Among the most shared demands with which the last legislature began in Spain was the need to thoroughly reform the development cooperation system. It was not only about reversing the effects of a long decade of cuts, but also about reconfiguring its institutions and policies to bring them in line with new ways of conceiving development action. This was forced, among other factors, by the desire to rebuild the image and international projection of Spain, seriously damaged after the 2008 crisis. Those who accepted the responsibility of government agreed on that need, although it does not seem that they had much more to say then. about the topic. In exchange, they appealed to an objective with which to clear up the process: approve a new cooperation law that would replace the already outdated one of 1998.
During the first two years of the legislature, the repeated proclamations of reformist will by the authorities did not translate into any initiative. We had to wait for the change within the responsible ministry for the process to be activated, already about to cross the halfway point of the legislature. Finally, in February 2023, the new law was approved, which garnered broad social and parliamentary consensus. It is true that the legal text still exudes a vertical vision of cooperation that is not in line with the new international reality and with the decolonial winds that shake aid, but it still constitutes a good starting point to get the reform underway. The delay with which the process began had, however, consequences, because it prevented the regulatory development of the law from being processed before the electoral call.
Completing this unfinished process will, therefore, be the first and most urgent task of the responsible authorities in this new legislature. This is not a simple or routine endeavor. The approved law, although lengthy in the enunciation of principles, is very sparing when it comes to the design and regulation of the operating mechanisms of the system. What the future cooperation system will be will depend, therefore, on the scope and orientation of these pending regulatory developments. And it is here where the questions surpass the certainties, feeding a dense shadow of doubts that reaches some of the pillars of the cooperation policy.
It is necessary to re-found the AECID to leave behind its current 'ministerial' tone and give it the lively pulse of an entrepreneurial institution.
This is the case, for example, of the reform of the AECID: what is the development agency model that you want to propose? It is difficult to anticipate an answer. What current development policy demands are dynamic agencies, well equipped technically, with the capacity to offer innovative responses to the complex problems of sustainable development and with the experience to build the partnerships that make them possible. This is far from what the AECID does today, which is presented as an ossified institution, subject to dysfunctional regulation, overwhelmed by management tasks, poorly sized in its technical teams and with a frankly outdated work culture. Just check your newsletters or your Web page to confirm the stale tone of a rather self-absorbed institution. The responsibility does not lie so much with professionals who work at the AECID as with the institutional model adopted. Transforming this model requires more than cosmetic changes or a mere facelift: it is necessary to re-found the AECID to leave its current tone behind. ministerial and provide it with the live pulse of an entrepreneurial institution. This requires reviewing functions, organizational structure and work culture and providing the institution with the capacity to capture the expert capital it needs in the market. Is the Government willing to undertake this transformation?
Similar indeterminacy exists with respect to financial cooperation, one of the basic pillars of modern development cooperation systems. In most of our neighboring countries, this modality has acquired increasing relevance given the limitations of donations to finance a complex agenda such as 2030, with the management of these instruments being entrusted to specialized institutions, in many cases public development banks.
Our financial cooperation instrument, Fonprode, more modest and parochial in its conception, has never managed to function correctly, in part because it has a manifestly inadequate regulation and governance structure. The new law transforms this instrument into a new fund, FEDES, expanding the scope of its operations and making decision processes more flexible. However, three important limitations remain unchanged: the lack of legal personality of the fund, the restrictions to operate in the capital markets and the anchoring of its management in an institution (the AECID) lacking financial specialization. These limitations will probably not prevent the new FEDES from having a more decent life than its predecessor, but they will certainly condemn Spanish cooperation to continue playing in a minor league, reducing its capacity for initiative and leadership in the international field.
Spain's financial cooperation instrument has never managed to function correctly, in part because it has a manifestly inadequate regulation and governance structure.
The promising purpose of organizing the fragmented panorama of public international financing instruments around a unitary conglomerate (perhaps a public development bank) seems to have cooled, perhaps due to lack of ambition or perhaps due to the petty desire of some ministries to preserve what is one's own. In this context, will we be able to articulate an instrument that contributes to increasing our aid and places Spain among the major European actors in financial cooperation?
One of the most unique and recognized features of Spanish cooperation is the entity that acquires decentralized cooperation within it, carried out by autonomous communities and local entities. In addition to bringing solidarity action closer to citizens, this modality enriches cooperation policy by providing sensitivities and differentiated management models. So that this wealth does not translate into dispersion, it is good that there is some mechanism for dialogue and collaboration between the various levels of the Administration. The previous mechanism, the Interterritorial Commission, shows a poor balance, so the new law entrusts this coordinating task to a Sectoral Conference, similar to those existing in other spheres of public policy. However, the restrictive regulation of these instances means that they can hardly be considered genuine co-governance mechanisms: their vertical control structure is poorly aligned with the quasi-federal spirit that should inspire them. It is not surprising, therefore, that those autonomous communities with more powerful cooperation systems reveal very little interest in this proposal. Will regulatory development be able to compensate for this original defect?
Finally, the shadow of doubt also extends over budgetary commitments: the reform would be of little value if the resources allocated to this policy condemned it to irrelevance. It is true that the Government committed to placing aid, in 2027, at 0.55% of national income and to reach 0.7% in 2030. However, the fact that all similar promises made in the past were not fulfilled reduces confidence in the purpose. If this time is to be different, a clear and public path for the evolution of resources will have to be established throughout the legislature. The existing confusion around the figures from which it is based does not help this process, but let us admit that we
close 2023 with an ODA close to 0.30% of national income, that will require that during the next four years the resources of the helps them grow at an annual rate close to 20%. The purpose is demanding, especially if it takes into account the effort of fiscal consolidation and debt reduction required by the recently restored EU fiscal rules. Will the Government be able to make this exercise compatible with maintaining its budgetary commitment in terms of international aid?
The four aspects indicated confirm that, although we are facing a crucial moment in the modernization of the Spanish cooperation system, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the scenario we are heading towards. Making the doubts clear and the balance tilting towards the most optimistic options will require the Government to maintain the reformist pulse at the end of the last legislature and inject greater clarity and ambition into its proposals. We know that these are not good times for poetry, but there must be some room for audacity.
You can follow Future Planet in x, Facebook, instagram and TikTok and subscribe here to our newsletter.
#Spanish #cooperation #garden #doubts
