Codevelopment: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:46, 21 June 2010

Revision as of 09:20, 1 November 2010

Line 30:

Since ending 2004, codevelopment policies have been open to discussion, including the contents, limits, and plans. Two state agencies claimed their space in codevelopment actions: the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the brand new General Directorate of Immigrants’ Integration, at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

===Codevelopment policy ===

During 2005 there has been progress in the search for a consensus on competences and actors. A codevelopment line was mainstreamed in the Master Plans on Development Cooperation, and two years later, also in the new Integration Plan, called Strategic Plan on Citizenship and Integration 2007-2010, which was finally implemented in 2007, by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

During 2005 there has been progress in the search for a consensus on competences and actors. A codevelopment line was mainstreamed in the Master Plans on Development Cooperation, and two years later, also in the new Integration Plan, called Strategic Plan on Citizenship and Integration 2007-2010, which was finally implemented in 2007, by the Ministry of SocialLabour Affairsand Migration.

Early in the 2000s’ the civil society organisations worked on a document called "The Social Consensus on Migration", which was developed by two non-governmental organizations—the Spanish Committee for the Aid of Refugees (CEAR) and Caritas Española—together with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP). In this text, codevelopment was defined as "a line of work that favours the active participation of migrants in their commitment for the development of their home communities".

Regional and local authorities soon adopted this win/win approach and consequently launched several codevelopment guidelines within their Integration Plans and Development Cooperation Strategies. Ending 2009, most of the Spanish Regions (Comunidades Autónomas) had considered codevelopment and had set up budget lines both for migrants' associations and Development NGOs. Graciela Malgesini argues that codevelopment and migrants' remittances partly redirect the decentralized cooperation funds to their countries of origin.

In the last five years, academic research on codevelopment increased, as a result of the strong immigration process experienced by the Spanish society from 2000 onwards (which represented nearly 80% of Spain’s demographic growth). A website devoted to codevelopment, with many useful resources and discussions papers, was set up by CIDEAL, a development cooperation think tank. Many universities decided to open up new learning courses on the matter, following the steps of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Several doctoral thesis are currently being carried out, focusing diverse aspects of codevelopment, including the impact of migration and remittances in the sending countries, mainly Ecuador, Colombia and Morocco. Migrants living in Spain remitted nearly EURO 10 thousands millions, in 2007 (while the overall Spanish OAD summed only half of this amount).

===Current definitions of codevelopment in Spain ===

The Spanish viewpoint on codevelopment has been strongly influenced by the work of the Migration and Development International Network, based in the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas and El Colef (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte), in Tijuana, Mexico.

In the last fiveten years, academic research on codevelopment increased, as a result of the strong immigration process experienced by the Spanish society from 2000 onwards (which represented nearly 80% of Spain’s demographic growth). A website devoted to codevelopment, with many useful resources and discussions papers, was set up by CIDEAL, a development cooperation think tank. Many universities decided to open up new learning courses on the matter, following the steps of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Several doctoral thesis are currently being carried out, focusing diverse aspects of codevelopment, including the impact of migration and remittances in the sending countries, mainly Ecuador, Colombia and Morocco. Migrants living in Spain remitted nearly EURO 10 thousands millions, in 2007 (while the overall Spanish OAD summed only half of this amount).

According to Graciela Malgesini , spontaneous codevelopment could be defined as the win/win effect, the linkage between migration and development, which generates mostly positive impacts on both the society of origin of immigrants, and the host society. This definition presumes the role of immigrants as actors and vectors of development, in "both sides", and the understanding of the relations between host countries (North) and sending countries (South) in a horizontal way. Codevelopment is directly related to Transnationalism.