Spain is committed to supporting horizontal and inclusive partnerships, with a focus on ownership and alignment in order to achieve sustainable and impactful development outcomes. Inclusive bilateral partnership frameworks are a key instrument to build such horizontal partnerships around shared objectives.
Designing and engaging in horizontal and inclusive partnerships: Spain’s Bilateral partnership frameworks
Abstract
Spain is committed to supporting horizontal and inclusive partnerships, with a focus on ownership and alignment to achieve sustainable and impactful development outcomes. As Spain engages with multiple actors, at home and in partner countries, defining shared strategies in an inclusive manner is critical to ensure alignment on local needs and priorities in a way that empowers local actors, to facilitate alliance building with local traction and foster trust and accountability.
Bilateral partnership frameworks (Marco de Asociación País – MAPs) are multi-annual (typically four years) instruments that set out how the partnership between Spain and a partner country or territory can contribute to sustainable development, including a shared results framework and agreed indicators.
Inclusive consultation process: The MAP establishes a common framework for consulting with and forging partnerships involving all actors and instruments funded by Spanish ODA. Consultations to develop MAPs are held both in Spain and in partner countries and territories. For the first time, the design of the Colombia 2020-2024 MAP also involved Spanish decentralised authorities in the technical and strategic commissions set-up in Colombia. This initiative of AECID technical co-operation office in Bogota was important given that autonomous communities and municipalities directly fund programmes in Colombia and that there were likely to be synergies with other programming that would be less evident from the conversations in Madrid.
Implementation through alliances: Once a MAP is in place, the technical co-operation office relies on the alliances it has established with different stakeholders to implement programmes and is responsible for building on synergies across bilateral programming and aligning to partner country priorities.
Source: OECD (2022), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Spain 2022, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eed71550-en.
The inclusiveness of the process built trust, encouraged political dialogue at all levels, and amplified voices that may not otherwise be heard. For example, when negotiating the 2020-24 MAP with Colombia, parliamentarians and civil society from the Catalonia region and the city of Barcelona were able to meet directly with local authorities in Colombia and speak from experience about the value of dialogue in the peace process. As a result, the 2020-24 MAP was able to retain a focus on human rights and peace.
Alliance building on local priorities helped focusing of the bilateral programme. Aligning closely with the peace process in Colombia and defining geographical areas of concentration where it could add the most value as the principal development partner were ways Spain has succeeded in better focusing its programme. In addition, the 2020-24 MAP includes a shared results framework and indicators that sets out the contributions and responsibilities of different parties.
The MAP process also contributed to harmonising processes among Spanish partners increasing the use of local systems as observed in Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Morrocco, although the direct transfer of resources to country institutions can lead to greater administrative hurdles in managing the funds. The consultative process also allowed Spain to identify complementarities with other providers.
High level commitment: the fact that the extended country team in Madrid is fully involved in the design and approval of the MAP makes Spain’s commitments to specific outcomes public and creates additional pressure to deliver. In addition, the fact that MAPs have evolved from their original status of Non-Regulatory International Agreements to become International Administrative Agreements that are more legally binding, has raised their profile, importance, and relevance.
While agreeing on shared results is a first step, ensuring accountability mechanisms is key. While partners agree on what to measure and how, the actual data collection remains a challenge, limiting success in terms of accountability. Dedicated tools and human and financial resources, as well as spaces to communicate MAP's progress are necessary.
Flexibility after agreeing on objectives is critical. Partner countries and territories see Spain’s value added as a trusted partner that listens and does its best to be flexible in its programming within the limits of regulations. The continuous dialogue between local authorities and Spanish co-operation through the embassy and the technical office is instrumental for maintaining a flexible approach that can adapt to the different requests and needs of stakeholders.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación (2018), Manual para el Establecimiento, Implementación,Seguimiento y Evaluación de los Marcos de Asociación País, https://www.cooperacionespanola.es/wp-content/uploads/documentos/metodologia_map_2018_esp_web.pdf.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación (2020), Marco de Asociación País de Colombia – España (2020 2024), https://www.cooperacionespanola.es/wp-content/uploads/documentos/marco_de_asociacion_pais_de_colombia_-_espana_2020-2024.pdf.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación (2022), Síntesis de las Evaluaciones de los MAP 2015 – 2021, https://www.cooperacionespanola.es/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/COMPLETO_2022_07_04_Sintesis-evaluaciones-MAP-2015-2021-en-azul-.pdf.
OECD (2022), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Spain 2022, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eed71550-en.
OECD (2024), Pathways Towards Effective Locally Led Development Co-operation: Learning by Example, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/51079bba-en.
To learn more about the Spain's development co-operation:
OECD, “Spain”, in Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/26d68de7-en.
See more In Practice examples from Spain here: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=spain#search.
