The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, presented this Tuesday the main new features of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), including the creation of an Advisory Council chaired by the Secretary of State for International Cooperation and President of the Agency, Eva Granados.
“With these reforms, Spain will arrive at the Seville Conference on Development Financing with a renewed and strengthened cooperation system ready to work for people and the planet alongside our partners,” the minister stated at an event held in the new multipurpose room of the AECID library.
One of AECID’s new features is its new visual brand identity. “Such a profound transformation of the Agency required a new approach,” Albares noted. The objective of this redesign, according to the Agency’s press release, is “to represent a strengthened, more modern, and open agency, better projecting its identity as a channel of international solidarity for Spanish citizens.”
The minister also recalled the approval of the new AECID statute, which took place last December and provides, according to the press release, “a more agile and strategic structure, results-oriented and capable of anticipating major global challenges such as climate change, migration, poverty, and humanitarian crises.”
In addition, Albares announced a reinforcement of AECID’s human resources, both at headquarters and in the field, and new opportunities for the incorporation of young people. “AECID thus strengthens its human resources policy with new profiles, better working conditions, and a firm commitment to technical knowledge and professional diversity,” the Agency added.
Another change is the promotion of digitalization and the recent renovation of AECID’s institutional website, which will be extended to all Spanish Cooperation Offices (OCEs), the Agency’s external network.
One of the new features presented at the event was the recent creation of the Agency’s Advisory Council, created on May 23, 2025, which held its founding session on the same day, May 10. It is chaired by Eva Granados Galiano, with Antón Leis, Director of the Agency, serving as vice-chair.
The council’s current members are: Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, African Union Special Envoy for Food Systems and former Prime Minister of Niger; Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, democracy and human rights activist and President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA); Mario Pezzini, Special Adviser for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO and former Director of the OECD Development Center; Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and former Minister of Environment of Costa Rica; José Antonio Sanahuja, professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid; Paula Marcela Moreno, former Minister of Culture of Colombia and president of Manos Visibles; Megumi Muto, senior executive director and deputy director of Sustainability at the Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group and former vice president of the Japanese cooperation agency; and Paula Gil Leyva, president of Doctors Without Borders Spain.
