateral relations with a region that Flanders has been working with for more than twenty years.
On 18 April the first States-General of the Flemish development cooperation took place in Brussels. This meeting was intended as an open dialogue on how Flanders can integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into the Flemish development cooperation. Minister-president Bourgeois invited 120 stakeholders of the Flemish development cooperation for a debate. Keynote speakers Erik Solheim (Chairman of OECD / DAC) and Patrick Gomes (Secretary General of the group of ACP countries) provided the global perspective.
On 21 April, Minister-president Geert Bourgeois met the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, in Brussels. On their agenda was the approval of the third country strategy for development cooperation in Mozambique. With this new strategy Flanders commits itself to an annual grant of 5 million euro for health care in Mozambique for the period 2016 – 2020. Both Governments make the explicit choice to focus these resources on adolescents, with an emphasis on adolescent girls (10-19 years). Mozambican teenage girls are very vulnerable in terms of sexual and reproductive health. They have a high risk of catching hiv-infection and of maternal mortality.