On 6 and 7 July in Madrid, the Second Ibero-American Meeting on Third Sector Transparency and Accountability was held. The meeting was organized by the Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (Institute for Communication and Development) of Uruguay and the Observatorio del Tercer Sector (Third Sector Observatory) of Catalonia, Spain. At the event, several Spanish donor organizations and their networks discussed issues of transparency and accountability with organizations from various countries in Latin America.

The representative of the Coordinadora de ONG de Desarrollo de España (Coordinator of Spanish Development NGOs), which includes 102 organizations with more than 5,500 projects in 126 countries and spending of €670 million in 2007, noted that ‘the issue of accountability to beneficiaries is also a challenge for Spanish cooperation organizations’. Topics discussed included the transparency of foreign aid and ways to determine the use of this aid, so that both donors and recipients are accountable for their results. The Asociación Española de Fundraising (Spanish Fundraising Association), which has just published a manual on how to attract highly committed private donors, and the Asociación Española de Fundaciones (Spanish Association of Foundations), which includes 1,039 foundations, also participated.