Sao Tome, July 17, 2026 (Lusa) - The former head of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), Maria do Carmo Silva, argued on Friday that the organisation needs a “galvanising project” and the capacity to translate political decisions into concrete action, including in the area of conflict prevention.
According to the former Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, who headed the CPLP’s executive secretariat between 2016 and 2018, over the course of its 30-year existence “the CPLP has achieved significant results”.
“It has established itself as an international organisation, gained international visibility, attracted the interest of various countries and organisations, gained experience as an organisation and has also taken some important steps, for example, on the issue of inter-community mobility,” she emphasised.
Carmo Silveira believes that 30 years – which the CPLP is marking today – “may be a short time, given the objectives it aims to achieve”, namely “to consolidate itself as a transcontinental community”, but, at the same time, it may be a long time when one considers “the limited visible impact on citizens”; for this reason, “it is frequently criticised for its political inaction”.
“I believe that the CPLP still needs a unifying project, so to speak, which gives greater strategic relevance to all member states. I would say something that can galvanise all member states, the population and young people around a project,” she emphasised, noting that “the CPLP remains a project of governments”.
“There need to be projects that have a direct impact on people’s lives. And those projects have not yet been identified,” she argued.
On the other hand, she believes that the CPLP “is characterised by an imbalance in terms of the socio-economic development of its member states” and that this imbalance hinders “the development of a common agenda”, because the countries have different socio-economic needs and problems.
“There is also the issue of democratic fragility in some member states, which is, incidentally, a sensitive point in the organisation’s management […] the absence of binding mechanisms for implementing the organisation’s decisions reduces the effectiveness of its decisions and, to a certain extent, limits the ability to translate political decisions into concrete actions,” she added.
“We have the specific case of Guinea-Bissau, where the organisation lacks the instruments to ensure its decision is binding,” she pointed out.
She also argued that the CPLP “must create mechanisms for conflict prevention” and “monitor the situation in member states”, notably by providing support for “the promotion of democracy or development in various fields”.
“The CPLP cannot be a space of exclusion; it must be a space that brings people together,” she emphasised.
She recalled that in 2016 the organisation adopted a new strategic vision, which included cooperation in the economic and business sphere, “because it was concluded that the Portuguese language and culture alone are not sufficient to galvanise a common future amongst member states”.
“There is enormous potential. The fact that the member states are spread across various continents creates extraordinary potential for economic cooperation and development, which should be harnessed alongside the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture,” she said.
The CPLP was established in Lisbon on 17 July 1996 and currently includes Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
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