The Diplomat
The First Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, chaired yesterday the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP), a public entity linked to the Spanish Cooperation and attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau; the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela; and the State Secretary for the European Union, Pascual Navarro, among other authorities, the two ministerial representatives on the Board of Trustees applauded the greater role given by the new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity to public technical cooperation and, therefore, to the FIIAPP, which has been officially recognized as the Spanish cooperation entity specialized in mobilizing public talent, as reported by the FIIAPP in a press release.
They also highlighted the commitment to the internationalization of Spanish administrations and, in this sense, the leadership that Spanish public administrations can play in the triple transition that currently marks the international agenda (green, digital and social), particularly in the Euro-Latin American space.
In this regard, Calviño urged Spanish administrations to strengthen their international alliances and to become actively involved in the European Union’s external agenda, helping to advance the 2030 Agenda with projects that promote sustainable and inclusive development. “Spain must play a central role within the framework of the European Union in fostering cooperation between institutions,” she said. “Building and improving public systems constitutes the great value proposition with which from Europe we can cooperate and contribute to global development and the FIIAPP is a strategic instrument to insert the European Union’s external action instruments in institutional exchanges that contribute to rules-based multilateralism and the construction of shared values with partner countries,” she added.
For his part, José Manuel Albares declared during the same event that “updating the rules of the Spanish system of cooperation, sustainable development and humanitarian aid is essential to face the complexity of the world in which we live”. “In this crucial work, the incorporation of specialized actors such as the FIIAPP takes on fundamental relevance,” he stressed.
Strategic plan and activities report
During the meeting, the Foundation’s new strategic plan was adopted, with a reinforcement of the gender perspective and digitalization as the driving force for fair development. The Board of Trustees also approved the annual accounts for 2020 and reported that, in 2022, the FIIAPP had an implementation volume of eminently European projects of 68 million euros.
In the last year alone, the FIIAPP has mobilized 700 professionals from public institutions, managing to strengthen judicial cooperation to fight organized crime and protect women victims of gender violence in Latin America, a region in which it has also accompanied important laws such as those on climate change in Chile and Panama or territorial development in Costa Rica.
It has also facilitated the cooperation of the National Police and the Civil Guard in the fight against human trafficking networks in the Sahel, promoted new approaches to public drug policies in Latin America and Central Asia, and supported the digitization process of public administrations in Ukraine. Laws on redistributive taxation, equality, transparency, territorial development or access to justice have also been at the center of public policy support in Latin America.
