The two key players of Italy’s development cooperation policy are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Actual implementation for Italian bilateral assistance is the responsibility of the Unità Tecnica Centrale (Central Technical Unit), a specialised development unit housed in the DGCS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and particularly the DGCS, is responsible for oversight of development cooperation, in collaboration with other key development institutions, primarily the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Treasury Department is responsible for managing and monitoring some 18% of overall Italian ODA.

Many other ministries and institutions of government play a small role in terms of their management of ODA. In addition, Italian development cooperation projects are increasingly funded by local government in the regions and municipalities. Decentralised projects are frequently of a multi-bi nature (implemented by an international organisation) or carried out by NGOs.
Italy’s development cooperation system is carried out under the authority of law 49/87. There are on-going discussions surrounding the reform of this law aimed at ensuring Italian cooperation stays in-line with development aid requirements.

The main goals of Italian Development Cooperation are laid down in bilateral and multilateral (United Nations, World Bank, OECD) and EU regulations. The Millennium Declaration, approved by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, is also a fundamental point of reference. There are several policy documents which are promoted by the Italian development cooperation and serve to support Italian priority areas of intervention. These include: ‘Programming Guidelines and Directions 2010-2012’, ‘Guidelines on Health Cooperation’, ‘Guidelines on Gender Issues’ and ‘Guidelines on Poverty Reduction’. In the 2010-2012 ‘Programming Guidelines’, Italian Development Cooperation policy intends to focus on the following areas:

• Agriculture and food security
• Environment, land use and natural resource management, with special emphasis on water
• Health
• Education
• Governance and civil society, including support for e-government and information and communication technologies (ICT) as a poverty reduction tool
• Support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

Italian cooperation intends to remain committed to certain cross-cutting issues during the coming three-year period through integrated and multi-sectoral initiatives, such as promoting women’s empowerment and assisting vulnerable groups (minors, the disabled). Gender equality and women’s empowerment will continue to be given priority within the individual sectors and country strategies. In Sub-Saharan Africa and East Africa programming for the 2010-2012 periods will include:

• Strengthening cooperation between multilateral agencies to promote reproductive health and combat all forms of gender-based violence
• Specific programmes for women’s empowerment

Italian cooperation will remain actively involved in developing and strengthening innovative financing instruments, in particular the health field where it is already playing a major role. Italy intends to participate actively in the ‘Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development’.

For 2010-2012, the DGCS expects to allocate €326 million for 2010 and €210 million for 2011/2012 for Italian ODA. The 2010 ‘Budget Bill’ provides the DGCS with a further €52 million for mandatory contributions to a number of international bodies. However, with aid cuts planned for 2009, 2010 and 2011 it seems unlikely that Italy will meet the 0.51% GNI target by 2015.  

Italy’s bilateral assistance is based on integrated plans for intervention that have been drafted in agreement with the recipient countries. These agreements are generally signed by a Joint Commission every three years. Bilateral programmes include technical assistance, aid for projects but also debt relief and general budget support (including specific sectors – Sector wide Approach). Italy’s development cooperation activities cover 97 countries and among those, 36 benefit from health programmes. In the coming three years, Italy intends to focus on fragile and post-conflict states and crisis areas where Italy will work towards peace, stabilisation and full restoration of the necessary conditions for development. Greater attention will be paid to Sub-Saharan Africa which will receive 50% of the total funds available for bilateral activities for 2010-2012, while the Balkans and Eastern Europe will receive 25% and Latin America and Caribbean will receive 15% of the total funds available for bilateral activities.

The top ten recipients of Italian development assistance in 2007 (in descending order) were Iraq, Morocco, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, China, St. Vincent & Grenadines and Serbia. Nearly 50% of Italy’s bilateral development assistance is for Africa.

Italy makes extensive use of the multilateral channel for its development cooperation. In 2008 59% of its gross ODA used this channel. Italian development cooperation has a network of partnership agreements with UNICEF, FAO and WHO, as well as the accord negotiated with UNDP and is one of the top ten donor countries to the multilateral United Nations system. Other organisations which receive Italian assistance are: ICRC, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNHCR and the GFATM.

Italy does not have a separate policy on SRH but an overall policy on ODA related to global health which has been revised in 2009 ‘Global Health. Guiding Principles of Italian Cooperation’. The policy adopts the goal of universal and equitable access to health services and in particular to maternal, newborn and child care including:

• Prenatal care
• Safe delivery and access to emergency obstetric care
• Post natal care for mothers and children

The policy also promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, including the access to family planning, the fight against the principal causes of maternal deaths, gender violence and female genital mutilation. Italy is active in the field of health in several of its partner countries. Some of the initiatives which aim to improve SRH include programs which:

• Establish safe midwifery services (North Korea)
• Train of 30 midwives on reproductive health and prevention of AIDS (Myanmar)
• Consolidate sexual and reproductive health (Morocco)
• Aim to improve maternal and reproductive health raise awareness about sexually transmitted diseases (Sierra Leone)
• Emergency program for at-risk population with particular reference to maternal and child (Afghanistan)

Italy’s contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS has always been to Sub-Saharan Africa, where it spends more than 80% of Italian ODA to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, mainly through NGOs, Italy’s National Health Institute, and multilaterals. Italy is also active in the WHO “Roll Back Malaria” initiative, which is partly funded by Italy, as well as the WHO “Stop TB” and “Initiative against AIDS”. The creation of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in 2001 constituted a step change in Italy’s commitment to fight the pandemic.

Initiatives which are geared towards improving the plight of communicable diseases include:

• Interventions to support prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (Zimbabwe)
• ‘A brake AIDS’ - aimed at preventing infection and the spread of HIV / AIDS (Kenya)
• Program Support Centre for Research, Education and Prevention of AIDS (Cameroon)
• A joint Italian/WHO initiative combating HIV / AIDS (Ivory Coast)

In 2008, Italy contributed €24 million to population and HIV/AIDS activities. In 2008, Italy contributed €4.7 million to the UNFPA budget and UNIFEM received €4.8 million.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sees an increasingly important role for non-government organisations (NGO) in Italian development cooperation. Nevertheless, the size of the Italian NGO sector working with ODA funding is still insignificant in comparison to other DAC members. The 2009 ‘Italian Policy and Guidelines for NGO’s’ clarify NGO’s role in and contribution to Italian cooperation and define funding eligibility criteria and co-financing mechanisms. However, co-financing is unstable. In 2007, support to NGOs represented 5% of total net ODA, while the 2008 allocation fell to 2%.

NGO co-financing stipulates that Italian NGOs should work with local partner organisations to help build their capacity. However, according to the 2009 Peer Review, in select cases Italian cooperation worked almost exclusively through Italian NGOs. Italy’s ‘Plan on Aid Effectiveness’ (2009) prioritises democratic ownership and NGOs.
 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes co financing grants to NGOs (Italian, and from other EU Member States) which have formal accreditation under Italy’s ‘Law 49’.  Approximately 150-200 NGOs have this status.  Project funding is provided for a maximum of three years.  In addition Italian NGOs can receive grants as implementing agencies for projects identified and designed by the DGCS.  These grants are awarded by the relevant geographical offices of the DGCS, based on criteria such as the NGO’s previous experience.

A substantial number of Italian NGOs have joined three large federations to play a coordinating role:

• The FOCSIV (Federation of Christian Organisations for International Voluntary Service)
• The COCIS (Coordination of NGOs for Overseas Development)
• The CIPSI (Coordination of Popular Initiatives of International Solidarity)

Some NGOs, including the Italian components of ActionAid International, AMREF, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, Vis and WWF, have created the Italian Coordination Network International¹  to address the need to better coordinate their activities awareness, information and advocacy.

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¹ More information can be found at: http://www.adottaunamamma.it/

 

Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

AIDOS

Terraviva Grants

Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:Italian Development Co-operation 2010 – 2012: Programming guidelines and directions.

OECD Peer Review 2009.