development cooperation

The Government’s main priorities are the refugee crisis, Middle East and Central America

The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) has participated in a short observation mission in Costa Rica for the presidential and parliamentary elections which were held last Sunday. According to a press release, Diplocat deployed 8 electoral observation experts on the ground to visit 50 polling stations across Costa Rica. In their report, Diplocat congratulated the people of Costa Rica and the Elections Supreme Court for the peaceful and well-organised electoral process. However, they also uncovered the existence of inequalities between political parties during the campaign, especially regarding access to the media. By participating in such missions, Catalonia reasserts its commitment to promoting peace and strengthening democracy worldwide.  

On Tuesday, the Catalan Government approved the International Protection Plan of Catalonia, which aims to protect people forced to leave their country for being persecuted. It is the first time Catalonia has its own legal instrument to face the issue of asylum seekers, displaced people and human trafficking victims. This new tool establishes the principles, measures and funding schemes to host and offer protection to people who fled their country due to a grounded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, membership of a social group, gender or sexual orientation. Among other things, the Plan encourages issuing new proposals to improve the legal status of these people, offer them better training, improve their reception, integration and participation.

FC Barcelona Foundation, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympafrica Foundation signed an agreement on Wednesday to extend the ‘FutbolNet’ pilot project in 34 African countries. 100,000 African children will benefit from the project each year. The agreement extends the initiative until at least 2016, after an initial pilot experience that run from April to June 2013. It is the first time that the IOC has ever signed an alliance with a sports club’s foundation. The Olympafrica FutbolNet Cup is a series of football tournaments with values based on the methodology used by the FC Barcelona Foundation.

The family of Montserrat Serra has confirmed to CNA the release of the two aid workers. The Catalan Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, from Madrid, were working for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and they were captured in the Ifo2 refugee camp of Dadaab in Kenya on the 13^th of October 2011. MSF has ensured the two workers are “in good health conditions and they are waiting to join their loved ones as soon as possible”. An MSF team is already assisting the two aid workers. It is believed that immediately after the capture Serra and Thiebault were moved to Somalia, where they have been kept prisoners since. During the 645-day ordeal, silence and caution has been imposed by the negotiators.

Despite exceptional increases for concrete development projects, external relations and international cooperation services and funds were reduced by almost 50% within the plan to reduce public spending in 2011. The Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation decided to increase financial aid to the Horn of Africa to help with the humanitarian crisis that is affecting 13.5 million people.

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, NGOs ask the Government to focus on policies that reduce social exclusion.

Catalonia has participated in the United Nation's Development Cooperation Forum, which was held in New York City this week. The forum aimed to discuss the role of local governments in international cooperation.