This week saw the start of an initiative by World Physiotherapy (WP), in collaboration with the Order of Physiotherapists, with the aim of supporting the development of the physiotherapy profession in the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP): Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe.
WP's head of project development and management, Sidy Dieye, was welcomed to Portugal by the President of the Portuguese Physiotherapists Association, António Lopes, and physiotherapists Marco Clemente and Cláudia Costa, to lead a series of bilateral meetings with representatives of the international organisation in those countries.
The meetings, which took place on 5 and 6 February, aimed to establish a comprehensive dialogue and identify specific needs in areas such as education, training, advocacy, leadership of professional associations and regulation within the physiotherapy community in the PALOP.
For the Order of Physiotherapists, this collaboration is of vital importance because it will unleash opportunities to increase the social value of the profession in different health contexts, and taking into account the specificities of each country.