The Diplomat
The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) will allocate up to 68 million euros to the three calls for grants planned in 2023 to finance development, humanitarian action and innovation projects.
This was announced yesterday by the Agency during the presentation, in Madrid, of the details of the calls for grants to be published throughout 2023. The presentation ceremony, chaired by the director of the AECID, Antón Leis, was attended by representatives of NGDOs, universities, companies and foundations and other institutions of the Spanish Cooperation system.
Specifically, in 2023 the AECID will have three calls for grants for a total of 68 million euros, divided into 45 million (mostly from income tax) for the Ordinary Call for Projects, aimed at NGDOs registered in the AECID Registry; 15 million for the Call for Humanitarian Actions, aimed at NGDOs with the double qualification of AECID and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO); and 8 million for the Call for Innovation Actions, aimed at groups formed by NGDOs, companies and academic and research entities.
These amounts represent “an increase of 40% in the call for projects destined to NGODs, 25% more in the call for humanitarian actions and 135% in Innovation actions with respect to the previous year”, according to the Agency.
The incorporation of Lebanon and Guinea Bissau to the list of target countries -up to a total of 28- in the call for NGDO projects is one of the novelties of the current fiscal year, together with the increase, from 4% in 2022 to 6% in 2023, of the reserve for the line of Projects of Education for development and global citizenship (EpD-GC) and for the promotion of fair trade.
In the case of grants for humanitarian action, in 2023, Moldova will be included as areas of action, specifically for the humanitarian response to the Ukrainian refugee population and host communities, and Turkey– to respond to the areas affected by the earthquake of February 2023-. In addition, not only is the budget increased in 2023 for this call -to 15 million euros, three more than in 2022-, but also the ceiling for the amount of the proposals is increased to 800,000 euros, as well as the execution time, which is increased from 18 months to two years. AECID will set aside 25% of the total credit available in the call for proposals for gender-specific actions in humanitarian action.
“This call for proposals is the result of intense dialogue with the various actors, in a context of reform of Spanish Cooperation that seeks to grow not only in the number of projects and actions, but also in the impact they generate,” said Antón Leis during the event. He also said that this year’s calls for proposals reinforce the commitment to Education for Development and Global Citizenship and to the sectors of food security and climate justice, “with a greener and more ecological cooperation and, of course, with a feminist approach and the link between humanitarian action and development”.
