The Diplomat
The Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau, chaired yesterday the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Fund for the Promotion of Development (FONPRODE), during which the new Spanish strategy in the Sahel was discussed and several loans of 34.4 million euros for Panama, Peru, Costa Rica and Niger were requested to the Council of Ministers.
During the meeting, held via videoconference, Moreno Bau informed of Spain’s intention to strengthen its presence in the Sahel through a new strategy for the region aligned with the III Africa Plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the V Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation. “The FONPRODE Strategy in the Sahel is a highly topical document in view of the importance of the region for both Spanish Cooperation and the European Union”, she said.
In this context, FONPRODE will incorporate from this year onwards new priority sectors for action, such as digital education and digitization, early recovery from natural disasters, migration and economic reactivation and support for health systems due to the pandemic. Thus, actions in these areas will be promoted in partner countries such as Mali, Senegal and Niger, in addition to consolidating actions with international financial institutions, multilateral organizations, the European Union and other donors in the region.
During the meeting, the Committee announced its intention to request, in the course of 2021, the authorization of the Council of Ministers for operations for an aggregate amount of around 210 million euros. Within this framework, the Committee decided yesterday that it will request the Council of Ministers for financial inclusion lending operations to financial institutions in Panama, Peru and Costa Rica, for an aggregate value of EUR 24.4 million, and proposed a EUR 10 million loan for the Government of Niger for food security in rural communities, to increase household incomes, improve livelihoods and facilitate the integration of young people.
FONPRODE’s participation in the RECIDE initiative for the resilience of cities to climate change and natural disasters, endorsed in 2018 by the European Union under the European External Investment Plan, was also approved, and the eligibility of the projects Biodiverciudad y Equidad Urbana in Barranquilla, Colombia; Multi Energy for Resilience and Integrated Territorial Management (MERIT), in Mali; and Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management, in the Rwandan district of Kayonza, was analyzed.
Financial cooperation is an essential tool for development, making it possible to finance larger-scale projects through loans and credits and public-private partnerships. “It is one of the key ways to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda and to promote high environmental and social standards, transparency and anti-corruption”, the Ministry stressed.
FONPRODE was created in 2010 to mobilize resources for actions to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, promote gender equality and the defense of human rights. It currently has a current portfolio of 542 million euros in 68 countries, supports more than 320,000 jobs, 60% of which correspond to women. The regions with the largest FONPRODE presence are Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
