AECID will allocate more than €375 million to the five grant programs in 2026

Eduardo González The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) will allocate more than €375 million in 2026 to grants for development cooperation, humanitarian action, innovation, cooperation agreements for sustainable development, and the promotion of memory, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agency's website published the resolution for the competitive grant program for 2026 on Monday, February 23. This is the second call for proposals since the approval of the new Spanish Cooperation Master Plan 2024-2027. Throughout 2026, according to the resolution, AECID plans to award five grants. On the one hand, three of the calls for proposals will be dedicated, as in previous years, to development cooperation projects, humanitarian actions, and innovation and knowledge initiatives. The total amount for these three calls is €75 million, ten million less than in the 2025 call. Specifically, the planned amounts are up to €40 million for development cooperation projects, up to €11 million for innovation and knowledge initiatives, and up to €24 million for humanitarian actions. Furthermore, among the main new features for 2026 are a new call for cooperation agreements for sustainable development and global solidarity for the period 2026-2029 (with a planned budget of up to €300 million) and the addition of a grant program for advanced technical cooperation actions and projects related to memory, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution in Latin America and the Caribbean, within the framework of the Democracy Program, with a budget of €1.5 million. The final amounts will be subject to budgetary availability and the formal approval of each call for proposals. From an operational standpoint, the collection of Accountability Indicators (AII) for Spanish Cooperation will be mandatory starting in 2026. According to the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the objective of these AIIs is to improve the measurement of results achieved, “strengthening transparency and accountability to citizens.” Furthermore, certain budgetary and focus priorities are being reinforced: in humanitarian action, at least 25 percent of the funding will be reserved for interventions specifically targeting women and girls and promoting gender equality; in the call for project proposals, minimum reserves will be maintained for Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship and for interventions targeting the Sahrawi refugee population in Tindouf; and in the call for agreements, specific reserves will be established for emergencies and for Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship. Grants On the one hand, the resolution allocates €40 million (thirteen million less than in 2025) for funding international development cooperation projects carried out by NGOs in collaboration with Spanish public cooperation policies in the areas of development, development education and global citizenship, and addressing the needs of the Sahrawi refugee population in Tindouf, Algeria. The maximum amount, in this last case, is €1 million. Likewise, €11 million (the same amount as the previous year) is allocated to fund, firstly, innovation initiatives that address social, economic, environmental, and development challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and secondly, knowledge-based initiatives. These latter initiatives are not traditional cooperation projects but will be geared towards strengthening the capacities of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and other Spanish cooperation actors. Private sector businesses, NGOs, and academic and research institutions are eligible to apply for this call for proposals. The purpose of the call for proposals for humanitarian actions, endowed with 24 million euros (three million more than in 2025), is to finance actions in this area carried out by NGOs, including disaster prevention and preparedness, emergency response, addressing complex, chronic, and recurring crises, early recovery, and the protection of people in situations of particular vulnerability. Regarding the new calls for proposals, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) anticipates allocating up to a maximum of 300 million euros (in four annual installments of 75 million euros each) to finance international development cooperation agreements carried out by NGOs in collaboration with Spanish public cooperation policies. This includes sustainable development agreements in a single country, specifically in partner countries of the Spanish Cooperation under the 2024-2027 Master Plan: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Egypt, Philippines, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Palestine, and Tunisia. ii. Humanitarian action may take place in the following countries listed in Annex I of this resolution: Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Mexico, Venezuela, Algeria, Philippines, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine. It also includes regional agreements in priority regions for Spanish Cooperation: Latin America and the Caribbean (divided into South America, and Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean), West Africa and the Sahel, and North Africa and the Middle East. These regional agreements may focus on either sustainable development or humanitarian action. This call for proposals will also include emergency agreements, without a specific geographic location, and agreements on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship. Finally, the fifth call for proposals will fund projects for the transfer of specialized knowledge aimed at peacebuilding, coexistence, reconciliation, and conflict resolution in post-conflict contexts, from a comprehensive perspective of historical and democratic memory, with a direct, verifiable, and exclusive impact in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Eligible beneficiaries include Spanish non-profit legal entities, both public and private; Spanish groups without legal personality composed of public or private legal entities; bodies and entities of the General State Administration; bodies and entities of the Autonomous Communities; and bodies of local and regional government administrations. The budget is €1.5 million, and the maximum grant per project will not exceed €200,000.

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