DEVELOPMENT: Spain Gives Boost to Global MDG Partnership

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Nov 9 2006 (IPS) - Spain is making strides towards compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) “with the total backing of the government,” said the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajín.

The official, accompanied by the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Kemal Dervis, presented a preliminary report Wednesday by the Spanish government on the last of the eight MDGs, which is “to develop a global partnership for development.”

MDG number eight includes the commitments undertaken by rich countries to help make it possible for the developing world to live up to the first seven goals.

The MDGs were adopted in 2000 by the U.N. member countries (which numbered 189 at the time). They set specific 2015 targets for tackling extreme poverty and hunger and boosting development.

The Spanish government of socialist Prime Minister José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero has increased official development aid (ODA) from 0.25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 to 0.35 percent in 2006, and plans to further increase that proportion to 0.42 percent in 2007.

In absolute terms, the amount earmarked for ODA in Spain will have doubled in three years, from 1.98 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) to more than 4.2 billion (5.36 billion dollars).

“We believe that it is not only a question of increasing the amount of material resources dedicated to promoting development in the countries of the South, but also of assessing and keeping track of the results obtained along the way,” said Pajín.

“Furthermore, the protagonism of the recipients of ODA must be bolstered in this process, as it is essential for achieving the MDGs,” she added.

“We can contribute to improving infrastructure and services in recipient countries and strengthening education and professional and business training in order to favour each country’s capacity to foster its own development,” said Pajín.

Besides expanding ODA, Spain has significantly increased its contributions to international bodies, from an average of 65 million euros (83 million dollars) in past years to 340 million euros (434 million dollars) in 2006.

In 2007, that total should climb to the equivalent to one billion dollars, which would include, for example, a 100 million dollar contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (compared to 60 million in 2006 and 15 million in 2005), said Pajín.

Spain is also increasing the aid earmarked for the least developed countries (LDCs) while promoting a strategy for swapping debt for development projects, paying special attention to education, said the official.

The government plans to sign development aid agreements for more than 500 million dollars, 300 million with countries in Latin America and 200 million with nations of sub-Saharan Africa.

The first of these accords have been signed with Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, and debt swap programmes have begun to be signed with sub-Saharan African countries.

Pajín, the former head of International Solidarity, a Spanish non-governmental foundation, told IPS that “another of our objectives is to form a consensus with the various actors involved in the world of Spanish development aid and cooperation with respect to the definition of policies and actions, along with the aim of dedicating 70 percent of the funds to the world’s 23 least developed countries.”

The government is also working on reforming and adapting Spain’s system of development aid and cooperation, “to put in practice a strategy of association and alignment with the global priorities of the fight against poverty outlined in the MDGs,” she added.

Spain is active in the group that is promoting an Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, also made up of Brazil, Chile, Germany and France, with U.N. support. Spain has especially taken upon itself to carry out studies and draw up proposals on the role that migrant remittances can play in development.

Although advances have been made along these lines, “the government is aware that important challenges remain, such as making progress towards the construction of a more fair and balanced global trade system,” said Pajín.

“In this sense, Spanish development aid contributes to, and will continue working towards, facilitating access by products of countries of the South to the markets of developed countries,” she added.