EL BLOG DE LA FIIAPP. Cooperación Española

For a good part of the population, the cooperation sector in Spain is totally unknown, and even more so the area of public cooperation, which is the focus of the work of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP). It is a highly specialised field in which all types of professionals can find a place.

In constant flux, the job market in cooperation should not be overlooked by job-seekers, as each week, through different employment websites, numerous institutions, foundations, and international cooperation organisations post new vacancies. Technical specialists, managers, economists, engineers, and political scientists are some of the profiles in demand.

What can I do to get a job with FIIAPP?

Public cooperation is a branch of cooperation dedicated to strengthening public institutions between countries. This is the sector in which FIIAPP has been working since 1997, hiring new employees every year.

That’s why it is important to know what types of professionals the foundation looks for. Ana María Serrano, Director of the Human Resources and Organisational Area of FIIAPP, explains that the most in-demand profile at the foundation is a “person with a university degree, normally in a social field, with a specialisation in cooperation and experience in project management. Other important merits are management skills and knowledge of European Union projects. In addition, languages are important. Fluency in English is practically a basic requirement, and French and Portuguese are always welcome.”

In terms of the most highly-valued qualities in a FIIAPP employee, Ana María Serrano emphasises “the ability to work on a team, resolve conflicts, and manage and coordinate people. Communication is also important, as the people who manage projects are in constant communication with both partners and experts.” In addition, she adds that proactiveness is very important, “it’s always good to find a person who is constantly curious and interested in seeking knowledge and possibilities. Empathy, proactiveness, and flexibility are also very highly valued qualities”.

Step 1: How do I apply?

Once you have located an interesting vacancy, you need to take time to prepare your candidacy with care to avoid missing out on opportunities. According to Ana María Serrano, when a person has decided to seek employment in cooperation, there are a several points to understand clearly:

– Look at the section of the FIIAPP website where job vacancies are posted every 10 or 15 days. This is the period of time allowed for submitting applications. That way you won’t miss any opportunities.

– Don’t send a standard CV. It’s advisable to adapt your CV to the position, address all of the points in the job announcement, and spend some time on it to improve your chances. Ana María Serrano explains that “if not, you run the risk of being eliminated in the initial screening because the recruiters don’t have all the information”.

Step 2: What is the selection process like?

To be selected, it’s not enough to send in your CV on time. A job applicant must pass through a selection process that normally has three parts:

– A part that is fundamentally objective to assess whether the applicant meets the position requirements and has the desired qualities.

-Testing related to the duties of the position.

– A personal interview.

The FIIAPP Director of Human Resources explains that “in part of the interview we place a high value on the capacity shown by the person to perform the duties of the position, interest in and knowledge about the project, and about the institution and the type of institution it is”.

Lastly, she adds “I recommend that the person seeking to take part in a selection process visit our website, soak up everything on it, about what we do and the project related to the vacancy.  When preparing for the interview, you have to show who you are. Be yourself and demonstrate that you are truly interested in the position and knowledgeable about the world in which you will be working.”

Nearly 80 million people live in Turkey and up to just over two years ago, the Turkish population did not have a place to go where they felt protected and could file complaints or be represented in cases of basic human rights violations.

Things have changed, because citizens have had an Ombudsman’s Office for nearly three years. They have benefited from the experiences of the Spanish and French Ombudsman’s Offices, which worked with their Turkish counterparts for two years to overcome one of the greatest challenges: modernising itself to provide good service to citizens.

Currently the Turkish Ombudsman’s Office is facing another big challenge, that of making itself a respected, effective and independent institution. To achieve this, it has to make its existence known to its nearly 80 potential clients, so that they know that there is somewhere to go if something goes wrong; to the Administration, before which it will have to defend the interests of citizens; and, of course, it has to spread the word among other actors it will have to work with, such as NGOs and civil society.

The staff of the Turkish Ombudsman’s Office has learned how to receive and process citizen complaints and, although the institution is still not very widely known among the Turkish people, it is receiving complaints every day from the population. The most common ones have to do with issues of schools, taxes…

Victoria Palau, the project coordinator on the ground, tells us that they have devoted “special attention to refugees and that Turkey has more than two million Syrian refugees. For this reason, staff members from the Turkish Ombudsman’s Office have visited refugee camps and are working to improve the quality of life for these people”.

Fin de programa de Defensor del Pueblo en Turquía

The European Union defines the 2030 Agenda as “a universal framework for all countries to help eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030”. The Agenda, which was adopted at the United Nations headquarters, includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 Associated Targets mobilising all countries and to which FIIAPP is also committed.

Spanish Cooperation has established a series of priorities that constitute the red lines that Spain has defended in the negotiations and which are centred on the eradication of poverty, the reduction of inequality, sustainability in all its dimensions and an integrated focus on human and gender rights.

In line with these priorities, FIIAPP will continue developing cooperation projects all over the world centred on modifying public policies and systems that benefit all citizens.

We take on altitude sickness and cross the air above thousands of dwellings to learn about the Accounting and Tax Support Centre (NAF) at the Public University of El Alto (UPEA) in Bolivia. They say that the modern cable car we’re travelling in links two realities: that of the increasingly prosperous businesspeople, hotel owners and restaurateurs in the south side of the city of La Paz, and that of the town of El Alto, mostly Aymara-speakers who come from rural areas, with high levels of informal labour and scant economic resources. Each day, the so-called “sky metro” transports more than 90,000 citizens, who use it to escape the chaos of city traffic. As the cable car ascends, the difference between these two realities becomes more and more marked.

Now we’re at 4,000 metres. In the background, the imposing Illimani peak, 6,462 metres high, the ceiling of the Real mountain range. El Alto is a city of immigrants, particularly rural farmers from the Bolivian high plain. In barely three decades of existence, it has become the second most populated city in Bolivia, with nearly 850,000 inhabitants.

The “alteños” have fighting spirit, they know very well what it means to start from zero, what it is to struggle against lack of opportunity. El Alto is a sea of small family businesses, micro-enterprises, many of them informal: specifically 72 out of 100, according to the Labour Development and Agricultural Studies Centre. Its relationship with the tax collector has never been easy. It’s not unusual to encounter posters that say: “Tax collectors go home”.

City of El Alto. Illiani Mountain in the background. PHOTO: EUROsociAL.

Bolivia’s National Tax Service (SIN) is aware that coercion cannot be the only weapon against fraud: carrots are needed in addition to sticks. Along with greater incentives and better services, the transformation of the tax culture requires pedagogy. Through tax education, the SIN is seeking a different approach, another viewpoint, greater dialogue. The Accounting and Tax Support Centre at the University of El Alto, supported by EUROsociAL and the SIN, is one such initiative. At the NAF, university students provide free advising on tax and accounting matters to micro-enterprise operators and low-income citizens.

The students at the NAF receive us in one of the classrooms of the university. “The selection process and requirements were exhaustive”, they tell us; “it was hard, but we accepted the challenge and it is paying off”. For some students, the majority from modest circumstances, participating in the NAF represented a great opportunity they didn’t want to pass up. Since its creation three months ago, they have provided assistance to 214 citizens, many of them from the informal sector, who frequently come back after their first visit.

The businesspeople of El Alto feel comfortable with the students. They dedicate time to them, are patient with them, and use plain language. They inspire trust. The maturity, enthusiasm and values of these students are surprising. All of them want to share their experience with us.“One time they wanted to pay us out of gratitude, but we told them that wasn’t possible, that it’s a free service for the community; later they came back with a gift of candy for everyone”, relates one student.

The experience of the NAF has been very useful for them. “It has been a marvellous experience of direct interaction with citizens. We’ve gone deeper into the theory, learning about changes in the tax code, and, most importantly, we’ve put them into practice, which will open a lot of doors in the job market. Plus, we’ve been able to learn the reality of citizens and to explain to them tax issues and their importance to society”, remarks Juan.

Students at the University of El Alto (Bolivia) offer tax advising free of charge to city residents at Accounting and Tax Support Centres (NAFs). PHOTO: EUROsociAL.

“Citizens come in to the NAFs because they’re afraid of the SIN representatives; they see us differently. And, sometimes accounting and legal advisers don’t speak to them using simple words”, he continues. Since business management is mainly a family matter, in most cases there is no accounting control, which limits the effectiveness of the businesses. “Others come in to the NAF because they don’t have the means to hire an adviser, they don’t know about taxes, or because of its proximity to them. In National Taxes, since there are so many people, they can’t assist them in the way that they need, or they leave with unanswered questions. Here they get information and they feel more relaxed in case they have to go back to the SIN”.

These students, just like the cable car, are links that connect two still very separate worlds; they have the advantage of a good understanding of both realities. The dream of Juan, the son of rural businesspeople who came to El Alto when he was just eight, is to work in a public institution and, later, manage his own micro-enterprise. With his experience at the NAF, he’s already taking the first steps towards making this dream a reality.

Article by Borja Díaz Rivillas, Senior Expert on Democratic Governance and Public Finance at EUROsociAL II – FIIAPP.

Núria is a “Barcelonesa” and she lives in Angola. She is a face of cooperation. She collaborates with a local development project in this African country. It’s not the first time she’s worked as a volunteer, or in Angola or Africa. Mozambique and Mauritania were earlier destinations.

Now 39 years of age, she’s contributing her experience as an economist and social worker to local Angolan institutions. The purpose of this project, financed by the European Commission and managed by the FIIAPP, is to improve opportunities for economic development and access to basic social services for vulnerable rural families.

This year, Núria has been chosen as one of the faces of the “Nineteen Citizens Give Development Aid a Face” campaign as part of the “2015 European Year of Development” launched by the Representation of the European Commission and the Information Office of the European Parliament in Spain. The goal is to explain what Europe is doing in the area of cooperation through the experiences of these citizens. All of them are Spaniards.

Did you know that the EU is the largest donor to development aid?

The European Union and its Member States are the largest donors of development aid worldwide, and they fund and drive hundreds of programmes and initiatives aimed at improving living conditions for citizens. In 2013 they donated 56.5 billion euros to help countries all over the world fight poverty.

The “2015 European Year of Development” seeks to publicise this activity and also its results. “Our world. Our dignity. Our future” is its slogan, and the story of Núria and all the other faces of development aid are helping to spread the word about it in Europe and the rest of the world. #EYD2015#19Rostros

The European Union cooperation programme for Latin America, EUROsociAL, focuses its work on social cohesion and development in various Latin American countries. One of them is Argentina, where work is being done on several projects for access to justice and prevention of violence in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.

Kids in the “Jóvenes con más y mejor trabajo” [Young People With More and Better Jobs] programme of the Access to Justice Centre of Santiago del Estero mounted a campaign against institutional violence. Among their actions, the mural created with the slogan of the campaign, “No me pongas la mano encima” [Don’t lay a hand on me], an “open-mike radio show” and a street performance stand out.

Street violence

The IDLO, the international organisation that supports justice, (with the collaboration of EUROsociAL), held a workshop in Santiago del Estero Province to train young people on how to create their own campaigns to raise awareness about rights, and there was almost no debate: “institutional violence”—and in particular the mistreatment young people experience at the hands of the police—would have to be at the centre of their actions.

According to the IDLO, in Argentina, kids going about their business on the streets know that being detained, chased and possibly arrested by a police patrol on its rounds is a real possibility.

In most cases, there is no real motive for this. The most habitual pretext is “having the face of a criminal” or “looking suspicious”—their appearance is what makes them suspicious. Wearing a track suit or a baseball cap is an aggravating factor. One minute you’re talking to your friends, and the next you’re up against the wall with your things scattered on the pavement and a pair of hands frisking you looking for weapons or drugs.

Since 2013, EUROsociAL has been consolidating various tools for access to justice policies oriented towards different vulnerable groups: besides the young protagonists of this story, it has championed migrant women’s right to justice in Costa Rica, women victims of violence in Honduras, women victims of human trafficking in Chile, the indigenous population in Peru, and African-descended young people in Brazil”.