This December 31, it will be twenty years since it was approved the Catalan law on development cooperation. It was an important and advanced law, with which the Government of the Generalitat collected the demands of an important part of the citizenship and grassroots organizations, which demanded to dedicate 0.7% of the budgets to the International cooperation. It was also an international requirement and that of the United Nations Assembly. Catalan law announced that contributions for solidarity would gradually increase, until reaching the commitment of 0.7 in 2010.
From promises to reality: this commitment was never fulfilled and the cuts that followed the financial crisis of 2008 practically put an end to this public policy. While awareness grew that the great global challenges could not be managed within the borders of Catalonia and that a commitment to global governance was necessary, the Generalitat left this policy in oblivion. Was the ‘counselor’ Romeva who expressed the will to recover the path of 0.7, and was Alfred Bosch just two years ago who, in writing and with the approval of the head of the Economy, that is, the current ‘president’ of the country, Pere Aragonès, pledged to increase the budget annually and progressively, to reach 0.7% in 2030 This new compromise was approved in Parliament with a very large majority.
This recent vote and the narrative of a Government that wanted to build an agenda based on global health, the fight against repression, feminism and dealing with climate change added to the European context, offered a favorable context to assume these commitments. In this context, Government of Spain has increased its commitment to international solidarity and the Barcelona’s town hall has maintained its bet for 0.7. In more comparable orders: Euskadi, Navarra or the Valencian Community have also made important bets to increase their contribution to international solidarity. But surprisingly the Government of the Generalitat has not done so. The 2022 budgets should be dedicating close to 100 million euros to international cooperation (0.33%), and in the accounts that have just been approved, only half is reserved, and development aid remains at 0, two%. Five euros per Catalan and year and everything indicates that, if the Government does not make the effort to increase the item or with expansive budgets, will revert to the calendar and the commitment to 0.7. In the midst of the pandemic and precisely in the year fifty years ago that the United Nations asked for it, to bridge the gap between rich and impoverished countries.
Just a few months ago, the ‘minister’ of Health, Dr. Argimon, and the ‘minister’ of Acció Exterior i Govern Obert, Victòria Alsina, together signed an article in which they said that the pandemic had revealed global interdependence and interconnectedness, and that it was necessary to be jointly responsible for problems and global solutions. “We are prepared to take it on & rdquor; They said, but we will dedicate proportionally less resources than many autonomous communities and, in the last call for grants, 44 projects have been put on the waiting list for lack of resources.
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Despite the fact that the mistaken idea that citizens do not understand investment in cooperation, all the polls deny it. The last one reaffirms that the support is 80%. Citizens want and entities are perfectly prepared to be part of global solutions, because we have alliances and a presence everywhere. Furthermore, the cooperation we do today has little to do with that of 20 years ago. Today we are not celebrating a string of political breaches but ratherThe path we open The cooperation law, in its preamble, says that neither a credible national project nor an advanced democratic society can be built without actively and decisively participating in the construction of a fairer and more united international order. And this is as valid today, or more, than 20 years ago.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com