Institute for International
Cooperation and Development Studies

Development Cooperation of the autonomous communities of the Spanish State: Relevance, reach and specific contribution.
DOCTORAL THESIS

Development Cooperation of the autonomous communities of the Spanish State: Relevance, reach and specific contribution.

Irati Labaien
Professor and researcher

Irati Labaien defended her thesis titled: “La cooperación al desarrollo de las Comunidades Autónomas del Estado Español: Relevancia, alcance y aportación específica (Development Cooperation of the autonomous communities of the Spanish State: Relevance, reach and specific contribution)”. This doctoral thesis tries to carry out an in-depth analysis of the Descentralised Cooperation policies implemented by the Spanish Autonomous Communities from a double perspective: keeping in mind, on the one hand, the characteristics, potentialities, and limitations that the specialised literature attributes to descentralised cooperations; whilst examining them in the light of the specific framework of reference, derived by the one proposed by the Hegoa Institute Research Group on Analysis and Evaluation of Development Cooperation Policies (group recognised by the Basque Government during 2010-2012 and 2013-2015).

With the objective of contextualising this general objective, the study starts by situating the growth of Descentralised Cooperation in the reconfiguring of local spaces against globalisation, and in the open new opportunities for territorial administrations and local governance in the context of descentralising processes. Likewise, a revision of Descentralised Cooperation is carried out both on an academic level as well as through the documents of key institutions and international cooperation agencies. In addition, the thesis covers some of the specific expressions of this type of cooperation within the European area.

Lastly, before reaching the case study –where the general panorama of the autonomous communities’ cooperation is presented- the frame of reference, through which the obtained results are discussed, is presented and justified.

Details

Thesis supervisor

Koldo Unceta
Professor and researcher

Research lines

Development cooperation and humanitarian action