The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers authorized this past Tuesday several voluntary contributions to international organizations, programs and funds and other international entities for a total amount of 13,237,399 euros.
The largest contribution, of ten million euros, corresponds to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS/HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, created by the United Nations General Assembly in June 2001 to channel the resources needed to implement the Millennium Development Goals. Its main office is located in Geneva.
Between 2003 and 2010, Spain donated a total of $693 million to this organization, but stopped contributing funds between 2011 and 2014 due to suspicions of corruption. In September 2022, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced before the UN General Assembly that Spain would contribute 100 million euros for the period 2020-2022. To fulfill this commitment, Spain must donate a total of 60 million by 2022. As this is a large amount, the contribution has been divided between different units of the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs. The State Secretariat for Foreign and Global Affairs (SEAEG) will cover 10 million, according to its budgetary capacity.
On the other hand, Spain will contribute 2,700,000 euros to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) for the Humanitarian Emergency Food Shock Plan for the Sahel, Horn of Africa and Yemen. WFP is particularly active in the Sahel, where the combination of armed conflict, population displacement and climate change has led to growing food and nutrition insecurity, and launched an emergency operation last March to provide assistance to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, both within the country and in neighboring countries. The Spanish contribution is aimed at financing the Grain From Ukraine initiative, which involves transporting Ukrainian grain from Ukrainian ports to humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen and other countries in the South.
Finally, the Government authorized a contribution of 500,000 euros to the Trust Fund of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), created on March 7 to strengthen three areas of work: computer support for evidence collection, psychological support for witnesses and survivors, and the capacity to investigate crimes of sexual violence and crimes against children. Spain will also make a further contribution of 37,399 euros to the ICC Trust Fund for Victims, which aims to carry out compensation and reparation programs for victims of international crimes under the court’s jurisdiction.
