The Diplomat
The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, yesterday paid tribute to the nearly 2,600 Spanish professionals in international cooperation, to whom he assured that the future Statute of the Aid Worker, which is being drafted in the framework of the new Cooperation Law, will improve the working conditions of this group and guarantee “a real professional career.”
“You give the best of yourselves: your commitment to a more prosperous, fairer, more egalitarian world, often putting your own lives at risk in very complex contexts: in the Sahel, in Central America, in Ukraine, in Haiti,” said Albares through a video message on the occasion of the celebration of the Day of the Aid Worker.
“Thanks to you, Spanish Cooperation and the Spanish Cooperation Agency can shine in the world” and, therefore, “the new Cooperation Law recognizes your work and the Aid Worker Statute, which is currently under development, maintains this commitment to dignify your work and give you a real professional career as you deserve,” he added.
In the same vein, the acting State Secretary for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela, said yesterday, during the Forum 2023 held at the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) on the occasion of the Day of the Aid Worker, that the new law aims to “strengthen the system of Spanish Cooperation” because “a strengthened cooperation system is the best defense we can offer to the nearly 2,600 aid workers who make up our network”. For his part, the director of the AECID, Antón Leis, assured that Spain “is among the countries of the European Union where social support for cooperation and aid to developing countries is in the majority”.
Profile: woman, over 35 years of age and working in Sub-Saharan Africa
During the Forum 2023, Leis also presented the study that the Agency carries out every year on the group of Spanish development workers abroad. The most common profile, according to the report, is that of a woman over 35 years of age, working in Sub-Saharan Africa for a NGDO or as religious personnel. Women represent 53% of the total of the 2,594 Spaniards who are currently stationed abroad and who are professionally engaged in international development cooperation and humanitarian action.
The total number of development workers remains very similar to previous years, despite the current difficult situation in countries that are regular recipients of Spanish Cooperation, such as Niger, Nicaragua and Haiti. AECID, as the agency in charge of managing Spanish cooperation in the public sphere, has increased its presence abroad by three percent in 2023.
Spanish development workers work in more than 90 countries around the world. Almost half of them (43%) work in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the rest are distributed among 23% in South America, 14% in Central America and the Caribbean, six percent in Asia and the Pacific, six percent in the Maghreb, another six percent in the Middle East and the Near and Middle East and the remaining two percent in Europe. The countries that stand out in terms of the number of development workers are Mozambique, with 179; Bolivia, with 166; the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 121; and Colombia, with 117 development workers.
According to the report, based on data provided by the Embassies and Spanish Cooperation units abroad, 37% of the people involved in development cooperation and humanitarian action in countries receiving Official Development Assistance (ODA) are religious. The second largest group, 27%, are personnel working under the coordination of Non-Governmental Development Organizations (NGDOs). Twenty-three percent work for international cooperation agencies, seven percent work for AECID and the remaining six percent work for different organizations at the same time or it has not been possible to define their position.
