The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, today presided over the events to celebrate Aid Worker Day. He highlighted the key role that these individuals play in helping to solve global challenges such as wars, poverty, hunger, gender gaps and climate emergencies. This group will see greater recognition of their key work with the new Aid Worker Statute approved last July by the Council of Ministers.
During the 2024 Aid Worker Day celebrations, which took place at the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Minister Albares acknowledged the efforts of the more than 2,700 Spanish men and women who work in development cooperation and humanitarian action beyond our borders.
The minister took the opportunity to recall how the new Aid Worker Statute, approved by the Council of Ministers last July, recognises aid workers, dignifying their careers based on the understanding that “they make projects possible and improve people's lives, and this must be reflected in constant support for their work”.
More female aid workers
During the event at the AECID, its director, Antón Leis, also presented the Agency's annual study on Spanish aid workers. The most common profile is women over 35. Women actually represent 53% of the total of 2,737 Spaniards who are currently working abroad in international development cooperation and humanitarian action. 74% of these people are over 35.
According to the AECID study, Spain currently has aid workers posted abroad from all of the Autonomous Communities, and from the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The largest group comes from the Community of Madrid (21% of the total), followed by Catalonia and Castile and Leon (13% each) and Andalusia (11%).
Spanish aid workers operate in 92 countries, 43% of which are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the rest work in South America (25%), Central America and the Caribbean (13%), the Maghreb (6%), the Middle East (6%), the rest of Asia (5%) and Europe (2%).
The most noteworthy countries in terms of the number of aid workers are Bolivia (with 330 Spanish aid workers now working there), Mozambique (211), Senegal (146), Kenya (139) and Colombia (which has 116 Spanish aid workers).
According to the report, drafted with Embassies and Spanish Cooperation Offices, 36% of Spaniards working in development cooperation and humanitarian action in countries receiving Official Development Assistance (ODA) are staff working under the coordination of non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs). The second largest group, 26%, comprises staff working for international cooperation agencies. A further 26% are religious personnel. 7% of Spanish field staff belong to the AECID, and the remaining 5% work for different organisations at the same time, or it has not been possible to define their position.
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