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BILBAO SUPPORTS INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SOUTHERN COUNTRIES WITH 2.7 MILLION GRANTS FOR 2025, AIMED AT 52 PROJECTS FOR ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER, EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND GENDER EQUALITY
- The Bilbao City Council has resolved the 2025 Cooperation for Development Grants Call, through which a total of 42 organizations will drive 52 initiatives in countries in Latin America and Africa, as well as in our own city in Education for Social Transformation.
- These grants promote social transformation in the South through priorities such as gender equality, combating violence against women, education, access to clean water, and sanitation
The Bilbao City Council will allocate 2,760,047 euros through grants in this 2025 cycle to promote development in Southern countries facing challenges, by prioritizing education, gender equality, combating violence against women, access to clean water, and sanitation.
The Bilbao City Council has approved the final resolution of the 2025 Cooperation for Development Grants Call to support projects that promote human, sustainable, and equitable development in impoverished countries, as well as programs in our own city for Education for Social Transformation.
This year 2025, a total of 42 organizations have been beneficiaries of 52 initiatives in projects that will be implemented in countries in Latin America and Africa such as Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Rwanda, Senegal, or Chad, among others, in collaboration with various local organizations.
As indicated in the IV Cooperation for Development Master Plan of the Bilbao City Council (2022-2030), the Grants Calls are the main instrument for implementing municipal Cooperation for Development policy. These grants fund both International Cooperation projects in Southern countries and awareness-raising actions and Education for Social Transformation.
The criteria for these calls contain a scoring system that allows the City Council to ensure the quality of the projects submitted and focus them on countries and sectors identified as priorities in the successive Annual Budget Reports. In this 2025 Call, 90% of Bilbao’s development aid has been concentrated in prioritized countries and 80% in their sectoral priorities, mainly gender equality, water and sanitation, and education.
THIRD CITY IN THE COUNTRY
This budget allocation positions the Basque capital at the forefront in Euskadi in investment in Cooperation for Development, and in the third position at the State level, only behind Madrid and Barcelona; and ahead of other cities with a larger population. Thanks to municipal grants, forty-two entities will be able to carry out projects that will create a positive and lasting impact on recipient communities, promoting equitable and sustainable development globally.
The Bilbao City Council has a responsibility to international solidarity, an extension of the values promoted in the «Bilbao Balioen Hiria» Values Charter as it advocates for the development of actions that promote inclusion, tolerance, and coexistence through cultural diversity. Values such as social justice, respect for human rights, inclusion, commitment, solidarity, and participation are always present.
This call is part of the Bilbao City Council’s strong commitment to a transformative Cooperation for Development, which places human rights, global justice, and sustainable development at the core. Cooperation for development is not charity, but an expression of solidarity and shared responsibility among peoples. The resolution of the call represents a further step in building a more horizontal, transparent, and participatory cooperation model, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
«These Cooperation for Development projects allow initiatives from Bilbao to be promoted in communities and populations in Southern countries that are essential in fields such as education, healthcare, gender equality, or women’s empowerment, to strengthen a different and better shared future, while striving for a more just and supportive global world,» stated Iñigo Zubizarreta, Councilor for Human Rights, Coexistence, Cooperation, and Interculturality of the Bilbao City Council.
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