Executive Committee

According to Royal Decree 1460/2009, “the Executive Committee of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation will study and evaluate all proposals for financing from the Fund that are submitted to it by the Office of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation, and will decide on their submission for authorisation by the Council of Ministers, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in accordance with the procedures established in Article 15 of this Royal Decree”.

In 2020, Royal Decree 1460/2009 of 28 September 2009 on the organisation and operation of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation was amended, and the current composition is as follows:

The Executive Committee of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation, attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation through the State Secretariat for International Cooperation, will be composed of the following members:

Members of the Executive Committee

PRESIDENCY
- Presidency: the head of the State Secretariat for International Cooperation
VICE-PRESIDENCIES
- First Vice-Presidency: the person in charge of the Directorate of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), who shall substitute the person in charge of the Presidency in cases of absence, vacancy or illness, as well as in cases in which his/her abstention or disqualification has been declared.
- Second Vice-Presidency: the head of the General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Finance of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
MEMBERS
- Member 1: the head of the AECID’s Directorate of Cooperation for Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Member 2: the head of the Directorate-General for Sustainable Development Policies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
- Member 3: the head of the Directorate-General for International Trade and Investment of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
- Member 4: the head of the Directorate-General for Water of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
- Member 5: a person of at least the rank of Deputy Director-General, representing the Official Credit Institute (ICO, by its Spanish acronym), appointed by the President of the Official Credit Institute.
- Member 6: the head of the AECID’s Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation Department, who shall also act as secretary of the body.
- Member 7: the head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, who shall attend the meetings of the Executive Committee in an advisory capacity.

Three Executive Committees were held in 2020. The first, held on 6 May, approved the expenses derived from the management of the Fund, i.e. the costs of evaluation, monitoring, inspection and technical assistance or other expenses associated with the operations formalised, up to a maximum of €5 million. In addition, the expenses proposed to the ICO for its management and administration of the FCAS for 2018 and 2019 were authorised, amounting to €85,147.11 and €87,338.23 respectively.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation (MINECO) requested the replacement of the Director-General of Macroeconomic Analysis as second vice-president of the FCAS Executive Committee by the Secretary General of the Treasury and International Finance, in accordance with the internal restructuring of the Ministry itself, a matter that was addressed with the aforementioned regulatory modification. In addition, at the request of the Directorate-General for Water, a coordination mechanism was established through the forwarding of the FCAS-CEDEX follow-up minutes to the Directorate General for Water.

The second meeting of the Committee was held on 6 July and was aimed at assessing new programmes financed with amounts from refunds to be submitted to the Council of Ministers. In addition, the measures taken in the context of the pandemic were presented.

Programmes

The Executive Committee agreed to approve the following programmes:

Honduras
Programme for the improvement of drinking water and sanitation services in peri-urban and rural areas of the municipality of Siguatepeque and improvement of water resource management in water-producing micro-watersheds”. FCAS contribution: €3,276,032.62.
El Salvador
“Construction of public policy to guarantee the sustainability of the drinking water and sanitation sub-sector in rural areas – Phase II”. FCAS contribution: €600,000
Ecuador
“Drinking water and sanitation in rural communities in the San Lorenzo canton in the face of the COVID-19 health crisis” in Ecuador, provided that the beneficiary’s commitment to provide the 20% counterpart is received, in accordance with the regulatory provisions of the FCAS. FCAS contribution: €500,000.
Guatemala
Institutional and technical strengthening in the provision of drinking water and sanitation services to improve resilience in communities in the municipality of Sololá, department of Sololá”. FCAS contribution: €700,000.
República Dominicana
“Strengthening of the Santiago Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CORASAAN), in preparation for emergencies in the Municipal District of Pedro García, Santiago”. FCAS contribution: €582,000.
In addition, a new reimbursable cooperation operation was agreed in Paraguay, together with Fonprode.
“Water and Sanitation Project for the Metropolitan Area of Asunción (AMA) – Lambaré Basin. Project carried out together with the Fund for the Promotion of Development. 60 million US dollars.

At the third meeting of the Executive Committee, held on 21 July, the annual accounts of the FCAS presented by the Official Credit Institute (ICO) for 2019 and audited by the General Comptroller of the State Administration (IGAE) were approved. It also authorised a new technical cooperation project entitled “Development of strategies to ensure water, sanitation and hygiene services in informal settlements”, which falls within the framework of the current planning of the Fund’s multilateral portfolio.

Following the formalisation of the counterpart commitment in Ecuador, the programme “Drinking water and sanitation in rural communities in the San Lorenzo canton in the face of the COVID-19 health crisis” was also definitively approved, with donations from Spain amounting to 500,000 euros.