Background	Project Duration
Grant Size	Deadline
Own Contribution	Application Forms
Funding Priorities	Application & Procedures
Grantmaking Criteria	Languages
Guidelines	Tips

The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID) is an autonomous organisation assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation through the State Department for International Cooperation (SECI). As an organisation that controls Spanish development cooperation policy, the AECID is responsible for designing, executing and organising development cooperation projects and programmes, either directly, using its own resources, or in collaboration with other national and international bodies and non-governmental organisations.

This programme is referred to as a Permanent Open Tender (Convocatoria abierta y permanente, CAPs). CAPs are the only instrument to which organisations from other countries (including developing countries) can directly apply. Applicants do not need to be registered nor certified by AECID.

The potential grant size can vary according to the specific Call.

For calls for proposals launched in March 2010, a total of €5.9 million was allocated towards the CAP.

None specified.

The Spanish policy for international development cooperation, aiming to combat poverty in all forms of poverty, will focus on the following sector priorities:

1. Basic social services (health, sanitation, education, food security, human resources)
2. Provision, improvement or widening of equipment and infrastructures.
3. Development of production and strengthening of the private sector. 
4. Protection and respect of human rights, equal opportunities, women’s participation and integration, and defence of vulnerable population groups (such as minors, paying special attention to the eradication of all forms of exploitation, child labour, refugees, displaced populations, indigenous groups and minorities)
5. Strengthening of democratic structures and civil society; strengthening institutions, particularly those closest to the citizens
6. Protection and improvement of the environment, rational conservation and renewable use, as well as sustainable biodiversity
7. Culture, focusing on the defence of aspects related to cultural identity and to free access to equipments and cultural services for all sectors of the population. 
8. Development of science and research, and its application to development projects

 

 

Spanish and foreign citizens can apply, as well as legal entities and public or private national or foreign entities that comply with the following requirements:

• Individuals’ must be legally of age
• Legal entities must be legally constituted

In both cases:

• They must not conduct profit making activities
• They must have sufficient means and be sufficiently capable of carrying out the activities in question, and must ensure that they comply with the objectives established for the activities
• Only where applicable: they must be up-to-date with Spanish tax and Social Security payments

In order to foster participation and funding of NGOs and other organisations in developing countries, a certain percentage of the budgeted aid will be reserved for the proposals coming from recipient countries, if these comply with the above requirements. This percentage will be determined in each call for proposal depending on the total available budget.

The total budget for a CAP proposal can include both direct and indirect costs of the project, as well as overhead and other organisational costs (including administrative costs). The indirect costs must not surpass 12% of the total project costs, and will need to be certified by written communication of the legal representative of the organisation receiving the funds.

Proposals will be graded and selected based on the following grading system:  

• Alignment with sector and geographic priorities of the Spanish cooperation (Master Plan III) (up to 3 points)
• Degree of complementarity with other actions related to development cooperation (up to 3 points)
• Content, relevance and quality of the activity (up to 2 points)
• Appropriateness and viability of the action (up to 2 points)

Organisations from developing countries must prove an organisational structure and sufficient resources (human and economic) to ensure an effective accomplishment of the planned and funded goals.

Funding is available for projects in any country, but countries in AECID’s Category A, B or C is prioritised.

AECID has produced a manual—Manual de Justificación de ayudas y subvenciones de AECID (2003)—which compiles all relevant information about criteria, documentation and other basic information for applicants. It can be downloaded from the AECID website.¹ 

An English (unofficial) translation can be obtained from here.

Maximum 18 months. Implementation has to start on the same year of grant approval.

CAP calls are open two to three times a year.

Proposals from organisations based outside of Spain can be submitted through the consulates, embassies or other diplomatic missions of Spain, or in AECID’s units in developing countries.  The envelope of the proposal should be marked with a date stamp that determines the date of submission of the proposal.

Alternatively, AECID might opt for opening an online call for proposal, in which case, relevant information will be included in the guidelines of the proposal.

Every proposal will need to be submitted with the relevant documentation that is mentioned in the calls for proposals, and must be submitted in Spanish.

Narrative report.³

Financial report.

Spanish

Joint Assessment of the National Health System is an evaluation tool created by the technical team of the International Health Partnership, of which Spain is signatory. AECID recommends the use of this approach as a theoretical and operational framework for work in the health sector whenever possible to define work to be supported by the NGO intervention. ⁴

To ensure that applications meet AECID’s criteria, AECID encourages NGOs to contact AECID Offices on the field (Oficina Técnica de Cooperación) in the very early stages of the identification process in order to ensure that the programme design is aligned and harmonized with the local priorities and with other stakeholders’ interventions.

When it comes to justification of the project, ensure that there exists an accurate analysis of the time, resources and budget needed to perform the project. When the costs related to monitoring are high, an external evaluation is highly recommended.

Coordinadora de ONGD España, the Spanish NGO platform, can also be contacted for more general information on development cooperation and on accredited NGOs. ⁵ 

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¹ Manual de Justificación de ayudas y subvenciones.

² Contact information can be found in the NGO Platform Contact Information section of this Guide.

³ These links are subject to change as AECID is currently undergoing a reform of their online application system and NGO registration.

⁴ Information on this tool and related documents can be found on the IHP website. 

⁵ Contact information can be found in the NGO Platform Contact Information section of this Guide.