Spanish Cooperation has taken part in the European Development Days (EDD), Europe's leading forum on international partnerships and development cooperation, held this week in Brussels. Under the Global Gateway theme, “Building sustainable partnerships for a connected world”, the aim was to mobilise investment in sustainable infrastructure while promoting favourable regulatory frameworks worldwide.
Both the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela, and the Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Antón Leis, attended to share Spanish perspectives on development, experiences and best practices, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 17 (Revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development) and European development policy.
EU–LAC Digital Alliance: Digitalisation as a means of social and educational development
In addition to visiting several Spanish and European Cooperation stands, the Secretary of State took part in the high-level panel “The Global Gateway in Latin America and the Caribbean”, alongside the Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
During the panel, Pilar Cancela addressed digitalisation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as one of the priorities of European cooperation within the triple just transition (social, ecological and digital), and as a means of social and educational development.
“In societies such as those of Latin America, the pandemic has shown that digitalisation is an essential tool in the fight against inequality and in narrowing divides,” the Secretary of State explained. In LAC, while 81% of the wealthiest households are connected, only 38% of the poorest have internet access. In urban areas, 67% of households are connected, but in rural areas this figure falls to 23%. One in four schools lacks internet access, and students from the poorest households are six times less likely to have internet access at home.
To help bridge this digital and educational divide, the Secretary of State recalled that “Spanish Cooperation is currently contributing €2.4 million to the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) Digital Alliance in Latin America through activities under the e-Duc@ Fund and INTERCOONECTA, as digitalisation is a cross-cutting issue in programmes such as EUROSOCIAL, EUROCLIMA and EL PAcCTO, some of which are implemented by FIIAPP. Their foundations will enable us to build a genuine ‘EU–LAC Digital Alliance’,” she noted.
In conclusion, Pilar Cancela added that it was necessary to establish “a new social contract that includes a digital dimension: making digitalisation more inclusive and ensuring that digitalisation, in turn, contributes to inclusion and social cohesion”.
European Cooperation: Team Europe
The Secretary of State also held bilateral meetings with her French counterpart, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, as well as with representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other colleagues working in development cooperation.
Following the event, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, together with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the new Team Europe Initiative on vaccine production and health systems resilience in Latin America.
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