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Spain and the challenges of quality humanitarian action
08/06/2009 By Velina G. Stoianova
The ongoing process of reforming Spain’s International Cooperation has led to an unprecedented increase in its humanitarian funding and to the consolidation of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) system. As part of the Spanish Administration’s strategy to align with international consensuses and good practices on humanitarian action, several steps have been made towards strengthening the humanitarian aid structure, notably through the creation of a specific Humanitarian Action Office within the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID).
Notwithstanding all these improvements, the Spanish humanitarian system is still characterised by two elements which limit its aid effectiveness: on one hand, the multiplicity of stakeholders and the lack of a clear division of roles among them, and on the other, the AECID’s role as a direct implementer of humanitarian assistance. Several independent reviews of Spanish humanitarian aid have called attention to these issues and have raised questions about Spain’s alignment with humanitarian good practices and quality standards such as the Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative.
FRIDE aims to contribute to the current debate by carrying out field-based and policy-oriented research that assesses the effectiveness of Spanish Cooperation’s direct interventions in emergency responses in comparison with the AECID’s role as a humanitarian donor.This Backgrounder by Velina G. Stoianova has the twofold objective to provide an overall review of the main trends and challenges of the official donors’ humanitarian action while introducing some specific issues regarding the Spanish direct humanitarian aid.
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Keywords
Civil society Development cooperation Humanitarian aid Spanish AidBio author: Velina G. Stoianova
Holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration, with a specialisation in International Relations, from the Universidad Autónoma of Barcelona. She has done studies on the analysis and management of conflicts in the Balkans, the Near East and the Maghreb.
