Italian Cooperation

ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

Development Cooperation comes from the need to grant the respect of human dignity and the economical grow for everybody in our planet, and ensuring global interdependency through the widening of markets.

In Italian recent history, development cooperation begins, since the Fifties, with a number of actions in the field of technical and economic assistance, realized in some ancient colonial countries, or administrated – as for Somalia – under the UN mandate. These activities were, in a first phase, regulated by 1979 law n°38; getting, some years later, to the more organic law n°49 of 1987.

As an essential part of our foreign affairs, Italian cooperation with developing countries contributes to UN efforts to combat poverty all over the world; and to help developing countries to strengthen their institutions in terms of ‘good governance’, in respect of human rights and democratic participation to economic development – with no discriminations within social and gender actors.

For 2005 Italian aid has been distributed as follows:

• Sub-Saharan Africa (42%)
• Middle East and North Africa (24%)
• Asia (14%)
• Latin America (12%)
• Europe-Balkans (8%)
  

Initiatives

The most important initiatives carried out by Italian Cooperation are:

• G8 Plan for Africa, supporting African countries
• G8 Plan of Action Education for All
• G8 Genoa Action Plan to bridge the Digital Divide and Italian initiative “e-government for development”
• Participation to rehabilitation and reconstruction in Iraq, and pacification and reconstruction in Afghanistan, as a leader in judicial institution building
• Participation to combat famine in the world, through bilateral and multilateral initiatives: the activities of Food Security Special Fund of Fao, with Italy as first donor; the nutritional assistance interventions for development; the emergency programmes with Pam; the financiary contribution to Ifad concerning the rural development
• The Global fund against Aids, tuberculosis and malaria
• Support to Argentina, in response to the recent economic and financiary crisis
• Promotion of judicial and legal reforms and democratic systems in the developing countries
• Protection of cultural and environmental patrimony
• Women empowerment and protection
• Combat human traffic; prevent and combat children exploitation in risky conditions, armed conflicts and work

Partners

Italian Cooperation collaborates with the following public and private partners: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Economy and Finance are the main donors.

Through them, Italian Cooperation receives the greatest part of governmental resources for public development aid.

Main partners of Italian Cooperation are local and central Administrations, Universities, international Organisations, Non Governmental Organisations and private enterprises.

Notes

At the moment this page it’s the only one available in english on the portal. In the future other sections will be translated.