UCLG Position Paper v_2 (eng)
22/12/09
18:13
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A Compilation of Case Studies
5 Coordination and complementarities: Spain Uses Key Tools and Programmes to Achieve More Effective Aid
not only to the volume of funds, but also to the high number of interventions (mainly supported by the local budget). In the 1980s, public local decentralized cooperation was born through the creation of stable solidarity links of Spanish City and Provincial Councils (Ayuntamientos and Diputaciones) with municipalities from the South (sometimes through twinning). In the 1990s, decentralized cooperation increased through cooperation with civil society, represented by NGOs. It was at this time, when an important number of City Councils answered the NGOs’ demand to commit to allocating 0.7% of their own budget to cooperation actions.
Prepared by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), September 2009 The principle of harmonization addressed in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) states that in order to improve the coherence and therefore the effectiveness of development policies, it is necessary for the stakeholders involved to work in a more coordinated way. Such coordination concerns both stakeholders from donor countries and stakeholders from partner countries and it requires, above all, the sharing of information and knowledge to achieve complementarity and to avoid duplication of tasks.
Spanish development cooperation therefore disposes of a large experience in supporting the processes of capacity building of local governments from the South; City and Provincial Councils have developed many programmes in which they have shared their experience and specific knowledge of the last 30 years in promoting local autonomy. In Latin America in particular, there is a very positive influence of local cooperation on the decentralization processes, the strengthening of local administrations and the support to managing the powers and responsibilities that correspond to the local level. This is one of FEMP´s cooperation aims: to promote the involvement of local governments.
Being aware that the plurality of cooperation stakeholders (a distinctive characteristic of the Spanish ODA) requires a real joint effort, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (in Spanish: FEMP) maintains an agreement with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (in Spanish: MAEC). The aim of the agreement is i) to reinforce the cooperation structures of local authorities, and ii) to improve the mechanisms of shared information, as well as iii) to develop joint programmes with the Spanish public administrations involved in development cooperation –like the new Municipia programme– to achieve practical results in terms of coordination, ownership and alignment. From data collection of the local ODA (a key element in coordination), cooperation at multiple levels and, ultimately, policies coordination and field action are made possible.
Representing Spanish local authorities, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) soon received demands from the City Councils involved in development cooperation and, as early as 1989, celebrated its first meeting on local development cooperation. During the 1990s, FEMP strengthened its work as a space for debate and representation of local solidarity and in 1999 created the Committee on Development Cooperation (composed of 25 local authorities). Among the objectives of this Committee the promotion of information coordination, the elaboration of analysis and studies about the focal areas of local aid, and the encouragement of harmonization to reach more effective aid, should be highlighted.
Background In the same decade, in the framework of various agreements with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (in Spanish: AECID34), FEMP developed data collection systems which allowed FEMP to provide information on local ODA, as well as to analyze the focus areas of local solidarity. This work stream was reinforced from 2005 with the signature of a specific agreement between MAEC and FEMP “in favour of
Development cooperation of Spanish local authorities is a phenomenon characterized by a remarkable dynamism, due 34 AECID is the management organ of Spanish international cooperation policy and it is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation through the State Secretary for International Cooperation (SECI).
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