Call for Social Projects: International Cooperation 2024 (Spain)

Deadline: 09-May-24

The “la Caixa” Foundation is pleased to announce the Call for International Cooperation whose purpose is to fight against poverty and inequalities, focusing action mainly on those most vulnerable people and families, with the aim of contributing to improve their living conditions and facilitate comprehensive development and social inclusion processes through non-assistance, concerted and sustainable participatory processes.

Areas of Action 

• The program focuses on some of the main social and economic problems that hinder the sustainable and equitable development of local communities and the achievement of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda.
• In particular, the areas of action are:
  • Socioeconomic development 
    • In this area, they want to promote projects that try to strengthen the economic fabric and productive, under a rights and human development approach, in the poorest communities and vulnerable. All this, through the creation or strengthening of businesses and the promotion of initiatives to generate income and employment opportunities.
    • Priority lines 
      • Support for local development initiatives
      • Promotion of productive capacities for the creation of employment and entrepreneurship among vulnerable communities
      • Promotion of the social economy
  • Improved Health 
    • In this area, they want to promote projects that promote the universal right to health. Despite the scientific and technological advances that have allowed them to continue improving the health of people, there are still important deficiencies that increase the inequalities that widen the health gap between countries and between people.
    • Priority lines 
      • Basic health services
      • Primary care and access to reproductive and maternal and child health services
      • Fight pneumonia, malaria, COVID-19, waterborne diseases and others communicable diseases
      • Water and sanitation: support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improvement of water management, basic sanitation and waste management
      • Training of healthcare personnel
  • Promotion of education and training 
    • In this area, they want to promote projects that promote, for girls, boys, adolescents and young people, the opportunity to enjoy their right to education, regardless of whether have different abilities or any other condition of themselves or their families.
    • Likewise, it is considered strategically important to achieve sustainable development and quality of local communities improve the technical and professional training of people as condition for the generation of higher quality job opportunities.
    • Priority lines 
      • Quality education for primary and secondary
      • Promotion of technical and professional skills for young people and people with disabilities. functional diversity to access employment, decent work and entrepreneurship
      • Scholarships and support (at all levels of training) to help people improve their level educational or training
      • Non-formal education and literacy

Cross-cutting approaches for the three areas 

• Participation and empowerment of the people and communities involved, especially the most vulnerable sectors
• Adaptation to the conditions of the communities with which they will work, in accordance with the needs of each community
• Promotion of human rights and local capacities
• Gender approach
• Children’s rights
• Increased efficiency, without conditioning effectiveness
• Sustainability in all its aspects
• Promotion of innovation and introduction of new technologies
• Attention to groups in vulnerable conditions or at risk of exclusion
• Valuation of volunteering as a tool of solidarity and cooperation

New social innovation methodologies applied to development 

• In the International Area of the “la Caixa” Foundation they promote the use of new methodologies and tools linked to social innovation that they apply to the action in the field of International cooperation.
• In this sense, the Call for International Cooperation Aid includes in the form questions about the use of the main tools of social innovation applied to development, such as listening and co-creation:
  • Listening is a set of qualitative tools that, complemented with data quantitative, allows them to reveal the narratives of a community and understand in depth the existing needs, challenges and opportunities.
  • Co-creation is a process by which ideas and solutions are developed collaboratively with the different actors that act in the territory linked directly and indirectly with the area of action, putting at the center the people who will benefit from the intervention.
• The “la Caixa” Foundation’s experience in social innovation began in 2017 through of the Work4Progress program, an initiative that promotes job creation especially among young people and women from rural environments in India, Mozambique, Peru and Colombia.

Funding Information

• Projects submitted to this call may request aid for an amount of up to 50.000 €.
• The amount requested must be linked to the execution of a project with a duration of up to 18 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Non-profit entities and also social economy entities (such as insertion companies, special work centers, cooperatives, etc.) may apply for this call. whose statutes explicitly state, among the indicated purposes, the promotion of cooperation international development.
• The requirements for entities are:
  • Be considered a non-profit entity or social economy entity.
  • Be accredited in the application for calls contorias.fundacionlacaixa.org and
  • Designate a person responsible for the project.
  • Be legally constituted and registered in the corresponding registry with domicile in Spanish territory and have as its institutional purpose the carrying out of activities related to the International cooperation for development.
  • Prove total annual income for the year 2023 of less than 2 million euros. In case of Not having the year closed, the data for 2022 will have to be indicated.
  • Accredit a minimum documented experience of 3 years in cooperation actions international counting from April 2024.
  • Not be considered an entity in the academic or research field.
  • Have a local partner in the country where the project will be carried out.
• The requirements for local partners are:
  • Have headquarters in the country of the project.
  • Lack of profit motive.
  • Be legally registered.
  • Accredit a minimum experience of 3 years in development cooperation projects.
  • Only one local partner can be presented for each project.
• In the case of delegations, they may access independently as long as they prove their formal, functional and organic autonomy. In this sense:
  • In the case of delegations, they may access independently as long as they prove their formal, functional and organic autonomy. In this sense:
  • They must be recognized by the parent entity and have a minimum age of operation. as a 3-year delegation.
  • They must operate autonomously with respect to the parent entity, with their own structure, NIF own and own governing body.
  • They must have their own budget, differentiated from the parent entity.

For more information, visit “la Caixa” Foundation.