Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pledged yesterday to “dignify” the professional career of international development workers in order to make it “more attractive” and to help retain and incorporate “talent” for Spanish development cooperation.
“With your work, vocation and commitment you represent the best of Spain, a country of solidarity, open to the world and committed to responding to the great challenges of humanity,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, during the opening of the Forum for the Day of the Aid Worker, held at the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in Madrid to honor the nearly 2,700 Spaniards who are engaged in development cooperation abroad. Development Worker’s Day has been celebrated every September 8 since 2006, following the signing of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
In his speech, Albares dedicated a “special remembrance” to those aid workers who “unfortunately are not with us”, as is the case of María Hernández, of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF), to whom, minutes before the event, he posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of Civil Merit. Hernandez was killed in Tigray (Ethiopia) in 2021 along with two other Ethiopian humanitarian workers. “This loss highlights, once again, the extreme conditions and insecurity faced by Spanish aid workers,” he said. “We will not rest until the Ethiopian authorities find those responsible for this crime, which constitutes a clear violation of International Humanitarian Law to which Spain has an unwavering commitment,” he assured.
According to Albares, the future Law of International Cooperation promoted by the Government (currently in parliamentary procedure and which he trusts can be approved “at the end of the year with the greatest possible consensus”) includes, among its “great improvements”, the elaboration of a new Statute of the Aid Worker (which will replace the previous one of 2006) with which it is intended the “dignification” of their professional careers so that “the profession of cooperation is attractive and promotes and retains talent”. “Our development workers are not only committed but extraordinarily trained and specialized,” and “they are the ones who make projects possible and improve people’s lives, and this must be reflected in constant support for their work,” he said.
In the same sense, the director of the AECID, Antón Leis, emphasized during the event and reiterated later in a meeting with journalists that the objective of the new International Cooperation Law and the subsequent Cooperant Statute is the “dignification and improvement of the conditions of the professional career of cooperant” in order to make it “more attractive” and, therefore, that “there are more cooperants”, both within the AECID and in NGOs or international organizations. According to Leis, the government should promote the “quarry” by improving training and protection measures for aid workers (including a compensation policy similar to those granted to military personnel killed in the line of duty), because “we need a generational replacement”.
Average profile of the Spanish development worker: woman over 35 years of age
According to AECID’s latest annual report, 77% of the 2,689 Spanish development workers currently working abroad are over 35 years of age and 54% are women. In addition, the development workers that Spain currently has abroad come from all the Autonomous Communities and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The largest group comes from the Community of Madrid (22% of the total), followed by Andalusia (13%), Catalonia (12%), Castile and Leon (9%) and the Basque Country (7%).
Spanish development workers work in 97 countries around the world. Forty-two percent work in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the rest are distributed unevenly: 20% are based in South America, 19% in Central America and the Caribbean, 6% in Asia and the Pacific, Maghreb and the Near and Middle East, and 1% in Europe. The countries with the most Spanish development workers currently in their territory are Mozambique, with a total of 179, followed by Bolivia with 174, Honduras with 171, Colombia with 141 and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 121 Spanish development workers.
According to the report, carried out with the collaboration of the Embassies and Units of the Spanish Cooperation Abroad, 34% of the Spaniards involved in development cooperation in countries receiving Official Development Assistance (ODA) work under the coordination of Non-Governmental Development Organizations (NGDOs). The second largest group (30%) is made up of religious personnel, while 24% work for international organizations dedicated to cooperation. Seven percent of Spanish field staff work for the AECID.
