Spain Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Spain has made remarkable progress in improving both the quantity and quality of its
development co-operation. Since 2004 it has doubled the amount it invests in official
development assistance, making it the seventh largest donor in the OECD’s Development
Assistance Committee (DAC). The country is sticking to its resolve to achieve its
internationally-agreed target of giving 0.7% of its gross national income as official
development assistance (ODA) by 2015. This is despite the severe impact of the global
economic crisis, which led to budget cuts in 2009 and 2010 and a reduction of Spain’s
ODA from 0.45% of its national income in 2008 to 0.43% in 2010. Spain’s development
co-operation has been driven by a government commitment to fighting poverty and by
strong cross-party and public support based on a sense of solidarity with the world’s poor.
Since the last peer review in 2007, Spain has made development policy a key policy in its
own right and an important element of its foreign policy. The government has given a
wide range of stakeholders a voice in influencing the design of its medium-term strategy
for development co-operation – the IIIrd Master Plan (2009-2012). It is also putting in
place strategic frameworks to engage with partner countries, multilateral agencies and the
private sector. The Spanish Agency for International Development Co-operation
(AECID, referred to here as “the agency”) has recruited substantial numbers of staff in
order to cope with increased levels of ODA, and has focused on improving how it works.
Spain has strengthened its humanitarian assistance programme, using a number of
innovative approaches, including in the area of rapid response.
Spain still has scope to improve its development co-operation in several ways. Its
ambitious development strategy would benefit from prioritising among the many
countries, sectors and cross-cutting issues. This would avoid spreading Spanish ODA
thinly among its partners. Spanish co-operation could be made more transparent if
partner countries and field offices had information on all activities by national and
decentralized actors. A policy on working with civil society would strengthen Spain’s
growing engagement with NGOs in Spain and in partner countries, and stronger
development communication might help to maintain public support for development.
Spain needs a staff policy for mobility between field and headquarters, and needs to
introduce a performance management system. Finally, the various institutions mandated
to co-ordinate development and humanitarian efforts need to be better linked if they are
to be effective.