Vitoria-Gasteiz, 11/06/2026.- The Basque Government Council approved this Tuesday, June 9, the granting of two direct subsidies totaling €350,000, intended to support initiatives promoted by United Nations agencies in Cuba and Sudan. Both actions are part of the Basque Government's commitment to international cooperation, institutional strengthening, and response to humanitarian crises.
The direct subsidy to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba will promote the project ‘Havana’s Advance Towards its Future: Comprehensive Implementation and Monitoring of the Provincial Development Strategy of Havana’. The aid aims to strengthen the capacities of the team responsible for implementing and overseeing the Provincial Development Strategy of Havana, recently approved by the provincial government as a roadmap to promote comprehensive development based on five dimensions: institutional, cultural, social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
The Cuban capital faces significant challenges related to institutional coordination, access to energy resources, waste management, housing, and investment mobilization, in a context also marked by structural limitations affecting the entire country. Faced with this reality, the Provincial Development Strategy seeks to articulate a comprehensive response by coordinating public, private, and social actors from a territorial perspective.
The UNDP, with over five decades of presence in Cuba and extensive experience in strengthening local governance and decentralization processes, will support the Government of Havana in deploying this strategy. The subsidy will be distributed over two budgetary years: €150,000 in 2026 and €100,000 in 2027. Furthermore, this contribution will be complemented by another subsidy of equal amount being processed by the General Secretariat for External Action and Euskadi Global.
This initiative is part of over thirty years of cooperation between the Basque Country and Cuba and the Memorandum of Understanding signed between eLankidetza and the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX), valid until 2028, which identifies territorial development and decentralization as priority areas for collaboration.
On the other hand, the other direct subsidy approved, amounting to €100,000, will be received by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to contribute to the Common Humanitarian Fund for Sudan, one of the main international funding mechanisms for the humanitarian response in the country.
Three years after the conflict began, Sudan is experiencing what the United Nations considers the world's largest humanitarian crisis. More than nine million people have been forced to displace within the country, while another 4.5 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries. In total, nearly 34 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance.
The contribution from eLankidetza will help finance interventions aligned with the Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan 2026, aimed at covering basic needs in areas such as food, access to water and sanitation, health, shelter, and protection of the affected population.
Country-Based Pooled Funds allow channeling resources from multiple donors to the most urgent humanitarian needs, facilitating a rapid, coordinated, and effective response to emergency situations. With these two decisions, eLankidetza reinforces its commitment to international cooperation aimed at both strengthening institutional capacities and sustainable development, as well as addressing populations affected by humanitarian crises. The approved aid contributes to advancing the 2030 Agenda and building more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable societies.
