On 13 March in Praia, Cabo Verde and the Tech Diplomacy Global Institute (TDGI) signed a Protocol on Membership, formalising a partnership that places the country among the early movers in the field of tech diplomacy. With this decision, Cabo Verde becomes the second country in Africa — and the second Lusophone country globally — to formally appoint a Tech Ambassador at the highest level of government.
Ayumi Moore Aoki, Founder & President of the Tech Diplomacy Global Institute, joined His Excellency Olavo Correia, Vice Prime Minister of Cabo Verde and newly appointed Tech Ambassador, for the signing ceremony, alongside members of the Cabo Verdean government and representatives from the public and private sectors. The choice to locate the Tech Ambassador role in the office of the Vice Prime Minister signals that technology is being treated as a core dimension of the country’s foreign policy and economic strategy.
Cabo Verde has spent the past years investing in the institutions and infrastructure needed for a digital economy. The country is recognised for its political stability, governance standards, and sustained work on digital public infrastructure. TechPark CV — a technology park with data centres, innovation spaces, and training facilities — has contributed to positioning the archipelago as a digital point of reference in West Africa. Cabo Verde’s location in the Atlantic, at the intersection of submarine cables linking Africa, Europe, and Brazil, reinforces its role as a natural digital crossroads between three continents.
For the Tech Diplomacy Global Institute, the Protocol on Membership marks a step forward in the effort to turn tech diplomacy from an emerging concept into a working practice. The partnership with Cabo Verde reflects a growing trend among countries in the Global South to link digital investment, governance reform, and international positioning. In this context, Cabo Verde’s move to institutionalise tech diplomacy at senior level offers a concrete example of how states can organise themselves to participate more actively in debates on the global digital order.
The Protocol on Membership is also in line with the vision set out in the Samarkand Declaration, which calls on governments to recognise the role of Tech Ambassador and to contribute to the development of shared frameworks for digital governance. As implementation progresses, the collaboration between TDGI and Cabo Verde is expected to focus on building institutional capacity, strengthening international engagement on digital issues, and ensuring that technological change advances national priorities as well as broader regional and global goals.