The State Secretary for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, finalised her cooperation trip to continental Africa yesterday, where she visited Mauritania and Senegal, priority countries for Spanish Cooperation for more than 30 years now. During this official visit, the State Secretary for International Cooperation undertook an intense institutional agenda with authorities in different areas, including foreign affairs, economy, agriculture, health and culture. She also had the opportunity to see Spanish Cooperation projects developed through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP).
Over the course of the week, the State Secretary for International Cooperation visited Spanish Cooperation programmes that promote development in the following areas: the modernisation of agriculture and rural development, which involves enhancing food security, the creation of rural jobs and support for productive sectors; the environment and climate change (water, energy and waste management); health, through support for public health systems and the training of medical specialists, and support for women and infants; migration, strengthening institutions and governance; the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality.
One of the priority sectors for Spanish Cooperation is health. During a visit to the special unit for victims of gender-based violence at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital Centre in Nouakchott, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez explained that “it is fundamental to support universal access to health, particularly for victims of gender-based violence”.
Another of the sectors she looked at was food security and rural development. In relation to this, the State secretary visited the peri-urban vegetable gardens in Nouakchott, which she defined as “evidence of the commitment of Spanish Cooperation to food security and rural development, particularly focusing on the economic empowerment of women”.
Education also formed an important part of her agenda in Mauritania, with a lengthy visit to the University of Nouakchott. The role of universities in society spans much more than their traditional teaching and research functions; universities have a third mission related to innovation, the transfer of knowledge and social change. At the Faculty of Legal Sciences of the University of Nouakchott, the State secretary visited the Gender Observatory, where she highlighted that “if Spanish Cooperation has a hallmark around the world, it is precisely the fight for equality”.
9th World Water Forum (Dakar)
The visit to Senegal focused on the 9th World Water Forum, the most important sector event, which constitutes a forum where the international community can collaborate and take decisions to address global water challenges. In addition to holding meetings with leading figures and sector NGDOs there, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez took part in two panels on the human rights to water and sanitation and alliances, and attended a High Level round-table on cooperation. Within this framework, she also met with the Director of Global Water Practice at the World Bank, Jennifer Sara, to explore new forms of collaboration on water and sanitation.
Pilar Cancela Rodríguez also visited the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Dakar – the first in Sub-Saharan Africa - where she held a meeting with some of the staff from the Technical Cooperation Office and representatives from NGDOs operating in the country.
The Spanish delegation also travelled to the Department of Bignona, visiting an agricultural project that promotes gender equality and a production system that generates economic, sustainable and green value. While in the region, the State Secretary for International Cooperation attended the inauguration of an Office for the Reception, Orientation and Monitoring of Migrants (French acronym: BAOS), a network of units to receive and orientate migrants, which has been a great development for the management of Senegalese migratory policy and its decentralisation.
By way of conclusion, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez reaffirmed that the Sahel is a priority region for Spanish Cooperation, which was reflected in the 5th Master Plan of Spanish Cooperation (2018-2021), including four Sahel countries as a priority for bilateral cooperation (Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal), also contained in the Draft Cooperation Bill.
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