Peace Building Strategy (executive summary)

In the current Spanish Cooperation Master Plan 2005-2008, Peace Building (PB) is identifi ed, for the fi rst time, as a strategic sector “resulting from the interrelation, from contrasting standpoints, between the new agenda for peace and security and the new agenda for development”. Moreover, both the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the International Development Cooperation Act 23/1998, of 7 July (Spanish Offi cial GazetteNo. 162), champion the defence of peace and declare the ambition of contributing to “a framework of stability and security to ensure international peace” (Article 3, para. b in the above Act).

The aim of this Strategy is to contribute to raising awareness of the consequences of development with respect to security and stability, to lay the foundations of a development cooperation policy to achieve our goal of increasing human security, and to activate instruments and mechanisms in order to facilitate the peaceful resolution of confl icts. It seeks to make Spain an active contributor to PB as an outstanding feature of a project based on foreign policy, security and development cooperation, in the knowledge that this is one of the most important issues in the world today. The Spanish Cooperation Strategy for Peace Building will achieve its goals if it is capable of effective coordination with all the actors who provide their sectoral skills and experience to the cause of peace and the non-violent resolution of confl icts.