<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) will contribute up to a total of €53 million to subsidize cooperation projects for sustainable development and global solidarity of non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs), a figure slightly lower than the budget for the previous year but slightly higher than the amount ultimately implemented.</strong></h4> The Official State Gazette published this Tuesday the resolution of the AECID Presidency approving the public call for grants for the implementation of cooperation projects for sustainable development and global solidarity for 2025. The resolution was signed on May 8 in Madrid by the director of the agency, Antón Leis. These are the first calls for proposals since the approval of the new Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation 2024-2027. The beneficiaries of these grants will be non-governmental development organizations that have been legally established at least five years prior to the publication of the call in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and that are registered with the AECID (AECID) Registry. The objective of these grants is to finance development projects in priority geographic areas and sectors within a single country, as well as projects related to Development Education and Global Citizenship that contribute to "promoting a model of global citizenship capable of contributing to the fight against poverty and promoting the development of peoples, from a human rights perspective, and to promoting fair trade," and projects aimed at addressing the needs of the Sahrawi refugee population in Tindouf (Algeria). For all these purposes, a maximum additional amount of €53 million has been set. The amount requested per project may not be less than €200,000 and may not exceed €1 million. For projects related to Education for Development and Global Citizenship, the amounts will range from a maximum of €600,000 to a minimum of €100,000. The total amount is slightly lower than the previous call, in March 2024, when €55 million was offered, but it exceeds the 2023 call by €8 million (€45 million) and the 2022 call by €21 million (€32 million). However, the amount ultimately implemented in the previous year, announced in October 2024, was lower than initially planned, totaling €52 million (compared to the budgeted €55 million), which funded 88 projects carried out by 69 Spanish NGOs. A total of 73 projects were developed in 28 Spanish Cooperation partner countries, while eleven were dedicated to Development Education in Spain and another four to the Sahrawi refugee population in Tindouf. The geographical distribution of the development cooperation projects in the 28 selected countries was Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, with 20 projects; 17 in the Arab world and Asia, 21 in sub-Saharan Africa, and 15 projects in South America.
