The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday approved the Draft Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity, which introduces, among its main novelties, the granting of “legal status” to Spain’s commitment to allocate 0.7% to development aid and the creation of a new Statute of the Aid Worker.
The future law, which will be submitted to the Spanish Parliament for parliamentary approval and is expected to be ratified later this year, updates the current Law on International Development Cooperation of July 7, 1998, and responds “to the demand of the sector and the Government’s commitment to renew the legal framework of Spanish Cooperation in the face of the changes that have taken place in global development” and to “the changes that have occurred in the cooperation of the General State Administration, the Autonomous Communities and local authorities”, according to the Government. The new law is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris climate change agreements and other international instruments, it added.
In addition, the Bill is a first step towards the modification of the Spanish Cooperation system, which contemplates the reform of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the establishment of the new Aid Worker Statute, the regulatory development of financial cooperation through a regulatory framework for grants to provide the system with “greater efficiency and agility” and the creation of new instruments to improve evaluation, monitoring and accountability. It also provides for the creation of the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development (FEDES), a financial cooperation instrument that will assume the functions of the Fund for the Promotion of Development (FONPRODE).
“The approval of the law, if it is approved this year, would coincide with the largest increase in a decade in cooperation budgets: almost 400 million euros more in Official Development Assistance (ODA),” continued the Executive, which recalled that “the future law would give legal status to Spain’s commitment to allocate 0.7% of GNI to Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2030. In addition, the regulation stipulates that 10% of all cooperation aid be earmarked for humanitarian aid.
Among the geographical priorities of Spanish Cooperation, the draft law includes the Sahel for the first time and maintains the traditional areas, including Latin America and the Caribbean. It will also strengthen aid in the event of unforeseen crises.
“This law demonstrates Spain’s commitment to the fight against inequalities and poverty, and reinforces the principles of just ecological transition and gender equality,” the Government stated. “Global public goods (such as public health or the fight against climate change) occupy a privileged place in the preliminary draft, along with the consolidation of the governance of the Spanish Cooperation system by improving the instruments of coordination, concertation and collaboration between actors, such as the Autonomous Communities, local authorities, civil society or the private sector,” it concluded.
“We are facing an avant-garde law that places Spain as a more dignified country within the international community and as a benchmark in cooperation models”, declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, last January, after the approval of the draft bill in the Council of Ministers.
