The Barcelona City Council started its task of international cooperation for development and solidarity more than fifteen years ago, in a context marked by civil society protests regarding the 0.7%, the opposition against the war in the Balkans (particularly in relation to the events that were taking place in Sarajevo) and by the citizens’ solidarity movement that emerged during the war.

A few years later, the Barcelona City Council cooperation for development has become a distinctive and key policy that shows not only the profile and the leading position of Barcelona in the growing internationalist activism taking place in cities involved in a positive transformation of the world and of international relations, but also shows the level of support and commitment to active solidarity by civil society and its organisations.

In other words, this is a policy that combines its own aims and activities with the support, projection and reinforcement offered by the civil society.