ILO and Spain mark 40 years of cooperation for decent work in Ibero-American Countries
Over four decades, Spain and the ILO have built a strategic partnership that has supported decent work, social justice and stronger labour institutions, with Latin America and the Caribbean at the heart of the collaboration.
29 June 2026
MADRID (ILO News) – Spain and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are marking 40 years of development cooperation, highlighting a long-standing partnership that has helped advance decent work and social justice across Ibero-America.
Since the opening of the ILO Office for Spain in Madrid in 1986, this collaboration has supported 115 projects worldwide, mobilizing more than US$127 million. Latin America and the Caribbean has been the main focus of the partnership, receiving nearly three-quarters of the total funding and hosting more than half of all projects.
Rooted in Spain’s commitment to multilateral cooperation and the ILO’s mandate to promote social justice and decent work, the partnership has supported action in areas including the elimination of child labour, youth employment, social protection, labour migration, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the formalization of the informal economy, institutional strengthening and social dialogue.
One of the most significant areas of cooperation has been the fight against child labour. Spanish support has contributed to regional efforts through the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and the Regional Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour. In the region, the number of children in child labour fell from 10.7 million in 2016 to 7.3 million in 2024.
This anniversary was commemorated during the event “40 Years of International Development Cooperation Between Spain and the ILO in Ibero-America,” which took place during the Sixth Conference of Ministers of Labor of Ibero-American Countries. The event, organized jointly by the ILO Office for Spain and the Spanish Government’s Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, served to take stock of the results of this partnership and renew commitments to future cooperation. Participants included Yolanda Díaz Pérez, Second Vice President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy; César Augusto Segovia Villasantti, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security of the Republic of Paraguay; Eddy Olivares Ortega, Minister of Labor of the Dominican Republic; Mónica Corrales Rodrigáñez, Director of Sectoral, European, and Multilateral Cooperation at AECID; Narciso Casado Martín, Permanent Secretary of the Council of Ibero-American Business Leaders (CEIB) and Head of Relations with Ibero-America at the CEOE; and Kaira R. Reece B., Secretary of Sustainable Development, Trade Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas (CSA). Representing the ILO Office for Spain were its Director, Félix Peinado Castillo and its Technical Advisor, Francisco Cana Cuéllar.
As labour markets face growing pressures from informality, inequality, climate change, migration and technological transformation, Spain and the ILO reaffirm the importance of multilateral cooperation based on decent work, social dialogue and stronger labour institutions.
The collaboration is expected to remain an important channel for advancing shared priorities, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a just transition, social protection, gender equality and decent work for all.
The anniversary highlighted before the Spanish Senate
These four decades of collaboration between the ILO and Spain were also highlighted during the appearance of the Director of the ILO Office for Spain, Felix Peinado, before the Senate’s Labour and Social Economy Committee, where he reported on the Office’s activities and reflected on the trajectory of cooperation between Spain and the ILO. In his remarks, he underlined the importance of social dialogue as a defining feature both of the ILO and of Spain’s labour relations model, and pointed to the role of the Office in promoting exchange with Spanish constituents and with partners across Europe and Ibero-America. He also stressed that international development cooperation on decent work is not only a matter of solidarity and social justice, but also an investment in stability, and called for sustained commitment to this partnership in the face of major labour market transformations linked to digitalization, demographic change, inequality and the green transition.
