The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, inaugurated yesterday in Addis Ababa the first Spanish Cooperation Office and signed the first Country Association Framework since the approval of the new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Security.
“In Ethiopia I have inaugurated the first Spanish Cooperation Office after the approval of the new Cooperation Law,” declared the minister through his Twitter account, in which he also thanked “the work and commitment of the cooperators Spaniards in Ethiopia.
During his visit to the Spanish Cooperation Office (new name that contemplates the legal text approved last week in the Congress of Deputies), Albares met with representatives of the Spanish NGDOs that work in Ethiopia and was able to learn about the work on the ground of Spanish Cooperation in specific projects, such as the Menelik II Hospital in Addis Ababa, where he received the thanks of the Ethiopian Minister of Health, Dr. Lia Tadesse.
The meeting came after Albares signed a new Country Association Framework (MAP, by its acronym in Spanish) with Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide. This agreement updates the work of the Spanish Cooperation with Ethiopia until 2027 and plans to allocate, initially, 44 million euros to sectors such as rural development, health and gender equality. “We have signed the 2022-2027 Association Framework with Ethiopia,” Albares explained on Twitter. “It is the first Association Framework after the approval of the new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development”, he highlighted.
The new agreement, which represents a 15% increase in the financial commitment compared to the previous MAP 2015-2021, “shows the maintenance and reinforcement of the commitment of Spanish Cooperation in Ethiopia”, stated the Ministry. On the other hand, Albares also took this opportunity to demand that the Ethiopian authorities carry out a rigorous official investigation into the murder of the Spanish aid worker María Hernández, which occurred in June 2021 in the context of the conflict in the Tigray region.
Albares arrived in Ethiopia this past Tuesday, where on Wednesday he participated in the ministerial meeting of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU). During his speech -the second by a Spanish Foreign Minister before this body, after that of Miguel Ángel Moratinos in January 2008, and the first in Spanish-, the head of Spanish diplomacy announced a financial contribution from Spain of 70 million euros to accompany the African Union in the application of its Agenda 2063, the strategic concept of the AU for socio-economic transformation, adopted on January 31, 2015 by the Ordinary Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Union.
