The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, today opened the event commemorating Aid Workers' Day at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), under the slogan “Strategic partnerships for a zero-hunger world".
“Today we pay tribute to an essential and indispensable part of our foreign action: work that is particularly difficult in the current international context and more necessary than ever," the Minister said, thanking the 2,192 Spanish development cooperation professionals currently working in different countries and international organisations. “The Ministry is working every day to restore normality in Ceuta," Albares said in his remarks. “That is why this weekend we sent equipment from AECID's START team with capacity to accommodate more than 600 people."
Following the opening of the event to mark Aid Workers' Day, which is celebrated every 8 September, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, and the Director of AECID, Victoria Tur, spoke before a round-table discussion with prominent professionals from different areas of development cooperation. The event concluded with remarks by Teresa Godoy, President of the Association of Development Cooperation Professionals (APC), José Ángel Calle, AECID's Director of Partnerships, and Nacho Esteve, President of the Coordinator of Development Organisations.
A COMMUNITY PRESENT AROUND THE WORLD
Spanish aid workers carry out their work in all regions where Spanish Cooperation is present. Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number, with 1,018 people, followed by Central America, with 355, and South America, with 352. Aid workers are also posted in Europe, Asia, the Maghreb and the Middle East.
This presence enables Spanish Cooperation to provide continuous support to its partner countries and to gain first-hand knowledge of the needs and priorities of the communities with which it works.
The aid worker community comprises 1,166 women and 1,026 men, a composition that also reflects the importance of women in the different professional areas of international cooperation. Of the aid workers, 409 are under the age of 35, while 1,776 are over that age, forming a professional community that combines experience and new generations.
PROFESSIONALS FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS
Spanish Cooperation is also a shared endeavour involving professionals from different institutions and organisations.
Spanish aid workers include 651 people linked to non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs), 535 working in international organisations, 587 belonging to religious organisations and 201 AECID professionals, as well as others working in different fields.
This diversity is one of the strengths of Spanish Cooperation and makes it possible to bring together knowledge, capacities and experience to tackle challenges that no country can address alone.
PARTNERSHIPS AND ZERO HUNGER
This year's celebration of Aid Workers' Day, which takes place on 7 September, is dedicated to food security and the fight against hunger, under the slogan “Strategic partnerships for a zero-hunger world". AECID brought together at its headquarters aid workers representing different areas of development cooperation to share experiences and reflect on the role of partnerships in guaranteeing the right to food.
The event also provided an opportunity to share progress in drafting Spanish Cooperation's new Food Security and Fight against Hunger Strategy, placing the right to food among the priorities of the cooperation agenda and highlighting the importance of combining capacities, knowledge and resources to address a challenge that particularly affects the most vulnerable populations.
WORKING AND BUILDING TOGETHER
Aid Workers' Day is an opportunity to recognise the work of those carrying out their activities outside Spain and, at the same time, to recall that development cooperation is not merely about providing resources, but also about supporting processes, strengthening capacities and working alongside the institutions and communities of partner countries.
In an international context marked by humanitarian crises, conflicts, climate change and growing inequalities, the work of aid workers is particularly important in making the principles of global solidarity and sustainable development a reality.
Through Spanish Cooperation, AECID recognises and thanks all those who, in different places and professional fields, contribute every day to building a fairer, more sustainable and more supportive world.
* The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) is the state agency responsible for promoting, programming, coordinating and executing the public policies of Spanish cooperation for sustainable development, humanitarian action and education for global citizenship.