EL BLOG DE LA FIIAPP. Cooperación Española

The recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa, along with other health alerts such as MERS-Cov in the Middle East and the uptick in polio cases being reported in places where the disease had been declared eliminated, demonstrates the importance of developing standardized prevention and control procedures in the region in order to implement a coordinated international response to these public health risks.

As is well known, biological threats do not respect borders, and the notable increase in the movement of people, animals and goods taking place in the world makes us increasingly vulnerable to biological risks.

The Mediterranean Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training, MediPIET, is a cooperation programme for public healthaimed at training epidemiologists in non-EU Mediterranean countries.

The initiative to create this training programme arises from the request of the member countries for help addressing their shortages of qualified professionals for competently facing epidemiological threats that might affect their countries or neighbouring countries. There is also a need to harmonize the technical response among themselves and with the EU, using common procedures and unified and understandable communication channels, in other words, to speak the same “epidemiological language” throughout the Mediterranean.

The European Commission (EC), as the pillar of the European Union (EU) responsible for carrying out health and cooperation policies for development, is financing the Programme through the Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation  (EuropeAid-DEVCO). DEVCO provides the guidelines, synergies and complementarities needed for the programme to be recognized, appreciated and understood by the participating countries. For its part, the DG for Health and Consumer Affairs, DG SANCO, through the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control  (ECDC), has generated and is contributing scientific and technical knowledge to enable execution of the Programme to achieve improvement results with the same quantity and quality as field epidemiologists in the Programme’s partner countries.

MediPIET is a cooperation project in health security within the framework of the EU’s international cooperation policies and of the Stability Instrument[1], through the active participation of the CBRN Centres of Excellence[2], benefitting the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Algeria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Morocco, Moldavia, Montenegro, Palestine, Serbia, Tunisia and Ukraine. In addition, Israel and Turkey are participating as observers.

Spain is leading the project through a consortium made up of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), an institution associated with international cooperation whose main responsibilities in this project are to liaise with the European Commission, carry out technical and logistical tasks, and handle budget tracking; the Carlos III Public Health Institute (ISCIII), associated with the development of public health policies, has the primary task in the project of providing scientific-technical advising for the Programme’s activities, mainly those related to the field epidemiology training.

Within the ISCIII, it is the National Epidemiology Centre that is responsible for the aforementioned tasks, in coordination with the ECDC, the European agency in charge of scientific coordination.

The objectives the Programme aims to achieve are the following:

1. Construct a network of field epidemiologists and epidemiology trainers from the public health institutions of the participating countries in order to strengthen the capacity for responding to threats to public health within the framework of the International Health Regulation.

2. Train field epidemiologists to handle essential public health activities for prevention and control of infectious diseases and other risks, using a common language throughout the region.

3. Promote collaboration, exchange of experiences and knowledge among countries in the Mediterranean basin, and the commitment to the sustainability of national and regional programmes to guarantee the capacities of qualified public health professionals to respond to national and cross-border health challenges.

[1]Finances policies intended to contribute to the preparation for and reaction to crises of natural and human origin, as well as the rehabilitation of countries after a crisis or situation of instability.
[2]CBRN CoE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Centres of Excellence): an initiative of the EU financed by the Stability Instrument.

Eighty-seven percent of women in Guinea Conakry, in other words eight in every  ten, suffer conjugal and domestic violence in this African country, according to the results of a survey released by the National Office for the Promotion of Women and Gender. They typically do not report it. These women share a common denominator with other victims of gender violence around the world: a fear of reprisal by their aggressors. To which we might add family involvement in resolution of the conflict, which happens in the specific case of Guinea Conakry, as a complicating factor.

“When a couple has a problem, it seems like it’s the whole family’s problem. The family gets involved and leans towards reconciliation. When they see that it can’t be solved, instead of reporting it, they go to the figure of the chef de quartier (head of the community). He resolves problems at the community level, and that’s where the majority of gender violence accusations are stopped”, explains Elena González, an expert sent by the FIIAPP to Guinea Conakry to participate on a short-term basis in the EC project with this African country in an effort to reduce this problem.

González states that the chefs de quartier are very powerful at the community level and that they prefer to solve problems amongst themselves. This circumstance and the population’s mistrust of the police results in, as indicated by the expert, these cases not being reported. The Conté era and the subsequent military regime turned the country’s police into a repressive element in the people’s eyes. In addition, police officers join the force without any prior training, and there are no bodies that control their activity. This has made the country’s security weak and has caused the citizens to mistrust the officers. The project, managed by the FIIAPP in collaboration with the National Police Force and the Civil Guard also aims to improve these aspects. Both institutions assumed responsibility for training local personnel on action protocols for cases of gender violence and control of police activity.

“The bond between the police and citizens was broken as a result of the years of dictatorship. The current president (Alpha Condé) is looking to democratize the institutions and, within this, democratize the police”, notes Francisco Gaona, Chief Police Inspector, who is participating as an expert in the project.

Lack of resources

One of the main problems facing the country in tackling these problems is the lack of resources. “The treatment of victims by the police is the best they can do considering the conditions. They are very sensitized to the victims, but when they want to interview them, they don’t have anywhere to go and have to do it in an office with ten other people… this limits the response of the police, but it’s because they don’t have anything to offer them, comments  Elena González. The lack of computers and even electricity are other deficits. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause. They have NGOs and other services, such as healthcare, for attending to victims of gender violence and thus for forming a network with which to establish an action protocol for these types of cases. “We share our knowledge about gender violence with them, but we rely on their experts to give the specific training with what they have there. And it should be noted that we managed to bring one representative from the Christian community and another from the Muslim one, and they talked about gender violence in relation to religion”, recalls the expert. It must not be forgotten, moreover, that female genital mutilation, declared to be a violation of the human rights of girls and women by the United Nations since its prohibition in 1965, is still practised in the country. The National Office for the Promotion of Women and Gender notes that 95% of the country’s female population has suffered this. This was another issue addressed by the local experts in the training sessions.

Work was also done with local personnel in the establishment of a Inspectorate-General of Services and a Disciplinary Regime to control police activity in police stations, such as detention times, control of reports and calls, and possible infractions and misconduct by officers. The objective is to guarantee the population compliance with regulations. “The problem is that many officers use the uniform to commit illegal acts to survive such as asking pedestrians for money. Work is being done to eliminate this type of corruption and misconduct”, adds Gaona. In addition, three police stations have been rebuilt to give them better resources for providing assistance. The country is also waiting to approve the development of a police statute establishing requirements for joining the force and wants to reactivate the police academy.

This is a pilot project in nature and the goal is to extend it throughout the entire country. “The steps are slow, but little by little we are introducing things that in the long term will translate into a better image and a more democratic police force”, concludes Gaona.

We descend from San Salvador to Puerto de la Libertad, 32 kilometres from the capital. The village is an example of the Central American country’s efforts to create quality community spaces and public services. Its wharf has a pleasant boardwalk, an amphitheatre for cultural events and numerous market stalls selling food and handicrafts. Families stroll, frequent the restaurants and enjoy panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. Tourists practice surfing. Even the poorest neighbourhoods have electric lighting.

Enjoying public spaces is not easy in a country with high rates of violence and wide social gaps. The sectors with the highest incomes opt for private schools and hospitals; their residential and leisure spaces are also segregated from the rest of society.The Salvadoran government’s lack of resources accentuates this situation. The country, one of the poorest in Latin America, has a low tax collection rate, 14.9% of GNP compared to the average for the region of 19.4%, which is little more than half that of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Paying taxes in El Salvador is often considered an obligation to be avoided rather than a civic duty. The lack of commitment to and trust in the government creates a vicious cycle. The Ministries of Finance and Education are looking for ways to break this cycle: tax education is one of them.

Juan Carlos Ibarra, a teacher in the National Secondary School of Puerto de la Libertad, invites us into his classroom. In 2009 he completed a seven-month Diploma in Tax Education. This year the tax theme was included for the first time in the official curriculum. Educational materials, training courses for teachers, recreational spaces and a week of tax culture were developed. EUROsociAL supported this entire process; six years later, we return to La Libertad to see the results. The Salvadoran tax education programme was awarded the National Prize for Quality and Best Practices in 2011. Today it is an international benchmark.

Juan Carlos explains that it was complicated at first. “Because one, being an adult, doesn’t like people talking to him/her about taxes”, he confesses. However, the final result was satisfactory: “I came to understand, like my colleagues, the importance of paying taxes. The country needs it, communities need it”.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Erlinda Hándal, tells us that few people imagine the magnitude of tax evasion and its impact on education, health, and social programmes that aren’t carried out or are left unfinished. “This impacts us”, she states.

El Salvador needs policies that will transform society; that is why it is essential to educate people about taxation. Carolina Quezada, adviser to the Ministry of Education, indicates that long-term processes are the ones that provide the best results.“We can have tax reform but, if we don’t change the mentality, the changes won’t be sustainable or transformative”, she emphasizes.

Tax education boosts citizens’ understanding of the importance of paying taxes, and also of the right to see taxes used effectively. With the Transparency and Access to Information Act, Salvadorans are in a better position to know how their taxes are being used. EUROsociAL has joined this effort and is participating in a new Diploma in Tax Education, Transparency and Access to Information, as well as in strengthening the agency that guarantees this right.

Professor Ibarra, like thousands of teachers, finds creative ways of promoting a culture of paying taxes: “I try to make sure it’s not just technical; I link it to reality, and in the end the students understand that paying taxes is related to respect for public assets”.Ibarra asks his students to reflect on the importance of preserving school materials and facilities and not damaging the streetlights in Puerta de la Libertad—streetlights that bring lighting to the poorest areas thanks to the solidarity of everyone—and of maintaining the flower beds on the boardwalk, some of which have already been destroyed.

He introduced us to six students who have completed the Diploma in Tax Education. They are passionate about the subject and, now, months later, they are voluntarily promoting civic initiatives inside and outside of school. They are spreading their knowledge about taxation and citizenship through a radio programme. They hand out posters and leaflets in parks, investigate the mayor’s office to find out where taxes are going. They study the reasons that lead people to avoid paying taxes. They have a Facebook page and are rebuilding damaged parts of their school.

Their next project is to give talks in seven more schools. Diego is one of these students: “Before I didn’t know anything about tax education or taxation and its purpose and importance”.

Many of the country’s secondary schools are vulnerable to violence, and students face both social problems and the economic difficulties of their own families. Gang-related crime affects schools and, sometimes, as in the case of the La Libertad Secondary School, it requires the presence of the armed forces. Despite everything, these young people are motivated to change their living conditions, to build a better country. As Carolina Quezada emphasizes: “young people get motivated by new knowledge, and they seize opportunities to do things better. What’s more, they have the desire to transmit what they’ve learned to other people, because they now know the benefits to the country of having more resources”.

We left the La Libertad Secondary School, the entrance of which is guarded by armed soldiers, a scene that contrasts with the school mural on the La Libertad docks, alive with the vibrant colours of the sunset.

The National Police has accumulated considerable experience in the area of international cooperation which got underway with its formal adhesion in 1928 to INTERPOL. Years later, Spain became part of the then-named European Economic Community, and of the Schengen space in 1991, with its resulting adhesion to SIRENE, and in 1993 the National Police joined in the launching of the European police cooperation agency EUROPOL. In these years, its international police cooperation has been strengthened by greater presence and activity in these international fora and bodies, with increased accreditation of advisors, attachés and liaison officials. Currently the National Police has advisors and attachés accredited in 99 countries: 36 in Europe, 22 in America, 25 in Africa and 16 in Asia. There are also agents of the National Police in the headquarters of INTERPOL, EUROPOL and the OLAF, the institutions of the European Union, FRONTEX, EUROJUST, the American OAS, the United Nations, the German BKA, the French DCPAF, the OCRTIS in Martinique, the French PAU Prefecture and in the Portuguese MAOC-N.

Recently the International Cooperation Division was created within the General Directorate of the Police, an event that made a collaboration that the National Police Force has in effect always maintained as a priority objective stronger at the highest level.

The new International Cooperation Division was created with the idea of bringing together all the police offices and areas working on coordination and international cooperation; strengthening the network of advisors, attachés and liaison officials; participating in operative units in international operations and investigations; reinforcing information and intelligence exchanges within the framework of EUROPOL, INTERPOL and SIRENE; and developing the Ibero-American Police Academy, among other objectives.

The National Police Force and the FIIAPP have been working jointly on the international outreach of the Spanish police since 1997, a year in which they jointly presented a project for Hungary entitled “Police force training programme”.

Since the first joint international project, the two institutions have presented project proposals in European Commission tenders on numerous occasions, having won, executed and completed over 40 projects funded by diverse European Commission instruments by 2013, which has favoured and promoted Spanish international police cooperation.

The FIIAPP and the CNP have worked together to support the processes of stabilization and association of EU candidate countries, as well as of potential candidate countries, from the Europe of 15 States to the current 28 Member States, respecting their particularities and the specific processes of each, by providing technical assistance and advising in the transposition of the Schengen aquis, as well as in the modernization of working structures and procedures in the area of security.

Likewise, the joint collaboration of the two institutions has enabled them to present and execute projects within the framework of the financing instrument of the European Neighbourhood Policy aimed at strengthening governance and trans-border interregional police cooperation in the Mediterranean basin and with other countries bordering the EU. In particular, it has participated in the establishment and adaptation of police forces; good governance and management; the application of the Rule of Law; respect for human rights; and the fight against fraud, corruption, organized crime and terrorism in the beneficiary countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The joint external cooperation actions have also included support for the stability of third countries, by sharing tools, methods and best police practices with them that enable them to address security crises and rehabilitation following these or following a situation of instability. Africa in recent years has been becoming a place of confluence of the joint participation of the two institutions and where the security and stability of its regions occupies an important part of the external action of both the FIIAPP and the National Police Force.

The CNP and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies are currently working together in the execution of activities of a technical-policy nature in over 22 projects in diverse regions of the world, including China. Many of these leadership projects executed by Spain involve permanent on-site posting of police officials in diverse regions of the world of special interest for Spanish international police cooperation.

Lastly, due to special historic bonds of brotherhood and their strategic nature for our country, we would like to highlight thesignificant action undertaken in Ibero-America and the Caribbean with the execution of important projects such as AMERIPOL, PASS-HONDURAS, as well as others getting underway at the present, such as ENLCD-PERU, in which the FIIAPP and the CNP, under the Secretariat of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior, are leading Working Groups in the region made up of representatives of diverse EU Member States within the framework of European Commission financing instruments.

Fighting biological threats from infectious diseases has become a  priority objective in the Mediterranean region. Here, for example, there are diseases like polio which are intensifying at a time when they were thought to be in the eradication phase. To achieve this objective, the mediPIET project was launched,  which aims to strengthen health security in 18 countries in the Mediterranean region by training local epidemiologists. This project is being led by the FIIAPP and the National Epidemiology Centre of the Carlos III Institute(CNE-ISCIII). The partners in this project are Albania, Armenia, Algeria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Morocco, Moldavia, Montenegro, Palestine, Serbia, Tunisia and Ukraine.

The Training Director for the project, Mariví Martínez, details the biological threats and where they are coming from. She also breaks down the content of the training offered to the epidemiologists who are the beneficiaries of this project. Detection and investigation are the pillars.

What is the biological threat in terms of the Mediterranean region?

Biological threats are understood to mean the risk of contracting infectious diseases, especially those transmitted person-to person, through animals or vectors (animals that transmit pathogens, including parasites) such as mosquitoes. Currently there are specific diseases in the region such as malaria, coronavirus, West Nile virus, new outbreaks of polio… in addition to others that are preventable through vaccination. But the main issue now is infectious diseases that do not respect borders, and less so now with the tremendous mobility of populations, foods… and it’s very easy for them to be cross over from one side to the other. The situations of humanitarian crisis that are affecting more of these countries every day are creating displaced populations, erupting in health systems and increasingly spreading the risk of infectious diseases more widely and diminishing the capacity of countries to respond.

Does this make creation of this programme necessary?

Yes. The need for training professionals has been recognized because capacities are uneven in different countries, but in general, specialized resources are lacking and needs are growing. These training programmes are designed to train people specifically in these subjects.
The professionals participating in the Epidemiology Training Programme oriented towards Public Health Intervention, what will they contribute?
Epidemiological research is oriented towards disease control. Its main feature is that professionals, in addition to receiving theoretical-practical modules, will be trained through hands-on service in public health epidemiology units and supervised directly by experts. As this is a regional programme and public health problems are now global, coordination to achieve standard criteria and methodology and collaboration between countries is essential for halting epidemics. It offers an exchange of capacities between countries and teamwork in a network of trained professionals who can be easily mobilized if necessary in the event of a threat or special disaster.

Because it is understood that each of the MediPIET partners has its own national threat disruption protocol…

All public health system have a series of action protocols to address certain diseases, but, apart from these, epidemiology is a science oriented towards detecting, investigating and assessing the risks of each potential health threat and investigating how they are transmitted and which populations are affected to ensure that intervention measures are based on scientific data. To do this, as countries, we need to get up to speed with new tools, new methods, and their everyday and standardized application worldwide.

What does the Spanish Field Epidemiology Programme (PEAC), developed by the CNE-ISCIII, represent?

This programme was the first with these characteristics to be implemented in Europe, with the support of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, to standardize all the surveillance criteria and so that all of us professionals would be speaking the same language, using the same methods and expanding our knowledge on the ground. Our work means contributing our experience in these types of programmes and advising the FIIAPP on the technical and scientific aspects required to orient the training.

Are the trainers working on this project going to be local?

As much as possible, yes. It’s much better for them to be the people with the greatest knowledge of the problems at a national and local level, that they know the cultural customs and their own health systems, than to use external professionals. In addition, they will be the ones who will have to maintain and develop it.

On 15th July in Madrid, the Presentation – Symposium “Boosting Public-Private Partnerships for Development (PPPDs)”, organized by the CIDEAL Foundation and the non-governmental organization CONEMUND took place. Professionals from the business world and the public sector came together to exchange ideas about this phenomenon. PPPDs, which are becoming increasingly common, seem to offer alternatives to the complicated outlook for international cooperation today in terms of financing, a “stimulating moment”, as one of the speakers described it. Two manuals were also presented at the event, which were offered to the attendees: a “Guide to Efficient Management of Public-Private Partnerships for Development”, published by CIDEAL in collaboration with the AECID, and a “Manual for Collaboration Between Public Administrations, NGOs and Companies”, published by CIDEAL and CONEMUND with the collaboration of the Community of Madrid.

According to the definition in the aforementioned PPPD management manual, they help “consolidate the efforts that Public Administrations, the business sector and organized civil society establish to contribute to improving the quality of life of people and communities”. Along these same lines, in the words of our FIIAPP colleague, Javier Sota, “PPPDs encourage peer learning between the different stakeholders and capacity-building in favour of development”.

A defining characteristic of PPPDs, which distinguishes them from other public-private relationships, is that the stakeholders share objectives, risks and benefits. This means, according to the Foundation for Institutional Development for Social Organizations, that these partnerships tend to be formed based on values of trust, transparency and equality. Values to which the National Partnerships Programme of Colombia adds inclusion and shared responsibility. However, we mustn’t forget that another of their essential features is their wide variability, and that therefore there is no single way to construct a PPPD and that its nature will depend in large part on the nature of the organizations involved in the process.

This phenomenon is not foreign to Spanish cooperation, although it is recent. The Fourth Master Plan (2013 – 2016) published by the AECID, in section V.2 “Challenges for the stakeholders in the system”, explains the importance of creating “inclusive partnerships” among the diverse stakeholders, and of the stronger role of the business/private sector in the field of international cooperation. No doubt this text was inspired by the Busan Declaration and the renewed commitment at the international level that underpins the post-2015 Development Agenda, which contemplates the need for business to consolidate its role in the fight against poverty.

It’s important to emphasize, as expressed by Emilio Villaescusa (ASCES and CEPES), that throughout the process of founding a PPPD, the company cannot lose sight of the partnership’s interest in the “public good”. In this line, PPPDs should guide their action on the basis of public development policies and international poverty-reduction strategies. That is, their objectives should fit into the regulatory frameworks established by governments and competent authorities on the subject.

As a final reflection, the debate on PPPDs brought out the idea that the future of development cooperation lies in considering the business/private sector as an important stakeholder in this field, as it has abandoned its role as a mere witness in favour of participating actively in the process of social development.

The symposium was led by Manuel Gómez-Galán, Director of the CIDEAL Foundation. The speakers, from the worlds of international cooperation and business, emphasized the need to promote the creation of PPPDs. Representing Spanish cooperation, Juan Luis Revuelta, Deputy General Director of Development Cooperation of the Community of Madrid, and Laura López de Ceraín, Director of Multilateral, Horizontal and Financial Cooperation of the AECID, participated. Speaking on the business side were Emilio Villaescusa, Executive President of the group “Association for Social Economy Cooperation” (ACES) and a member of the Executive Commission of the Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES), and, as an expert on “multi-stakeholder strategic partnerships”, Leda Scott, a member of the newly created “alianzas.red”. On a final note, Manuel Pimentel, current President of the Almuzara group, spoke to the attendees about the importance of betting on innovative solutions in light of the challenges facing development today.