**3. The CPLP University mechanism**

The Mechanism for Facilitating the Participation of Universities in the Food and Nutrition Security Council of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries was created in the context of CPLP Strategy in 2012 [10]. The ESAN-CPLP was established in a meeting of heads of state, held in Maputo-Mozambique in the same year, with the purpose of ending hunger in the CPLP countries. Moreover, the CPLP University Mechanism Coordination Committee was elected in 2015. This Coordination Committee includes representatives from nine universities, two of which are in Brazil, two in Portugal and one in each of the other countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, East Timor and São Tomé and Prince). The objectives of CPLP University Mechanism are as following:


3.Promote the inclusion of researchers, teachers and students in social dynamics at different levels of territorial organization, contributing to the development of food systems in this political and economic bloc.

The Universities Mechanism acts independently, in line with the strategies of the Food and Nutrition Security Council of CPLP. In 2015, the work plan included a research and development program centered on three lines: i) Strengthening food and nutrition security governance; ii) Promotion of access and use of food to improve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups; iii) Increasing availability of food based on small producers. These three lines correspond to the lines of action of CPLP Strategy.

To accomplish these objectives, it was planned a survey of the potentialities, weaknesses and needs of research and development in Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutrition Security based on the systematization of existing information, for each Mechanism country. Subsequently, it was intended to develop integrated research, involving at least three member states. Nevertheless, during the first two years, despite some initiatives within the scope of the CPLP University Mechanism articulation committee, this network did not raise any significant advances, which can be directly attributed to the MU-CONSAN-CPLP. Taking into account the difficulty to implement regular face-to-face meetings, due to geographic distance among the different elements that compounds the MU-CONSAN Coordination Committee, virtual communication was pursued, in order to structure and trigger this process. This was a long period of debate, in a context of a great diversity of conceptions of food and nutrition security, development models and academic dynamics. In the beginning, the differences generated strangeness that over time disappeared to make way for a network of exchange and production of knowledge.

The strengthening of diplomatic cooperation relations between the countries of the south in strategic areas, among which Food and Nutrition Security was prioritized during the governments of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, with significant investment of resources and advocacy, providing the induction of technical cooperation networks and academic.

As a result of previous processes of articulation of Brazilian researchers with government sectors, in 2018, the University Mechanism obtained financial support from the Brazilian government, that provided the hiring of technical personnel to carry out the research, and allows that the Coordination Committee meets twice a month, using an online platform (NutriSSAN Platform), to discuss (essentially) two topics: research and education. Nevertheless, countries like Angola, Guinea-Bissau are unable to maintain their presence at meetings regularly due to essentially technical communication problems. With Equatorial Guinea and East Timor, it was not yet possible to establish an academic cooperation relationship. In addition to systematic online meetings, the CPLP University Mechanism researchers have participated in face-to-face meetings, called the "Summer Schools", which were held in Brazil (2–5, May 2018) and Mozambique (14–18 November 2018), in addition to a technical mission carried out in São Tomé and Príncipe. The purposes are the strengthening of the group's cohesion and the theoretical-methodological deepening for academic work.

During the meeting of CPLP heads of state, held in Dilli in 2015, a multilateral cooperation was proposed for the improvement of training programs at different levels of formal and informal education, as well as the expansion of the offer, whether in postgraduate courses or in short courses not leading to a degree. To this end, the approach was to offer courses aligned within the objectives of ESAN-CPLP Strategy for the countries of the bloc: i) the development of specific cooperative programs, ii) the realization of a face-to-face course to build a guiding reference

*Networking and Participatory Research Promoting Quality of Life and Well-Being… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97730*

framework of CPLP University Mechanism action and iii) the creation of an academic mobility program.

In 2016, the University of Afro-Brazilian Lusophone Integration (UNILAB) joined the group to follow the work of the CPLP University Mechanism coordination committee and started to occupy the second chair of Brazil in 2017. From UNILAB, discussions began for the collective construction of a proposal for postgraduate course in Food and Nutritional Security. The proposal was built collectively through online meetings and the courses have already been implemented in Brazil, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique. The resources for the implementation are minimal, because many tasks are distributed among the group of teachers through a process of solidarity cooperation (**Figure 1**).

The works in the development by the mechanism of CPLP involve online courses for the higher education professionals (400 h) involving 180 students in double degree process involving Brazil, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe. The

#### **Figure 1.**

*Final screen of video lessons with visual identity and partners of the specialization course in food and nutrition security, 2019.*

**Figure 2.** *Opening of the summer school at UniZambeze, Tete, Mozambique, 2018.*

students are government technicians, teachers and agents of food and nutrition security, challenged to develop projects that transform local contexts, such as the development of innovations for family farming practices and care for the environment, health and wellness. The specialization course program was developed collectively, involving professors from universities close to the students. Teachers who supervise final course projects also went through a training process involving virtual environments and participatory research. This virtuous interaction provides to the teachers who receive students from other countries the knowledge that makes them more sensitive to the problems of the student's local context, giving students access to information and the possibility of intervening in their reality in a systematic way using a method. As for teachers at local universities, these exchanges enrich the training processes they seek to teach by researching and intervening in reality.

The virtual environment has facilitated the process of cooperation between actors in academia and between them and the government and other social actors. However, the face-to-face meetings facilitated by FAO or the Brazilian government were fundamental to generate bond and feeling of belonging among the members of the University Mechanism (**Figure 2**).
