Universities within Decentralized Development Cooperation: the case of the Basque Country

Abstract

Decentralized Cooperation, despite its current decline in different places has brought new ways of approaching relationships and practices of development cooperation, emphasizing actors and partnerships involved, and giving rise to new possibilities for transformative cooperation. In this context, the case of the Basque Country is relevant for being one of the autonomous communities most committed to the cooperation, and a pioneer in some respects. For this reason we analyze the role universities have played in the cooperation policies of the main institutions of the Basque Country, on the one hand reviewing the role assigned to universities in the design of these policies, and on the other hand analyzing how the implementation of these policies has been conducted in a twenty years period (1988-2008).