Spain and Panama sign a Cooperation Alliance for Sustainable Development

Panama City.- Spain's Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, and Panama's Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation, Carlos Guevara Mann, signed a new Cooperation Alliance for Sustainable Development this Tuesday in the Panamanian capital. "At a time, also, of questioning of scientific evidence, of data, the document we sign today is based on that evidence. And among the vectors we prioritize is the scientific (and) academic axis, that technical cooperation, which I believe gives us a qualitative leap," said Granados. The signing took place at the Panamanian Chancellery after the VIII meeting of the Spanish-Panamanian Joint Cooperation Commission. And, according to official information, it marks "a new stage in the relationship between both countries, based on an advanced, horizontal cooperation model, and aimed at building joint responses to structural challenges and reinforcing Panama's role as a benchmark in public innovation and sustainable development in the region". «(What) we have formalized today through the signing of the minutes (…) constitutes not only the formal culmination of a technical and diplomatic process, but also the clear expression of a converging political will, of a shared vision of the future and of the mutual trust that we have built over time», Guevara Mann emphasized. We recommend reading:

Four Priority Strategic Challenges

The new alliance revolves - according to official information - around "four strategic challenges" such as "the exchange of knowledge and promotion of scientific, technological and digital capacities for sustainable development" and "transformative democratic governance with a gender, care and participation approach." To which are added the "inclusive, innovative and resilient economic and territorial development models" along with a "just ecological transition". During his trip to Panama, Granados met with the regional representatives for Latin America and the Caribbean of the main United Nations agencies. He will also visit projects of the Spanish Cooperation in the remote province of Darién. The Darién jungle, a natural border with Colombia, was the epicenter in recent years of the regional migration crisis, with hundreds of passers-by crossing it daily to reach North America. There, in the indigenous populations to which migrants arrived or in the reception centers, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid) was present to address that migratory emergency, both directly and with support for other humanitarian organizations. The official Spanish development aid to Panama has progressively increased in recent years, from a total of 0.57 million euros in 2020 (about 0.67 million dollars) to 5.9 million euros (about 6.9 million dollars) in 2024.