Co-development in Catalonia: underpinning rationale and main actors

Supramunicipal entity: Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament

The quantitative study mentioned previously found that the involvement of Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (also called Fons-Català in this text to reduce the length of the name) in local ODA decision-making positively affects the probability of funding migrant associations in the period under consideration (Østergaard-Nielsen and Acebillo-Baqué, 2016, p. 375). Moreover, in trying to understand why it is that the smaller the municipality, the larger the share of ODA funds that may be given to migrant associations, it is important to understand the Fons-Català's role in deciding where municipal funds are targeted (Østergaard-Nielsen and Acebillo-Baqué, 2016, p. 376). Indeed, the result is not surprising when we understand the history of co-development (and, overall, of the municipal’s international development policymaking) in Catalonia.

Long before the Catalan (Regional) Development Agency was started in 2003, Fons-Català was created in 1986 in a municipality called Salt (located in Girona’s province). It was the first of its kind in Spain.⁷⁹ The trigger for its creation was a defining moment in 1981 when an advocacy campaign was launched by a Catalan Christian NGO called Justícia i Pau (Justice and Peace) (FCCD, 2011). The campaign was named ‘Objective 0,7%’ and was the first action at a national level in Spain to demand governmental public support for a minimum share of 0,7% of Gross Domestic Product to be channelled to empoverished countries. Another important advocacy campaign asking for the 0,7% affecting municipals’ priorities to be honoured was launched later. In November 1994 many activists camped in the Diagonal avenue, in Barcelona, demanding that the government comply with their international commitment.

Many actors related to international solidarity in Spain and Catalonia refer to this second campaign as a turning point: for some years, it sensitised and influenced many

79 According to their webpages, in the Basque Country, the Euskal Fondoa-Asociación de Entidades Locales Vascas Cooperantes was created in 1996 (http://www.euskalfondoa.org/). In Andalusia, the Fondo Andaluz de Municipios para la Solidaridad Internacional (FAMSI) was born in 2000 (http://www.andaluciasolidaria.org/). [Last access 16 April 2018].

social and political actors and citizens at the grass roots level, as regards towards the need to support development abroad and counter global injustice⁸⁰. It also backed the creation of governmental structures and mechanisms related to international development, such as the Consells Locals de Cooperació i Solidaritat (Cooperation and Solidarity Local Councils). These are participative spaces at the governmental municipal level, where civil society is supposed to be consulted and have a say regarding areas of policymaking (FCONGD, 2005). After the campaign, in the case of the Fons-Català, the municipal association's membership increased by 30%, and, by 1995 expanded its coverage across the Catalan territory (FCCD, 2011, p. 28).

Even though, in the beginning, NGOs could also be members of the Fons-Català, it is fundamentally an association of municipalities and other supramunicipal bodies (such as diputacions, consells comarcals and mancomunitats). In 2015 it had 314 members (282 municipalities among them) and covered a territory that represented more than 85% of the total population in Catalonia (FCCD, 2016, p. 15). Among their functions, the Fons-Català represents municipalities in international cooperation-related spaces and jointly manages the financial resources contributed by the associated institutions in order to support development and humanitarian interventions.⁸¹ In addition, depending on the members’ agreements with the organisation, the Fons-Català technically supports the international development management and policy-making at the municipal level. That is, if municipalities are small, or lack the resources, Fons-Català would be a mechanism for them to ‘outsource’ human labour and knowledge.

The Fons-Català has been among the pioneers in promoting co-development as included within an overarching cooperation strategy in Spain. In 1995 the organisation started its collaboration with Senegalese migrant associations (FCCD, 2011, p. 47). Later on, in 1997, the entity opened a new workstream, approved in Fons-Català’s assembly, to foster co-development in order to support immigrants as development agents. It hired a person of Senegalese origin to be in charge of the programme and started undertaking periodical training courses to promote migrant associations’ capacities. Up until this point, different migrant organisations had

80 Regarding the studied municipalities where the studied migrant associatons are linked in to their country of residence, the years in which local governments explicitly committed to invest a percentage of its budget to ODA were: 1994 (Barcelona, Lleida), 1995 (Mataró) and 1998 (Girona)

81 See their webpage for more information http://www.fonscatala.org/ [Last access 16 April 2018]

received funds directly or indirectly in connection with Fons-Català (either by receiving funding through Fons-Català’s calls or through municipalities connected to Fons-Català). Besides, since Fons-Català started working in co-development, the countries with the highest levels of activity are Senegal, Gambia and Morocco.

Around 2010, Fons-Català stated that it supported 44 co-development projects in Senegal, 32 in Morocco, and 25 in Gambia (FCCD, 2011, p. 49). Apart from funding projects in the origin countries of those migrants settled in Catalonia, the organisation has undertaken training courses all around Catalonia. Fons-Català also publishes studies and books related to the work, and organises and participates in conferences.

In the past, the Spanish Agency for Development and Cooperation also funded Fons-Català’s co-development activities. They are the so-called programmes MIDEL (2004), and Redel I, II, III (Redel started in 2006, and had three phases). These programmes represent the strongest attempt by Fons-Català to connect co-development and migrant economic remittances. However, until now, according to different key informants, this approach has not been very successful.

Fons-Català rationale for promoting co-development – rather than stimulating the relationship between migrants, economic remittances and development of origin countries – seemed focused elsewhere. Documents published by Fons-Català and people working within the organisation emphasised the willingness to counter the lack of (or the insufficience of) civil and political rights by fostering migrant associations' participation at a local level in the host countries. They also stressed the need to promote initiatives geared towards migrants’ social inclusion at the local level as underpinning principles behind co-development fostering. For instance, in a publication on the occasion of Fons-Català’s 25^th Anniversary, the organisation spoke of co-development in the following terms:

‘In this way [through co-development] a positive relationship is generated between the town hall, the immigrants and the population: The newcomers get organised, they become legally constituted associations and have access and a more fluid and constant relationship with the City Council. At the same time, the councils can see the situation in which these entities are. They can know their concerns as citizens –citizens of both the host municipality and their area of origin. The migrant feels supported by the public administration, has contacts and is heard by it.’ (FCCD, 2011, p. 51 original in Catalan, my translation)

An interviewee who witnessed the beginnings of co-development in Fons-Català explained that, during the first years of the 2000s, co-development was an innovative approach. This was because, for example, it fostered migrant associations’

participation in the Municipal Councils, and in this was they were deconstructing stereotypes of migrants being a problem to be dealt with:

Immigration was always seen as a problem. If the immigrants from Mataró (the Soninkes...) could participate in the Cooperation [Municipal] Council, they were already involved as co-participants, they were no longer the

‘problem’ of Soninkes from Mataró. It was an important step. [Co-development] Especially influenced us during the last decade [2000-2006].

[...] We were pioneers, because many city councils opened the doors, the spaces of the cooperation councils, to associations of immigrants.

Barcelona, April 2016, translated from Catalan (1-4-P99)

The informant’s emphasis during the interview on co-development as a strategy to work on ‘immigrant integration’ can be found in documents written by Fons-Català.

This can be found, for example, in a book chapter whose author is, according to the research, a crucial thinker in relation to the approach taken, and also responsible for Fons-Català's co-development programme over several years. Hence, the most important aspect of co-development is not put on origin localities, but instead it is fundamentally and politically linked to the visibility of migrants and to citizen participation, and their integration into the host localities (Diao, 2007).

Catalan regional government

The dimension of political (local) participation of migrants sustained by Fons-Català reflects the main characteristic of the Catalan policymaking within the Spanish regional context. Hence, this is consistent with an analysis of co-development in Catalonia understood as an approach to local citizenship, whereby ‘co-development policies and initiatives of local governments are related to migrants’ local process of incorporation in their country of residence’ (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2011, p. 20). During interviews, conferences or within the projects’ documents justifying the work, co-development actors in Catalonia (and also migrant representatives or actors in the origin localities) rarely justify undertaking co-development from a viewpoint of migration control, returning migrants or fighting againt migration. Yet, according to

research, rationales based on control of migration flows, co-optation or clientelism may have played stronger roles in other regions such as Madrid or Valencia (Fauser, 2014; Lacomba et al., 2014).

To further substantiate the point, until now, the four Catalan regional international cooperation master plans include co-development as an area of intervention for the Catalan government.⁸² The first regional Development Cooperation Master Plan published in 2003, already incorporated co-development as a way to foster ‘social integration’ of immigrants (Parlament de Catalunya, 2003). In 2009, the policy building of co-development at a regional level reached a tipping point before the economic falling-off when the ‘Co-development Strategy of Cooperation for Development’ (Estratègia de codesenvolupament de la cooperació al desenvolupament, in Catalan) was launched by the Directorate General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action (DGCDAH) and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD), under the mandate of the Development Cooperation Master Plan 2007-2010 (DGCDAH/ACCD, 2009). The strategy, which considered itself as a conceptual and action framework with regards to Catalan co-development’s policymaking, defines co-development as:

‘Any attempt or any instrument aimed at harnessing the potential of migratory flows with the objective of development. In other words, any attempt to positively activate the relationship between migration and development, making the first one factor or motor of the second.’ (DGCDAH/ACCD, 2009, p. 12 original in Catalan, my translation)

The approach of the strategy of co-development uses co-development processes as opportunities for the promotion and protection of the rights of people, as well as the promotion of transnationalism through the support of networks and alliances. In particular, among its priority goals, one can find references to facilitating spaces and strengthening the capacities of Catalan cooperation actors to work on co-development. This is to be realised both with an active incorporation of migrants and with a reinforcement of their links with the society of origin. The regional strategy

82 The Development Cooperation Master Plan 2015-2018 is in force while writing this dissertation.

The other three plans (covering the periods 2003-2006, 2007-2010, 2011-2014) can be found in:

http://cooperaciocatalana.gencat.cat/ca/direccio-general-de-cooperacio-al-desenvolupament/pla_director/plans-directors-anteriors/ [last access 29 April 2018]

also backs the role played by governments at local level in the co-development strategy, which in fact entails recognition of what was already in the making. Besides, it also attempts to strenghten the regional coordination of co-development policy-making with immigration policy-policy-making (at that time, the main immigration policy approaches were described in the Catalan Citizenship and Migration Plan 2009-2012) (DGCDAH/ACCD, 2009).

Subsequently, the Development Cooperation Master Plan 2011-2014, approved in June 2010, envisages implementing the co-development strategy (DGCDAH/ACCD, 2010). The document understands co-development as an instrument of cooperation and, beyond this, as a possibility to articulate positive relationships between the migratory phenomenon and development as well as empowering migrant groups.

However, with the spending cuts, the Development Cooperation Master Plan 2011-2014 turned into vacuous words. The next strategy document, still in force at the time of writing, was the Development Cooperation Master Plan 2015-2018. This still considers co-development as an area of intervention (but mainly connected to local governments). Equally, the strategy of the regional Catalan cooperation towards Senegal (2013-2017) also identified lines of intervention fostering co-development.

However, in the context of a weakened governmental approach towards cooperation – and also the weakened force of civil society actors – the scope of it within the general intervention maintained a very low profile (ACCD, 2015; DGCDAH/ACCD, 2013).

Moreover, the visibility of a co-development approach within immigration policy-making, has worsened during the current term. Hence, there were four previous immigration and citizenship regional plans describing goals and interventions related to migration (including: Migrations and Citizenship Plan 2013-2016; Citizenship and Immigration Plan 2009-2012; Immigration and Citizenship Plan 2005-2008;

Immigration Intepartamental Plan 2001-2004⁸³). These all mentioned co-development as an area of intervention, or they cited the need to coordinate action together with the international governmental cooperation area regarding the co-development strategy (from its publication in 2009). However, the last regional Migrations and Citizenship

83 As previously mentioned, the first ‘Interdepartmental Immigration Plan 1993-2000’ was launched in 1993, but I could not access the document. The other documents are available at:

http://treballiaferssocials.gencat.cat/ca/ambits_tematics/immigracio/politiques_i_plans_dactuacio/antec edents/ [last accessed 29 April 2018]

Plan 2017-2020 does not mention co-development (Direcció General per a la Immigració, 2014; Generalitat de Catalunya, 2010; Secretaria d’Igualtat, Migracions i Ciutadania, 2017; Secretaria per a la Immigració, 2010). This last document mainly focuses on the phenomenon of forced displacement when referring to international cooperation. In fact, it also echoes the academic evidence stating that development is more likely to stimulate migration rather than the contrary (Secretaria d’Igualtat, Migracions i Ciutadania, 2017, p. 11).

At this point, one can argue that, neither in terms of policy discourse nor in relation to economic resources has co-development policy-making been consolidated at the Catalan regional level. Nevertheless, it is probably the territory within the Spanish state where the approach has been most structured (see the view of a migration and development expert after this paragraph). For different reasons, when compared to the French case – where there are well-developed national approaches such as the programme PAISD (launched in 2005, briefly described later on in this same chapter) – the Spanish case looks to have faded before reaching maturity. It is still to be seen whether the approach will survive or will be rescued if the international cooperation policies are ever reviewed again.

The interventions are given by the type of accompaniment they obtain. In Spain, the Catalan cooperation aside, there have not been very structured co-development interventions. Nor with a powerful financing, because what Catalonia was doing had a small amount of funding. If you consider the case of France, France have a program that is very broad and in which you work for example to finance structures, and the migrant associations of France, for what I was telling you, because it is older, they have been working for 35 years on issues of co-development. So, maybe what the Senegalese communities of Spain are doing now, in France they did it 25 years ago, and therefore you have 25 years of work and thinking about the projects that are missing [in the Spanish case]. You can go fast, but time exists.

International organisation representative, Dakar, September 2012, translated from Spanish (2-4-P24)

Civil society-led processes

Catalan civil society actors have also been engaged in promoting co-development.

Thus, civil society has had a role in buiding up and undertaking co-development, and particularly certain migrant associations in alliance with ‘autochtonous’ groups.

Consequently, substantiating the argument that the incorporation of co-development as an area of public intervention in Catalonia has purely been a ‘top-down’ process is difficult. There is different evidence supporting the last statement and two sources are now highlighted.

First, it is no surprise that we turn to examine the territory which is the oldest Sub-Saharan community settled in Spain (that is, in the Girona and Maresme’s areas). In that area, it is worth mentioning the role played by particular NGOs in Girona (such as the Grup de Recerca i Actuació amb Minories Culturals, GRAMC, founded within the organisational structure of the adult and alfabetisation (or literacy) school called Samba Kubally, in Santa Coloma de Farners, in 1988). Further, the coordination platform of solidarity NGOs of Girona and Alt Maresme (Coordinadora d’ONG Solidàries, founded in 1994) should also be cited. Both organisations have contributed to supporting and building the co-development approach in Fons-Català and, in fact, the area of Girona is also the craddle of Fons-Català. Besides their role in conceptualising co-development, these organisations have also been engaged with, and supported, Senegalese migrant associations along with other autochtonous NGOs. This is related to the agency of some of the studied migrant associations. It is conceptualised in terms of presence as observed through these Senegalese associations’ alliances.

Second, according to the doctoral research of Castellà Josa (Castellà Josa, 2016, p.

134), the above-mentioned Immigration National Agreement (Secretaria per a la Immigració, 2009) gained broad participation by the citizenship and civil society actors mainly because a previous initiative had brought forth different civil society actors. This initiative gathered a network of migrant organisations and other organisations of influence from the immigration sector resulting in the production of the ‘Consens Social Sobre Migracions a Catalunya’ (Càritas Diocesana de Barcelona i Comissió Catalana d’Ajuda al Refugiat, 2006). The document represents a civil society plan, built up through a decentralised and participatory process led by civil society organisations. It was launched in 2004, and set out the main approaches and recommendations regarding immigration policy-oriented principles and management.

The document was presented to the Catalan Parliament in 2006, influenced the Immigration National Agreement, and was launched prior to the co-development

strategy created by the international development regional governmental area previously mentioned. In fact, it contains an extensive elaboration of co-development as an area of intervention for immigration-related challenges (Càritas and Comissió Catalana d’Ajuda al Refugiat, 2006). Migrant associations, and also organisations such as the above-mentioned GRAMC, participated and influenced the document.

Currently, co-development at the regional institutional level (and also at central level) has little strength. It is a sign of the present times that the use of the expression 'co-development' is not as widespread as it had been. As long ago as 2012, a technical advisor of the Spanish Development Agency explained to me that, instead of 'co-development', the expression 'migration and development' represented the new buzzwords. However, the approach is still alive within Fons-Català and with some municipalities participating in that organisation. After the cuts in public spending and internal evaluations of the programme, the Catalan inter-municipal organisation has decided - since 2012 – to focus on strengthening capacities, both within migrant associations and in partners’ associations within localities of origin. These interventions have affected Senegalese actors. Further, according to the interviews, Fons-Català’s co-development commission (configured by municipalities) was re-activated in 2014, with internal country-based working groups in Morocco, Gambia and Senegal. Despite the reduction of public resources, civil society members still struggle to maintain co-development capacities. For instance, the NGO platform representing Girona and Maresme is pressing to work in this area of intervention and supports Fons-Català capacity building interventions. Besides, in March 2017 the Taula Catalana de Codesenvolupament (Catalan Co-development Table) was constituted. This organisation, which in fact is more like a federation, seeks to attract other associations to join, and aims ‘to articulate the different actors in the territory,

Currently, co-development at the regional institutional level (and also at central level) has little strength. It is a sign of the present times that the use of the expression 'co-development' is not as widespread as it had been. As long ago as 2012, a technical advisor of the Spanish Development Agency explained to me that, instead of 'co-development', the expression 'migration and development' represented the new buzzwords. However, the approach is still alive within Fons-Català and with some municipalities participating in that organisation. After the cuts in public spending and internal evaluations of the programme, the Catalan inter-municipal organisation has decided - since 2012 – to focus on strengthening capacities, both within migrant associations and in partners’ associations within localities of origin. These interventions have affected Senegalese actors. Further, according to the interviews, Fons-Català’s co-development commission (configured by municipalities) was re-activated in 2014, with internal country-based working groups in Morocco, Gambia and Senegal. Despite the reduction of public resources, civil society members still struggle to maintain co-development capacities. For instance, the NGO platform representing Girona and Maresme is pressing to work in this area of intervention and supports Fons-Català capacity building interventions. Besides, in March 2017 the Taula Catalana de Codesenvolupament (Catalan Co-development Table) was constituted. This organisation, which in fact is more like a federation, seeks to attract other associations to join, and aims ‘to articulate the different actors in the territory,