The Diplomat The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, chaired yesterday the events to commemorate the Day of Aid Workers, a group whose profile corresponds, in Spain, above all, to a woman over 35 years of age. During the commemoration of the Day of Aid Worker Persons 2024, which took place at the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Minister Albares recognized the work of the more than 2,700 Spaniards who are dedicated to development cooperation and humanitarian action outside our borders. He also highlighted the key role that these people play in helping to solve global challenges such as wars, poverty, hunger, gender gaps or the climate emergency and the minister took the opportunity to recall how the new Statute of Aid Workers, approved by the Council of Ministers last July, recognizes the work of this group and dignifies their professional careers by understanding that "they are the ones that make projects possible and improve people's lives." For his part, the director of the AECID, Antón Leis, presented the study that the Agency prepares annually on the group of cooperating persons. The most common profile is a woman over 35 years old. In fact, women represent 53% of the total of 2,737 Spaniards who are currently working abroad, working professionally in international development cooperation and humanitarian action. 74% of these people are over 35 years old. According to the AECID study, Spain currently has cooperating people from all the autonomous communities, as well as from the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, living abroad. The largest group comes from the Community of Madrid (21% of the total), followed by Catalonia and Castile and León (both with 13% each) and Andalusia (11%). Spanish cooperating people work in 92 countries, with 43% concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the rest work in South America (25%), Central America and the Caribbean (13%), the Maghreb (6%), the Middle East and Near East (6%), the rest of Asia (5%) and Europe (the remaining 2%). The countries that stand out in terms of the number of cooperators are Bolivia (with 330 Spanish cooperators currently working there), Mozambique (211), Senegal (146), Kenya (139) and Colombia (with 116 Spanish cooperators). According to the report, carried out with the Embassies and the Spanish Cooperation Offices (OCE), 36% of the Spaniards who are dedicated to development cooperation and humanitarian action in the countries receiving Official Development Aid (ODA) are staff who work under the coordination of non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs). The second largest group, 26%, is staff who work for international organisations dedicated to cooperation. Another 26% are religious personnel. Seven percent of the Spanish group deployed in the field are staff of the AECID itself and the remaining five percent work for different organisations at the same time, or it has not been possible to define their position. :
