Spotlight On… The Spanish Social Watch Coalition

The Spanish Social Watch (SW) Coalition, constituted by Plataforma 2015 y más [Platform 2015 and Beyond] since 2006, joins the efforts of the social organizations which, within the global SW network, are working for sustainable human development and the fulfilment by governments of international agreements in the fight against poverty and inequality.

The fifteen organizations which compose Platform 2015 and Beyond work in different areas such as gender, the environment, education, the economy and human rights, a fact which provides the Platform with a comprehensive vision when coordinating strategies and proposals. These organizations are: ACSUR-Las Segovias, AIETI, Cooperation for Peace Assembly, the Spanish Commission for Assistance to Refugees (CEAR, in Spanish), Cooperación, Economists Without Frontiers, CEAR Habitáfrica Foundation, IPADE Foundation, Mundubat Foundation, Serafín Aliaga Peace and Solidarity Foundation, IEPALA, Trade-Union Institute for Cooperation for Development (ISCOD, in Spanish), the Spanish League for Education, the Peace Movement and International Solidarity.

As an essential part of the activities of the Spanish Coalition, Platform 2015 and Beyond takes part, together with other bodies, organizations and institutions, in the Spanish edition of the SW Report. Since 2003 they have been contributing national reports on the status of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the challenges of the Spanish and international cooperation system, which complement, from a perspective of development based on rights, the articles and indices produced by the global SW network. The report has by now become a tool for reflection and discussion which circulates amongst professionals, the media and different social and political groups.

On its web site www.2015ymas.org, the Platform has set up an Observatory for Development Policies, an area containing documents on seven thematic focal points related to different policies which are of significance to global development. The Observatory also publishes and circulates articles produced by the Coalition and the SW global network, and also produces an online newsletter which is distributed monthly to over 10,000 subscribers (www.2015ymas.es/boletin).

In addition, Platform 2015 and Beyond undertakes activities for awareness-raising, public communications and political impact related to the fulfilment of the MDGs and the promotion of public policies which will contribute effectively and coherently to transforming peoples’ lives without discrimination of any kind. Amongst these awareness-raising and educational activities for development, the exhibition “Doors” (www.exposicionpuertas.org) should be particularly noted. This is a 400-square-metre show on the causes of poverty which has been visited by over 15,000 people in seven Spanish cities since 2008, and which will continue touring over the next two years.

Participation and cooperation with other national and international networks and platforms constitute a strategic focal point for the Platform’s work.  Because of this, Platform 2015 and Beyond cooperates closely with the Spanish Alliance against Poverty, with the Southern Municipalities Alliance in Madrid, and with the NGO Group for Palestine. This last group, in cooperation with the Federation of Associations for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights and working jointly with a congressional group of deputies in the Spanish Parliament, has promoted several influential meetings, events and actions, such as, notably, the Jurists’ Mission to Palestine and the book which describes this mission’s outcome: “Rights in the Shadow of the Wall”.

Further information at: www.2015ymas.org