CIDEAL Foundation for Cooperation and Research

National Network
Spain
Address

Calle Guzmán el Bueno 133, Edificio Germania, planta 10
28003 Madrid
Spain

Telephone
(+34) 915538488
E-Mail
fsegundo@cideal.org
E-Mail (2)
yasmin.elharchi@cideal.org
E-Mail (3)
maribel.niebla@cideal.org
E-Mail (4)
mariajose.cardena@cideal.org
Organisation Type
Public/Private Non-Profit Foundation
Year of Establishment
1983
Fields of Activity
  1. Democracy and community development
  2. Gender
  3. Human rights
  4. International/Cultural relations
  5. Youth and education
General Information
CIDEAL is a foundation specialized in research, training and technical assistance in development cooperation for over thirty years. We have experience in the execution of development programmes and projects in Southern countries. Currently counts on offices and experts in Latin America (Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Guatemala, Dominican Republic), Africa (Morocco, Tunisia), Asia (Vietnam). Structure of the organization: CIDEAL Foundation has 30 employees (2015) distributed in theses work areas: Projects, Economic-Financial, Research, Communication, IT, Technical Assistance, Researches and Publications. Budgetary resources available in a year: 3,335,998 EUR (2014) Sources of funding: Income from services rendered from own activities, public and private sector subsidies and private contributions. Modalities of action: development projects, development training (courses, seminaries and workshops), technical assistance, researches and publications. Main partners involved in the organization´s projects/activities: Development projects co-financiers (publics and privates), local partners; Public Administrations (tender projects and technical assistance) and educational institutions (universities and postgraduate centers).
Mission and Objectives

General objective:Improve life conditions in Southern countries, providing development options which would allow people directing their own lives and choosing their own future.
Mission:To contribute to human development of Southern countries through two ways of action:
• Research, specialized training, technical assistance and publications of books on international developmental cooperation.
• Promotion and implementation of development actions on the field.
Both areas have been integrated to CIDEAL Foundation’s everyday activity, enriching each other: work of thought leads to better quality projects in the South and the field experience provides theoretical analysis and specialized training based on an empirical and realistic grounds.

Main Projects / Activities

Main projects implemented in the last year:
In 2014 CIDEAL Foundation has continued working with three big Conventions in:  Morocco (3,500,000 EUR), Vietnam (2,375,000 EUR) and Paraguay (3,750,000 EUR), financed by Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID).
In Morocco, the actions aim supporting three different groups in vulnerable situation: women, unemployed young people and Sub-Saharan Africa's immigrant population.
Take into account the issues and needs identified, this agreement tries to achieve the socioeconomic and professional integration of women, young people and immigrant population by means of strengthening national and local capacities of self-employment and the associative work -technical and vocational training have a fundamental role in this proposal. The aim objective is beneficiary group’s access to decent and productive work to improve the quality and conditions of their life.
In connection with Sub-Saharan Africa immigrant population this account intends to promote their capabilities on human and technical levels, offering psychosocial services and legal access to professional training.
In Paraguay, CIDEAL Foundation aims to increase the economic and social development in vulnerable population groups, preferably in indigenous populations with special attention to women and youth in rural areas. The proposal aims to contribute to the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the people beneficiaries from a sustainable local development perspective and respect and protection of cultural identity.
In Thanh Hoa province in Vietmam, the Convention aims to improve the economic and social integration of vulnerable groups through a sustainable and productive approach that can contribute to reduce poverty levels. The actions are aimed to support vulnerable people and communities affected by poverty in rural areas, ethnic minorities and women, mainly. Economic and social situation in the neediest sectors will be strengthened through a strategy of intervention with methodologies tailored of the productive projects.
Next to these conventions, various projects funded by European Union, World Bank, Junta de Andalucía, among others have been implemented in 2014.
In 2014 CIDEAL Foundation completed the identification and formulation process for a new agreement with AECID that started at the beginning of 2015 in Dominican Republic: "Improvement of the social, economic and political conditions of thepopulation", with special attention to women too. Simultaneously, CIDEAL Foundation has carried out international cooperation projects in different countries: Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Egypt, Niger, Haiti, Tunisia, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.
In 2014, regarding capacity enhancement, CIDEAL Foundation has continued carrying out academic programs in collaboration with several university education institutions and specialized training in international development cooperation. In addition, a large number of courses, seminars, conferences and workshops specialized with special interest in the development cooperation field has been taught. These courses are conducted in Spain (Madrid, Málaga, Granada, Toledo, Sevilla, Jaén, Oviedo, etc.) and outside Spain, in countries such as Mexico, Argentina and Paraguay, Vietnam and the Maghreb countries. The trainings are geared to diplomats, political scientists, economists, lawyers, sociologists, project managers, international consultants, researchers and public administrations officials.
In relation to support to public and private entities in cooperation development tasks and social innovation, CIDEAL Foundation has carried out different activities regarding technical assistance in several countries.
CIDEAL Foundation has supported and offered technical assistance oriented to public administrations in several sectors associated with social advances and sustainable development such as:
- Institutional strengthening
- Managing for development results (GoRD)
- Gender and employment generation
- Capacity building
- Risk management
- Project management
- Strategic planning
Technical assistances in 2014 have been conducted in the following countries:
- Guatemala
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Dominican Republic
- Paraguay
- Panama
- Spain
 

How can you contribute to the Network in your country?

CIDEAL Foundation will put in practice all its knowledge and experience to promote intercultural exchange and development in Spain. This Foundation has worked in various fields, whether in areas such as development cooperation, intercultural dialog, gender equality, youth, education, immigration, the environment or means of communication. The heterogeneity of the members and the interdisciplinarity of its activities constitute an added value to the network itself and an element of richness.
Examples of projects implemented in Spain: 
2005: “Design of a Program on Governance and Institutional Strengthening for the Mediterranean Region” (co-financed by Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID)). The program covered a wide geographical area of intervention that includes North Africa, Middle East and Mediterranean European countries not members of the European Union. The program was derived from the Director Plan of the Spanish Cooperation and was inspired by the guidelines of the Barcelona Process, to promote the political reform and the economic and trade liberalization in the area, guidelines that were renovated from an institutional perspective with the Policy of European Neighbourhood. The program identified four strategic areas of intervention, are as follows: The promotion of social participation, representative democracy and politic pluralism (strengthening of political parties and civil society organizations, judiciary, electoral systems, human rights, etc.); the promotion of a favourable environment for juridical security, socioeconomic development and wealth distribution. (Improvement of juridical and economic security, social dialogue, labour rights, fiscal policy, public income and expenditure, adoption of normative and institutional rules of UE internal market, etc.); The reform and modernization of Public Administration, according to the parameters of good governance (management of public policies, decentralization process, transparency, public ethics and fighting against corruption). The main beneficiaries of the program were: Public administrations at the central, regional and local levels; Legislative and Judiciary powers and institutions guaranteeing democracy; Social and economic agencies; Civil Society Organizations.
2007-2008: “Research in conflicts management in the international context, diffusion campaign and peace education for secondary school students in Madrid”, co-financed by Ministry of Education and Science. The Project was developed through three working phases, are as follows: First, a research was conducted about the conflicts management practices in the international context. The research was followed by a specialised publication on the subject that was widely disseminated in Spain. Second, a pedagogic adaptation of the research contents was undertaken and some didactic materials developed for its diffusion among students of the last Secondary Education course. Third, a series of educative and dissemination actions addressed to students of the last courses in Secondary Education (around 16 years old) were developed. These students were, according the opinion of schools directors and teachers involved, in very good conditions to become beneficiaries of this project, since they still are in a permeable phase to acquire values and knowledge and, at the same time, they had greater capacities of thinking and abstraction than lower levels students.

2008-2009: “Making aware on co-development: how to do it?”, co-financed by Municipality of Madrid. The project carried out an awareness campaign bound to Madrid’s civil society organisations with interest in the execution of co-development actions, as well as to immigrant people living in Madrid. Firstly, a spreading notebook on co-development and on the main practical experiences carried out in Madrid was edited and disseminated among immigrants associations, ONGs and other inserted actors. Secondly, an awareness seminary of 3 days was organised with the participation of experts from all Spain, which was how to perform all the stages of a project (identification, design, formulation, execution and monitoring) using the logic framework approach and the right adjustments.
2008-2011: “Design and editing promotional materials to strengthen the knowledge and making aware on human rights and development” (co-financed by Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID)). This project aimed to enrich the knowledge, the education and making aware among different sector of Spanish society. The objective was to raise awareness on the risks that actually threaten the human rights and the need to defend and promote them. To that end, the following actions were planned:  phase of analysis, publication of a book directed to the specialists of this field, editing a CD-ROM including a popular version of the book, diffusion of a recommendations and good practice guide on human rights and a useful agenda for communication professionals, teachers and experts. Finally, all the documents and materials were disseminated in the sectors related to the human rights.
2009-2010: Realization of: 1. Sector-based assessment of the State General Administration aid to the sector “Government and Civil Society”; 2. Sector-based assessment on other international cooperation agencies in the sector “Government and Peace building” (co-financed by Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID)). The assessment was realised to analyze the State General Administration and other international cooperation agencies aid to Government and Civil Society Sector for the period 2005-2008 (previous to the Spanish Cooperation Master Plan). The sub-sectors were as follows: Economic and development Policy/planning, Financial Management of public sector, Public Administration, Strengthening of Civil Society, Electoral Processes, Freedom of Information, Legal and judiciary Development, Human Rights, and Management and Reform of Security Systems.

2010-2011: “Internet and the human rights: a challenge for the future of young people” (co-financed by Municipality of Madrid). Internet could influence Human Rights in a positive way, thronging their promotion and defence, or in a negative way, providing new frameworks of vulnerability to some fundamental rights. None protection and control system of the human right was developed in this new virtual space to tackle the behaviours that could affect in the human right field. Once that the lacks were detected, an intervention was carried out in order to enrich the knowledge and the education in Madrid society, with special attention towards young people and teenagers, in order to make them aware of the risks of human right in the Internet world, especially the rights to the development and the need to defend and to promote this rights.

Why do you want to join the ALF Network?

CIDEAL is a foundation that has been working for over thirty years in research, training and technical assistance in development cooperation.
In the Centre of our activities is promote the respect for diversity and dialogue among people of different cultures, backgrounds and religious beliefs. In addition, CIDEAL promotes regional initiatives and supports local activities through civil society organizations (CSOs).  The main purpose of these actions is promoted respect for cultural diversity, the dignity of human rights, the defence of peace and democracy.
The Foundation has high experience working in several Euro-Mediterranean countries, mainly in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Spain. The main lines of work are as follow: Gender (equal opportunities, legal literacy, women's rights strengthening, etc.); Improvement of young people and women's employability and vocational training; Support to cooperatives, micro-enterprises and micro-projects; Economic development; Child protection; Migrations.
Field cooperation
• Productive programs and projects that promote the economical and social tissues.
• Education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), programs and projects.
• Institutional strengthening projects, capacity building projects and management civil society organizations from Southern countries.
• Peace building and conflict prevention projects.
• Actions aiming at the democratization of the societies and at the promotion of human rights.
Transversal axis:
• Promotion of productive initiatives and of the economic context.
• Institutional promotion.
• Civil society promotion and promotion of the role of citizenship.
• Human rights promotion and defense.
• Promotion of women’s capacities and reinforcement of their autonomy.
• Environmental protection.
Mission
To contribute to human development of Southern countries through two ways of action:
• Research, specialized training, technical assistance and publication of books on international development cooperation.
• Promotion and implementation of development actions on the field.
Both areas have been integrated into CIDEAL Foundation’s everyday activity, enriching each other: prior reflection activities leads to better quality projects in the South, and the field experience provides theoretical analysis and specialized training with an empirical and realistic foundation.
 

Contact (1) Full Name
María José García Cardena
Job Title
Development project manager
Head of the organisation
Manuel Gómez-Galán (Director General)