The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, today received the endorsement of the Council of Ministers to the Royal Decree for the establishment of the Higher Council for Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity. This is the last of the three coordination and consultation bodies provided for in the Law on Cooperation 1/2023.
With this last step, the normative roll-out ends, resulting in a new body that will be chaired by the minister and in which representatives of public administrations, NGDOs, human rights associations, universities, social agents and experts in cooperation and humanitarian action participate.
This new body, approved today by the Council of Ministers and replacing the Council for Development Cooperation, seeks to strengthen dialogue and institutional participation with civil society and the other actors, as well as helping to better articulate decentralised cooperation, one of the most value-added elements of the cooperation system.
The new Council will have a newly created Standing Committee to expedite internal work, chaired by the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Eva Granados Galiano. The main developments include two members from autonomous communities, which will rotate annually, by date of approval of their Statutes of Autonomy, while local entities will be represented through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and the Confederation of Cooperation and Solidarity Funds (CONFOCOS). The Higher Council for Cooperation will also include the most representative peace entities, aid workers and voluntary persons at State level, as well as youth organisations and the public business sector of the State.
The aim of this new body is to strengthen a foreign policy committed to solidarity and multilateralism, capable of responding in an agile and efficient way to current global challenges, strengthening coordination and involving, in turn, all the actors of the Spanish Cooperation system.
Contributions to the UN
The Council of Ministers also approved the disbursement of €6.5 million to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and €5.5 million in Spanish contributions to the regular budget of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The contribution to UNDP, a key partner for Spanish Cooperation for its work in eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities and building the resilience of countries to crises, represents an increase of 1.5 million compared to 2024; while that of UNICEF, of great relevance for its work in protecting the world's children, has increased by half a million euros.
With these contributions, and following the increasing trends of recent years, Spanish Cooperation renews and increases its contributions to the regular budget of strategic agencies and is on the path to achieving 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income for Official Development Assistance by 2030.
Similarly, the Council of Ministers agreed to the contribution of €200,000 to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) to support the facilitation of South-South and triangular cooperation, a cooperation modality that offers mutually supportive formulas and shared experiences among developing countries that complement traditional development aid.
-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-