Jabonero (OEI): “The Princess of Asturias Award is a recognition of 23 sovereign nations”

The Diplomat The Secretary General of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), Mariano Jabonero, highlighted this Wednesday the importance of the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Cooperation, which will be presented to him this Friday in Oviedo and represents a recognition of the “23 sovereign nations” of the region integrated into this organization. Jabonero made these remarks during a meeting at the General Assembly of the Principality of Asturias with authorities, political representatives from the entire Asturian parliamentary spectrum and organisations from the international cooperation sector in Oviedo (such as the ONCE Foundation or the Red Cross) to publicise the work of educational, scientific and cultural cooperation of the OEI in its 75 years of history. During the round table, moderated by the Spanish journalist Manuel Campo Vidal, Juan Manuel Cofiño González, president of the General Assembly of the Principality, stressed that education is more important than ever “in the face of an unpredictable future” and underlined the role of the OEI in its work to face “in an exemplary manner” the challenges of the region, especially, to “let education be a privilege and a right for all”. Likewise, Campo Vidal highlighted the “real presence” of the organisation throughout the region and its role as a “bridge” that “is crossed and leaves a mark”. Mariano Jabonero, for his part, pointed out the “undeniable” relationship between Latin America and Europe through aspects such as language, Western cultural tradition or return migrations, and stressed that “today Latin America is the only region in the world that does not have a war conflict.” “This Princess of Asturias award is a recognition received by 23 sovereign nations,” he said. Jabonero also reviewed the most important institutional achievements recently achieved by the OEI, such as the award of the delegated cooperation seal by the European Union - which allows projects to be carried out on the ground with European funds and which the OEI is the first to obtain in the Ibero-American space - and the status of UN observer body, granted in 2023. Martín Lorenzo, director of the OEI in Colombia, pointed out the "fundamental" role of the organization in key programs and projects in that country, including during the implementation of the peace agreement, especially in issues of job insertion or support in educational initiatives for social reintegration. "Colombia has always had a significant role in the organization. It has been the first headquarters in the field and there we have developed significant programs such as Zero Illiteracy, which impacted 300 thousand Colombians," he said. The OEI, which works directly with the governments of its 23 member states, has been awarded this year with the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation “for the fruitful work of promoting Ibero-American multilateralism and for representing a significant bridge in the relations between Europe and Ibero-America”. The award, which will be presented tomorrow Thursday at the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, comes precisely when the OEI celebrates 75 years as the leading organisation of multilateral cooperation in the region, with 650 projects on average per year and more than 11 million beneficiaries on average per year in the last five years. The organisation represents one of the largest cooperation networks in the world, with more than 400 active agreements, together with public entities, multilateral banks, universities, civil society organisations, companies and other international organisations and one of the largest physical presences on the ground, with 19 offices in addition to its headquarters in Madrid.

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