Development Co-operation Profiles

Spain

Introduction

Spain approved a Law on Co-operation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity in 2023, which aligns its priorities with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on climate change. It also gives legal status to its commitment to allocate 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance (ODA) by 2030. Geographic priorities remain Latin America and the Caribbean, the Maghreb, West Africa and the Sahel. Spain is active in decentralised development co-operation, with regions and local entities contributing to Spanish ODA. Spain’s total ODA (USD 3.8 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2023, representing 0.24% of GNI.

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

The general vision and architecture for Spain’s development co-operation are set out in the 2023 Law on Co-operation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity. Spain’s development co-operation aims to promote sustainable human development by reducing poverty and inequalities. In addition to social and economic development, the law commits to supporting a just ecological transition and climate justice, human rights, the promotion of peace, global citizenship, and gender equality. It focuses on countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean, North Africa, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in West Africa and the Sahel, and Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Spain supports multilateral co-operation to address global challenges more efficiently, and the majority of its development co-operation is multilateral ODA. Multilateral development banks and the European Union (EU) are key partners for Spain, including in co-financing arrangements. At the international level, Spain has taken an active role in peace negotiations in both Colombia and the Philippines.

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

Reducing poverty and inequalities has a prominent focus in Spain’s new Law on Sustainable Development Co-operation and Global Solidarity (2023). Different dimensions of poverty and inequalities, including both vertical (income) and horizontal inequalities between groups, feature among the principles and objectives of its development co-operation. The Spanish Agency for International Development Co-operation (AECID) recently developed a working definition and conceptual framework for inequalities, which encompasses vertical and horizontal inequalities across multiple dimensions and highlights the need to adopt an intersectional approach. AECID has detailed guidance to help embed considerations relating to gender- and disability-based inequalities and has funded research on poverty and inequalities. A range of additional measures to help implement Spain’s new law is under development, from a new marker to further developing strategic documents and training materials related to poverty and inequalities. Fighting poverty and inequalities will be a cross-cutting priority of the upcoming Spanish Cooperation Master Plan.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviews

The 2022 OECD-DAC peer review praised Spain for its focus on the 2030 Agenda, building inclusive and horizontal partnerships, and championing mutual learning. The review underlined some challenges Spain faces in steering all Spanish partners towards an integrated strategy. It recommended streamlining financial co-operation and seeking complementarities between financial and technical co-operation. Most of the recommendations were addressed in the 2023 Law on Co-operation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity. A mid-term review is planned for 2024. Learn more about Spain’s 2022 DAC peer review and its management response [DCD/DAC/AR(2024)5/6].

ODA allocation overview

Spain provided USD 3.8 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 3.5 billion in constant terms), representing 0.24% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 17.4% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2022. Following a decade of budget cuts, ODA levels were stable between 2017 and 2020, with notable increases in 2021 and 2022. Spain is not yet in line with its international and EU commitments to achieve a 0.7% ODA/GNI ratio by 2030. However, the new 2023 Law on Co-operation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity gives the 0.7% commitment legal status. Within Spain’s ODA portfolio in 2022, 99.2% was provided in the form of grants and 0.8% in the form of non-grants.2

In 2023, Spain ranked 22nd among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries when ODA is taken as a share of GNI (preliminary figures). Spain stands out for the share of its ODA channelled through civil society organisations (CSOs) (57.6% in 2022). It is also among the DAC members with a high share of interventions that target gender equality as their principal or significant objective (42.9% in 2020-21). In line with its geographical priorities, Spain allocated most of its gross bilateral ODA to middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021. The increase of in-donor refugee costs in 2022 means that shares of bilateral ODA allocated to other areas may have decreased from 2021 to 2022, even if absolute volumes have not.

 

Notes: Data on official development assistance (ODA) volumes (figure above) are in constant 2022 prices. Data for 2023 are preliminary. See the methodological notes for further details.

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Spain is committed to several international targets and Development Assistance Committee standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC recommendations.

Performance against commitments and DAC recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022	2023, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)	0.7	0.26	0.30	0.24
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.05	0.04
Share of untied ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation	100	97.8	97.8
Share of untied ODA (All sectors and countries beyond the scope of the Untying Recommendation) (%)		88.8	86.5
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	99.6	99.2

Note: ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee. This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations.

Spain provided a roughly equal share of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 52% of total ODA disbursements. Twenty-seven per cent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Spain allocated 48% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, Spain provided USD 99.7 million (preliminary data) of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression, a 7% decrease from 2022 in real terms. None of this support was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance.

 

Note: The amount reported in 2023 is an estimate, based on preliminary figures reported to the OECD and published in April 2024.

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Spain provided USD 2.7 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 5.0% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 2.1 billion was core multilateral ODA, while USD 597 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Project-type funding earmarked for a specific theme and/or country accounted for 12.1% of Spain’s non-core contributions, and 87.9% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Sixty-one per cent of Spain’s total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to EU Institutions.

 

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The United Nations (UN) system received 16.1% of Spain’s multilateral contributions, of which USD 317.7 million (74.2%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 427.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Spain’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were the WHO-CVCA (USD 174.7 million), the UN (USD 27.2 million) and UNHCR (USD 24.4 million).

 

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See the section Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system. Learn more about multilateral development finance.

Bilateral ODA

In 2022, Spain’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 2.2 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 58.5% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 22.8% of Spain’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In-donor refugee costs were USD 907.1 million in 2022, an increase of 322% in real terms over 2021, and represented 40.4% of Spain’s total gross bilateral ODA.

Spain has a strategy guiding its approach to triangular co-operation. Its regional priority is Africa, focusing on other social infrastructure and services. Learn more about triangular co-operation.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Spain channelled bilateral ODA mainly through civil society organisations. Technical co-operation made up 1.8% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, CSOs received USD 1.3 billion of gross bilateral ODA, of which 2.1% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, no gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions, and 57.5% of the total was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the donor (earmarked funding). From 2021 to 2022, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 43.9% to 57.6%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Spain’s bilateral ODA was primarily focused on America. USD 395.4 million was allocated to America and USD 271 million to Africa, accounting for 17.6% and 12.1% of gross bilateral ODA, which is in line with policy priorities. USD 130.7 million was allocated to ODA-eligible countries in Europe (of which 75.7% for Ukraine). America was also the main regional recipient of Spain’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, in line with Spain’s historical focus on the region and support for countries that are transitioning to upper middle-income status.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 19.2% of gross bilateral ODA went to Spain’s top 10 recipients. Except for Ukraine, all top recipients are in Latin America, the Mediterranean, and West Africa, which is in line with the geographic focus stated in the law. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 62.6%, of which 64.6% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, Spain allocated 0.04% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Spain allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (15.6%) to lower middle-income countries in 2022, noting that 62.5% was unallocated by income group. Least developed countries (LDCs) received 8.4% of Spain’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 188 million). Additionally, Spain allocated 5.6% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 125.9 million.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts was USD 340.9 million in 2022, representing 15.2% of Spain’s gross bilateral ODA. Seventeen per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 19% in 2021, while 17.1% was allocated to peace, increasing from 13.8% in 2021. Two per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing a slight increase from 1% in 2021. Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

 

Note: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral official development assistance that is allocated by country.

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Sectors

In 2022, the largest focus of Spain’s bilateral ODA was support for refugees and asylum seekers in Spain. Investments in other macro sectors accounted for 49.6% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 1.1 billion) with a strong focus on support to refugees in donor countries (USD 907.6 million), administrative costs of donors (USD 113.5 million) and unallocated/unspecified (USD 98.5 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 851.2 million (34.6% of bilateral ODA), focusing on government and civil society (USD 387.5 million). It committed USD 277.6 million for health and population in 2022, accounting for 11.3% of gross bilateral ODA, and representing a 731.2% increase from 2019 in real terms. Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 210.8 million (8.6% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations focused primarily on social sectors in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Spain disbursed USD 336.4 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 486.6 million in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Spain provided USD 184.8 million in ODA for donations of doses to developing countries in 2022, down 26.9% from USD 252.9 million in 2021. All COVID-19 vaccines accounted for donations of doses from domestic supply in 2022.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, Spain committed 42.9% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (down from 45.6% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 557.1 million of bilateral ODA in support of gender equality. Unpacking the gender equality data further:

• The share of screened bilateral allocable aid committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 20.2% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• Spain includes gender equality objectives in 47.8% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, above the 2021-22 DAC average of 17%.

• Spain screens virtually all their bilateral allocable aid activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2021-22).

• Spain committed USD 37.8 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 45.1 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements and government institutions in 2021-22.

Learn more about Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: DAC Guidance for Development Partners and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.

 

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Environment

In 2021-22, Spain committed 25.6% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 305.3 million) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 25.5% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

• Twelve per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11%.

• Fifteen per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 177.3 million) focused on climate change overall, up from 12.9% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). Spain had a greater focus on mitigation (12.8%) than on adaptation (7.7%) in 2021-22.

• Eight per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 100.1 million) focused on biodiversity overall, down from 8.5% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 7.2%).

Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change [DAC/CHAIR(2021)1/FINAL].

 

Note: In this figure, the category climate includes climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation efforts.

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Performance against environment and Rio Markers, 2021-2022

Marker	Constant 2022 USD million	% of bilateral allocable
Environment	305.3	25.6
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	100.1	8.4
Desertification	141.6	11.9
Climate change mitigation only	85.7	7.2
Climate change adaptation only	24.8	2.1
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	66.8	5.6

Note: Individual Rio Markers should not be added up as this can result in double counting.

The OECD initiative Sustainable Oceans for All shows that Spain committed USD 15.9 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 12 million more than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 1.2% of Spain’s bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Spain:

• Did not have a general policy on exemptions for the payment of local tax and custom duties on its ODA-funded goods and services in partner countries and territories. It makes information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 169.7 million (12.6% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy.

• Committed USD 255.1 million (19% of its bilateral allocable aid) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as emergency response, agriculture, forestry, fishing and government and civil society.

• Committed USD 108.6 million (8.1% of its bilateral allocable aid) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

Mobilised private finance

Spain uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2022, Spain’s various development co-operation entities including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, the Ministry of Industry and Energy (through COFIDES), municipalities and universities mobilised USD 88 million from the private sector through direct investment in companies and SPVs, simple co-financing, credit lines, shares in CIVs and syndicated loans. This constituted a 11.7% increase compared to 2021.

 

Note: CIV: collective investment vehicle; SPV: special purpose vehicle.

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A share of 63.9% targeted middle-income countries, while 3.4% went to LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs) in 2021-22, noting that 32.7% was unallocated by income.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Spain mobilised private finance in 2021-22, which was mainly related to activities in banking and financial services (46.6%), as its top sector.

Private sector instruments

In 2022, Spain’s Development Promotion Fund (Fonprode) and the Spanish Development Financing Company (COFIDES) together extended USD 43 million in the form of private sector instruments (PSI) to developing countries. Of this, loans accounted for 75.8%, whereas equities represented 24.2%.

 

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In 2022, nearly half (48.3%) of Spain’s private sector instruments were allocated to middle-income countries and UMICs in particular (32.3%). Meanwhile, 51.7% remained unallocated by income. Spain’s private sector instruments mostly supported projects in banking and financial services (36.7%) and energy (25.4%).

 

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Effectiveness of development co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following the reform of the exercise over 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) is underway. Information on partner countries’ participation in the exercise as well as their progress is available at the Global Dashboard. Spain’s results from the 2016 and 2018 monitoring rounds can be found here.

To help improve the transparency of development co-operation, the OECD provides regular feedback to members on the overall quality of their statistical reporting and works with each member to ensure the data meet high-quality standards before they are published. Regarding DAC/CRS reporting to the OECD, Spain’s reporting in 2022 was on time, with some areas to improve in terms of the completeness and accuracy of the data.

Total official support for sustainable development

Total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors all official and officially supported resources for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. It provides a broad measure of development finance with the objective of increasing transparency and accountability of all external support that developing countries receive. In 2022, activities reported by Spain as TOSSD totalled USD 4.6 billion, up from USD 4 billion in 2021. Spain’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all and SDG 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, the Secretariat of State for International Cooperation sets the strategic orientation of Spain’s development policy. The General Directorate for Sustainable Development Policies steers development policy for the ministry and AECID. AECID is responsible for implementing most of Spain’s co-operation, including bilateral programmes, and funding for CSOs and multilateral organisations.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business is responsible for debt relief operations and has direct authority over Spain’s contribution to regional development banks and financial institutions. It is in charge of financial co-operation disbursed as loans and equity investments. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration manages in-donor refugee costs. Other ministries are also engaged through technical co‑operation or contributions to multilateral organisations.

Three other institutions – the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), Fundación Carolina, and the Spanish Development Finance Corporation – are key actors in implementing Spain’s agenda for knowledge transfer and development finance. A high level of decentralisation characterises Spanish co-operation. Spain’s autonomous communities (regions) and local entities have sizeable development co-operation activities3, which operate with their own budgets under the strategic co-ordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.

Around 960 staff work on development co-operation in the Spanish administration. Of these, 418 people work in headquarters, distributed amongst the State Secretariat for International Cooperation (27), AECID (336), Fundación Carolina (25), and FIIAPP (30). The Spanish Cooperation Offices in partner countries employ 543 people (472 from AECID and 71 from FIIAPP).

 

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An important mechanism for consulting stakeholders is the Development Cooperation Council. CSOs active in development co-operation, humanitarian assistance and global citizenship education co-ordinate under the umbrella body La Coordinadora.

Quality and oversight

Internal systems and processes help ensure the effective delivery of Spain’s development co-operation. Select features are shown in the table below.

Features of Spain’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	Spain has a strong internal and external audit function with a focus on ex ante control and budgetary considerations. According to the recent DAC peer review, bringing the regulatory framework and administrative systems in line with the long-term ambitions of development co‑operation would enable flexible support, faster procurement and reduced administrative burdens.
Risk management	Managing the risk of corruption is embedded in the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation’s (AECID) and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies’ codes of conduct (including, for example, anti-money laundering and conflict of interests). AECID is reviewing its risk management system and developing new guidance to help translate risk assessments into programming.
Innovation and adaptation	The Law on Co-operation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity considers the promotion of knowledge generation; science, technology and innovation; and knowledge and technology transfer to promote sustainable development, social inclusion and combat climate change as key objectives. It also pledges to establish a knowledge and innovation management system.
Results management	Following the approval of a new development co-operation law, Spain is developing new results frameworks for its new development co-operation strategic document and has reviewed the methodology to design and monitor country results frameworks.
Evaluation	The Division of Development Policy Evaluation and Knowledge Management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation manages strategic and policy evaluations. Evaluation policy and plans covering all of Spain’s official development co-operation are made public. Project and programme evaluations are conducted and commissioned by AECID country offices and operational units in the headquarters. Learn more about Spain’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre website for evaluations of Spain’s development co-operation.
Knowledge management and learning	The Inter-institutional Committee for the Co-ordination and Monitoring of the Transparency, Communication and Knowledge Management programme is developing an institutional vision for learning.
Communication and transparency	Spain does not have a communication strategy for development co-operation, and global citizenship. The info@od website communicates financial flows from all official Spanish actors. It is being revised to include more qualitative information on activities and development results.

Additional resources

2022 OECD-DAC peer review of Spain: https://www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/oecd-development-co-operation-peer-reviews-spain-2022-eed71550-en.htm

Spanish platform for development co-operation: https://www.cooperacionespanola.es

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation: https://www.exteriores.gob.es/en/Paginas/index.aspx

Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID): http://www.aecid.es/EN

CSO umbrella organisation La Coordinadora: https://coordinadoraongd.org (in Spanish)

Spain’s practices on the Development Co-operation TIPs: Tools Insights Practices learning platform: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=spain#search

Member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 1991.

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including the grant-equivalent methodology, core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, country programmable aid, channels of delivery, bilateral ODA unspecified/unallocated, bilateral allocable aid, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.

Notes

← 1.  DAC members adopted the grant-equivalent methodology starting from their reporting of 2018 data as a more accurate way to count the donor effort in development loans. See the methodological notes for further details.

← 2.  Non-grants include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.

← 3.  Around 10% of Spanish ODA, according to information provided by the Government of Spain (https://www.exteriores.gob.es/es/ServiciosAlCiudadano/Documents/Cooperacion/Analista/2022/Seguimiento/Ficha_Agentes_AOD_2022_final.zip).