Fourteen dilemmas for Spanish development aid in the new incoming parliament

The Elcano Royal Institute is a think-tank for international and strategic studies that analyses world events and trends from a Spanish, European and global perspective.

The Analyses of the Elcano Royal Institute (ARI)are short pieces - of around 3,000 words - on aspects of current international affairs considered to be of relevance to Spain, its foreign policy or its security. In broad terms ARIs are intended to have a predictive bearing on events.A significant number of analyses and assessments of Spanish foreign aid policy generally point to similar strengths and weaknesses. Prominent among the latter are the fragmentation of aid, the lack of capabilities and resources for managing a development policy that is rich in knowledge and in a changing environment, the lack of a strategic vision and the delays in obtaining coherence in development policies.
Such a convergence in the diagnosis is all the more surprising given that people have been identifying similar weaknesses for years.

This paper is based on the premise that tackling these structural shortcomings in Spanish aid first requires an in-depth debate to be held on the policy dilemmas surrounding development aid insofar as they concern (1) the scope and role of the aid policy itself; (2) its geographical and sectoral concentration ; and (3) the means of implementation, including the possible combinations of instruments