New law governing Spain's sustainable development cooperation and global solidarity

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The law defines the policy of cooperation for sustainable development as a public policy that Spain deploys through its foreign action, and replaces Law 23/1998, which is repealed.
2. It sets a spending goal: Spain will allocate at least 0.7% of its gross national income to Official Development Assistance, with a horizon of 2030 and intermediate targets set in the Master Plans.
3. It establishes the principles of cooperation: solidarity, human rights, gender equality with a feminist approach, children's rights, protection of the planet and defense of diversity, among others.
4. It creates the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development (FEDES), which replaces FONPRODE, to finance development projects in the least developed and low- or middle-income countries through loans, credits and grants.
5. It guarantees that at least 10% of Official Development Assistance goes to humanitarian action, which protects and saves lives in crises and conflicts, with programming that is autonomous from other cooperation modalities.
6. It organizes planning through a Master Plan approved by the Council of Ministers after debate in the Congress and the Senate, and creates the Office for Evaluation of Spanish cooperation to assess it independently.
7. It recognizes the role of the autonomous communities and local governments in decentralized cooperation, as well as that of development NGOs, universities, unions and the private sector as actors in the system.
8. It provides for a new Statute for Cooperation Workers and regulates volunteering abroad, with two modalities (short-term up to six months and long-term up to three years) and a consular duty of care.

Who it affects

• Recipient countries and populations: They receive funding, projects and humanitarian action according to the geographic and thematic priorities set in each Master Plan.
• Development NGOs: They must register with AECIDAECID Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo: the public agency that manages and carries out Spanish cooperation. or regional registries to access public aid, and will have a stable framework for relations with the State.
• Autonomous communities and municipalities: They take part in planning and coordinating cooperation through the Sectoral Conference, respecting their areas of authority.
• Cooperation workers and volunteers: They will have a statute with rights, training and social protection, and volunteers abroad will have insurance and an incorporation agreement.
• Companies and the private sector: They can form public-private partnerships for development projects, with due diligence duties on human rights, labor and the environment.

Words worth knowing

AOD (Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo)

Official Development Assistance: public resources Spain allocates to fostering development in other countries, under OECD accounting criteria.

RNB (renta nacional bruta)

Gross national income: the total income a country generates in a year, used as the base to calculate the aid percentage.

Plan Director

Master Plan: the document that sets the priorities, instruments and budget of Spanish cooperation every few years.

AECID

Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo: the public agency that manages and carries out Spanish cooperation.

Cooperación descentralizada

Decentralized cooperation: cooperation carried out by the autonomous communities and local governments within their areas of authority.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries