The aim
of humanitarian action is to protect and save lives, to prevent and alleviate
human suffering, to meet people's basic, urgent needs, and to promote their
rights, all with an approach that reduces vulnerability while strengthening
capacities.
Through
its Humanitarian Action Office, the Spanish Agency for International
Development Cooperation (AECID) is responsible for coordinating and overseeing
Spain's Humanitarian Action, both in areas affected by humanitarian crises and
in international or regional humanitarian forums. It therefore promotes
partnerships with key humanitarian partners, donors, specialized international
organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), universities, think tanks
and companies. It also fosters development of public humanitarian action policy
with other State actors, the Autonomous Communities of Spain and the Spanish
Federation of Municipalities and Provinces.
Spain's
humanitarian action is guided by the principles of international humanitarian
law: independence, humanity, neutrality and impartiality. It is also governed
by a number of different instruments, including: the four Geneva Conventions
(1949) and their Additional Protocols I, II (1977) and III (2005), the
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and its Protocol (1967),
the Oslo Guidelines (1998), the Food Aid Convention (1999), the Principles and
Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship (2003), the European Consensus on
Humanitarian Aid (2007), the Lisbon Treaty (2010), the Sendai Framework for
Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030,
and the commitments arising from the first World Humanitarian Summit, including
its Agenda for Humanity (2016), as well as the humanitarian Grand Bargain.
Since the
late eighties, Spain's humanitarian aid has been focused on responding to
emergencies by rapidly and non-discriminatorily sending the necessary
assistance materials (including food aid) to areas affected by crises arising
from conflicts and particularly those caused by natural disasters. Spanish
Cooperation's 2nd Master Plan for the 2005-2008 period marked the
beginning of a transition to humanitarian action with a wider reach, including
disaster risk reduction and readiness actions, early recovery and
rehabilitation, assistance for forgotten crises, and coordination with other
international actors. In this context, Spanish Cooperation's Humanitarian
Action Strategy (2007) was established, along with the AECID Humanitarian
Action Office. This, together with a gradual increase in the volume of funds
assigned to Humanitarian Action—reaching 10% of total Official Development
Assistance (ODA) in 2011—has made Spain a key international donor.
Spanish Cooperation's 5th Master Plan, for the 2018-2021 period
reflects the need to address a general paradigm shift resulting from the Agenda
for Humanity agreed at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. In addition, ten
years after Spanish Cooperation's first humanitarian strategy was drafted,
fulfilment of its objectives has been assessed, as well as the effectiveness of
its instruments, with a view to designing a new strategy that will be published
in late 2018. Lastly, as part of the progressive increase in Spanish ODA,
priority will be given to humanitarian aid and greater participation by
decentralized official cooperation will be promoted. Spain's strategic approach
to Humanitarian Action was very positively received in the most recent Development Assistance Committee Peer
Review of Spain (2016), with
praise for the efforts made by the Humanitarian Action Office to coordinate
with international and national actors. In the review, Spain is encouraged to
increase its budget for Humanitarian Action (4% of total ODA in 2015).
