The Minister of Foreign Affairs inaugurates the new headquarters of the FIIAPP in Madrid

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, inaugurated this Tuesday the new offices of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) in Madrid. “We have to bet on the value of #international cooperation, we are going to claim it even more strongly,” said Albares during the event, held at the Madrid exhibition centre (IFEMA), which houses the new headquarters. “You are an essential component for this” and, therefore, “there is much to be proud of for the work you do at the FIIAPP,” added the minister. The FIIAPP, a state public sector foundation dedicated to international cooperation in the field of administration and public policies, has been chaired since January 2024 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Until then, the presidency was held by the First Vice-President of the Government. In addition, the Board of Trustees has since those same dates included three other ministers (Interior, Equality and Presidency), as they are considered to be those with the greatest international projection, and the entire leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the four secretaries of State and the director of the AECID). The objective of all these changes is to incorporate foreign action into the usual work of international cooperation of the FIIAPP in the area of administration and public policies. Privately rented As reported by the Ministry in a press release on Tuesday, the new facilities of the FIIAPP, with a capacity for 250 people, are located in an office under a private rental regime until a public headquarters can be assigned to the Foundation. These new offices will house part of the FIIAPP staff, which is made up of 300 people, of which 80 occupy positions abroad. The average age is 44 years old and women make up 62% of the Foundation's staff. After his visit to the new facilities, which have a surface area of 3,096 square metres, Albares held a meeting with the Foundation's human team, in which he explained the process of reform of the Spanish Cooperation and highlighted the specific role that the new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity assigns to the FIIAPP as an instrument of foreign action and cooperation. Since assuming the presidency, according to the Ministry, Albares undertook a process of transformation of the statute of the FIIAPP, its governing bodies and its visual identity, among others. "This process is part of the project of reform of the Spanish Cooperation and the full integration of the Foundation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation," he said. The FIIAPP currently executes 118 institutional cooperation projects in 114 countries, with an average execution of 70 million euros per year. It works in areas such as the enlargement of the European Union, social cohesion in Latin America and the Caribbean, citizen security in West Africa and comprehensive drug policy in Central Asia. Within this framework, FIIAPP mobilises more than 620 professionals from 180 public sector institutions every year.

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