The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers authorized this past Tuesday a voluntary contribution of 396,000 euros with which Spain will be able to join MOPAN, an international network formed by twenty States with the mission of improving the effectiveness of the multilateral system for development.
Specifically, Spain will contribute 198,000 euros to the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN) for 2023 and the same amount for 2024.
MOPAN was created in 2002 by a group of member countries of multilateral development organizations that share a common interest in assessing the effectiveness of the multilateral organizations they fund. The mission of this network is to strengthen the contribution of these organizations to sustainable development and humanitarian outcomes through the generation, analysis and presentation of relevant and credible information on the organizational and development effectiveness of multilateral organizations. MOPAN’s objectives are to support its members in accountability, to support multilateral organizations in their own improvement, to advise on the process of reform of the multilateral system and to contribute to multilateralism in the spirit of the 2030 Agenda.
Since 2012, MOPAN has been integrated into the structure of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As established by its governance mechanism, member states must sign the Memorandum of Understanding between MOPAN and the OECD by which they commit to equitably finance, through a voluntary contribution, the MOPAN Secretariat, which is currently 198,000 euros per year and is the same for all members.
Spain announced in 2022 its intention to join the network, which should materialize this year. For this reason, the director general of Sustainable Development Policies, Eva del Hoyo, received last Monday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the director of the MOPAN Secretariat, Suzanne Steensen, to discuss the support that this organization can provide to Spain in terms of multilateral development cooperation. The contribution authorized by the Council of Ministers will cover the cost of Spain’s membership in the network and establishes a financial commitment to the OECD for the duration of the current Memorandum of Understanding.
The twenty MOPAN member states are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Apart from that, Turkey and the European Union belong to the network as observer members.
“Participation in the multilateral system is one of the pillars of action of Spanish Cooperation, accounting for 67% of the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) disbursed in 2020 by Spain, which places it in that year as the eighth country in terms of channeling ODA to multilateral institutions,” stressed the Council of Ministers.
