Much of the global development sector is heading to Sevilla, Spain, next week for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, or FfD4. And while Spain is not known as a major provider of official development assistance, it has not been cutting its aid budget, setting it apart from most deep-pocketed donor countries across the Western world.
Instead, over the last three years, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, or AECID, has doubled its annual budget to €708 million in grants and added nearly €400 million in annual lending capacity.
“We are growing, we are bucking the trend in a way,” Antón Leis García, AECID’s director, told Devex in a phone interview.