Memorandum dac peer review

1 Dipco speciale, supplemento al n. 23/2009

Ministry of Foreign AffairsRome, Italy

DAC Peer Review 2009Memorandum

March 2009

Table of contentsExecutive Summary1. Chapter 1 – Strategic orientation

1.1. General orientations1.2. The Italian Cooperation System (IC)1.3. The legal foundations1.4. Sector priorities

1.4.1. Agriculture and food security1.4.2. Environment, management of natural resources1.4.3. Health1.4.4. Education1.4.5. Governance and civil society (ICT and e-government)1.4.6. Support to small and medium enterprises1.4.7. Gender and women empowerment1.4.8. Protection and enhancement of cultural heritage1.4.9. Other cross-cutting issues

1.5. Geographic priorities1.5.1. Sub-Saharan Africa1.5.2. Balkans, Mediterranean and Middle East countries1.5.3. Latin America, Caribbean, Asia and Pacific

1.6. Communication to the Parliament and to the wider public

2. Chapter 2 – Policy coherence2.1. General orientations2.2. Coordination and dialogue mechanisms2.3. Policy coherence themes

3. Chapter 3 – ODA volume, channels and allocations3.1. Overall ODA volume3.2. Bilateral Channel3.3. Multilateral channel

4. Chapter 4 – Organization and management4.1. General orientations4.2. Organization

4.2.1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs: DGCS, UTC and the UTLs4.2.2. The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF)4.2.3. The Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS)4.2.4. Other relevant ministries involved4.2.5. The Italian Department of Civil Protection4.2.6. NGOs4.2.7. Decentralized cooperation

4.3. Management4.3.1. Coordination4.3.2. Budgeting procedures and human resources

4.4. Monitoring and evaluation

5. Chapter 5 – Aid Effectiveness5.1. General orientations5.2. Ownership5.3. Alignment5.4. Harmonisation

6. Chapter 6 – Special issues6.1. Capacity development

6.1.1. General orientations6.1.2. Capacity development priority areas

6.2. Agriculture, high food prices and donor response6.2.1. General orientations6.2.2. The Italian action in the field of agricultural development

7. Chapter 7 – Humanitarian Assistance7.1. General orientations7.2. Financial mechanisms7.3. Managing humanitarian action7.4. Cross-cutting issues

Annex 1: ODA by region

Annex 2: Progress against 2004 OECD/DAC Peer Review Recommendations

Annex 3: Italian Cooperation “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions” (*)

(*) Annex 3 is not included here since it has already been published in the special supplement to Dipco n. 13 of 9 April 2009.

2Dipco speciale, supplemento al n. 23/2009

LIST OF ACRONYMS

AAA Accra Agenda for ActionACP African Caribbean PacificAIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency SyndromeAMC Advanced Market CommitmentsCAP Consolidated Appeals ProcessCD Capacity DevelopmentCERF Central Emergency Response FundCGIAR Consultative Group on International

Agricultural ResearchCHAPs Common Humanitarian Action PlansCSO Civil Society OrganisationDAC Development Assistance CommitteeDC Document CentreDGCS Directorate General for Development

Cooperation (Direzione Generale per laCooperazione allo Sviluppo)

DG Director GeneralDoL Division of LabourDPC Department of Civil Protection

(Dipartimento della Protezione Civile)EC European CommissionECHO European Commission Humanitarian Aid

OfficeEDF European Development FundEFA Education for AllEIB European Investment BankEU European UnionFAO Food and Agriculture OrganizationFDI Foreign Direct InvestmentFTI Fast Track InitiativeFYROM Former Yugoslav Republic Of MacedoniaGAVI Global Alliance Vaccine InitiativeGBS General Budget SupportGBV Gender Based ViolenceGFATM Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis

and MalariaGNI Gross National IncomeGOVNET OECD/DAC’s Governance NetworkGPAFSN Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food

Security and NutritionHIPC Highly Indebted Poor CountriesHIV Human Immunodeficiency VirusHQ HeadquartersIBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and

DevelopmentIC Italian CooperationICRC International Committee of the Red CrossICT Information and Communication

TechnologyIDA International Development AssociationIFAD International Fund for Agricultural

DevelopmentIFC International Finance OrganizationIFF-Im International Finance Facility for

ImmunizationIFIs International Financial InstitutionsIFRC International Federation of Red Cross and

Red Crescent SocietiesIFRD International Financial Relations Directorate

of the Treasury DepartmentILO International Labour OrganizationIIOO International OrganizationsIMELS Ministry for the Environment, Land and SeaIOM International Organization for MigrationIUCN International Union for the Conservation of

Nature

GNP Gross National ProductLDCs Least Developed CountriesMAFFP Ministry for Agriculture Food and Forestry

PoliciesMDBs Multilateral Development BanksMDGs Millennium Development GoalsM&E Monitoring and EvaluationMEF Ministry of Economy and FinanceMFA Ministry of Foreign AffairsMIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee AgencyMLHW-HS Ministry of Labour Health and Welfare –

Health SectorMSME Micro, Small and Medium EnterpriseNGO Non-Governmental OrganisationODA Official Development AssistanceOECD/DAC Organisation for Economic Cooperation

and Development/Development AssistanceCommittee

PCD Policy Coherence for DevelopmentPIU Project Implementation UnitPR Peer ReviewPRT Provisional Reconstruction TeamSME Small and Medium EnterpriseTA Technical AssistanceUN United NationsUNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat

DesertificationUNDAC United Nations Disaster Assessment

CoordinationUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNEP United Nations Environment ProgrammeUNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and

Cultural OrganizationUNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate ChangeUNFF United Nations Forum on ForestsUNFPA United Nations Population FundUNHCR Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for RefugeesUNHRD United Nations Humanitarian Response

DepotUNICEF United Nations Children’s FundUNICRI United Nations Interregional Crime and

Justice ResearchUNIDO/IPO United Nations Industrial Development

Organization/Industrial Promotion OfficeUNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for

WomenUNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in LebanonUNITAR United Nations Institute for Training and

ResearchUN-OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination

of Humanitarian AffairsUNOPS United Nations Organization for Project

ServiceUNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency

for Palestine RefugeesUN/SC United Nations Security CouncilUTC Central Technical Unit (Unità Tecnica

Centrale)UTL Local Technical Unit (Unità Tecnica Locale)WB World BankWFP World Food ProgrammeWGAE Working Group on Aid EffectivenessWHO World Health OrganisationWTO World Trade Organization


Executive Summary

General orientations and organization

Italy is firmly committed to continue mobilizing, with a renewed dynamism, its cooperation systemat large, the Sistema Italia, which engages many actors from local and central public administrationbodies, the civil society and the entrepreneurial world, to whom a more solid institutional support will beguaranteed. Overall, Italy is convinced that the implications and potentials of the developmentcooperation policy cannot only be limited to the issue of ODA financial flows: rather, development andits financial modalities have to be considered in a more comprehensive view, coherently with thefinancing for development holistic agenda and with an approach that fosters the utmost sharing ofresponsibilities with partner countries.

As far as Aid Effectiveness is concerned, Italy confirms its commitment to implement the principlesset in the 2005 Paris Declaration and renovated in the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. As one of thefounding members of the European Union, it is greatly involved also in the related EU processes, asshown by its commitment to implement the “European Consensus for Development”, agreed in 2006.Likewise, the Italian action will continue to be inspired in particular by those MDGs directly linked topoverty reduction, health and sustainable development issues.

As regards ODA volume, though Italy renews its commitment to progressively increase it towardsthe final objective of 2015 agreed in Monterrey, its quantitative development will inevitably be affected byItaly’s serious, specific budgetary constraints.

In the EU context, as well as in the domain of the OECD-DAC, Italy is increasingly paying attentionto the issue of policy coherence for development (PCD), as emerged also among the priorities of the G82009 Italian Presidency. To date, the main PCD coordination mechanisms in place in Italy are the “Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning - CIPE”, the “Steering Committee for DevelopmentCooperation” and the “State - Regions Consultation” (Conferenza Stato-Regioni). With regard to PCDthemes, Italy is engaged mainly in the fields of environment/climate change and of migration.

Following the multi-annual 2007-2009 strategic note, and upon the 2004 OECD Peer Reviewrecommendation of better defining a national vision, recently, the DGCS elaborated the “2009-2011Programming Guidelines and Directions”, which set a roadmap of the development aid policies andactivities for the next three years. Moreover, the document identifies sector priorities and, for the firsttime, it divides countries into Priority 1 and Priority 2. Communication to the Parliament is madeessentially through the “Annual Report to the Parliament on the implementation of the developmentcooperation policy”. In addition, IC communicates its strategies and activities to the wider public throughits Official Website (created in 2007) and through the Italian Development Cooperation’s weekly bulletin,called “DIPCO”, which is being completely renovated.

Italian Cooperation is ruled by Law 49 of 1987 and its following integrations. The Ministry of ForeignAffairs is in charge of Development Cooperation mainly through the Directorate General for DevelopmentCooperation - DGCS. At field level, IC operates through Local Technical Units - UTLs (Unità TecnicheLocali), based in 25 partner countries and directly attached to the Embassies. The other mainadministration in charge of development-related activities is the Ministry of Economy and Finance - MEF,which manages mainly ODA through Multilateral Development Banks - MDBs and is in charge of thecontributions to the European Union. Other ministries such as those of Health and the Environment alsomanage a few development cooperation activities. Furthermore, CSOs and decentralized cooperationactors play a key role within the wider Italian Cooperation system. To this regard, Italy is making aneffort in order to achieve an enhanced level of coordination among the various actors involved and, ingeneral, so as to make the Sistema Italia more solid and effective: new framework agreements with bothCSOs and Local Authorities have recently been signed.

The overall ODA disbursed by Italy has, from the time of the last Peer Review (2004), increased both inabsolute terms and as a percentage of the GNI. In fact, ODA passed from 2.461 million USD in 2004 to 4,4billion in 2008, with an increase of 81%, in absolute terms. The ODA/GNI ratio has also increased, passingfrom 0,15 of 2004 to 0,20 of 2008. Italian Cooperation resources allocated to the multilateral channel aregenerally higher than those for the bilateral one. During the last few years, a new balance, more orientedtowards the bilateral channel, has been pursued, though Italy will continue recognize specific added valueto IIOO, mainly in terms of their capacity and vocation to operate in crisis and post conflict scenarios, inhumanitarian emergency settings as well as in sensitive sectors such as good governance, human rights andrule of law, democratization and the protection of the most vulnerable part of the population.

Italy is aware of the need of concentrating aid flows to a more limited number of partner countries;however, it has to be borne in mind that the ten largest recipients of Italian bilateral aid received, alone,83% (in 2005), 86% (in 2006), 75% (in 2007) and 73% (in 2008) of Italian ODA. Middle East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are, respectively, the two main recipients of Italian bilateral aid flows.


At operational level, new sets of guidelines have been defined or are under way while newprocedures on procurement, technical assistance, soft loans and monitoring and evaluation are beingdeveloped. Furthermore, due to an ongoing decentralization process undertaken by the DGCS in the lastcouple of years, UTLs’ responsibilities have increased.

Special issues: Agriculture, high food prices and donor response and humanitarian action

To ensure an immediate and effective reaction to the recent food crisis, Italy has taken appropriateactions through bilateral and multilateral initiatives, in particular with the World Food Programme, IFADand FAO. Agriculture and food security continue to be a key priority for Italy and, thus, the importanceof this topic will be remarked also during the 2009 G8. In order to sustain agricultural development andto support partner countries coping with high food prices and food insecurity, Italy is following a doubletrack. On the one hand, it continues to support partner countries’ capacities especially in terms ofresource management, with particular attention to biodiversity, forests, water and renewable energyresources. On the other hand, Italy is actively sustaining the establishment of the Global Partnership forAgriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (GPAFSN).

Overall, the Italian development agricultural policy devotes particular attention to the diversificationof farm and non-farm sources of income for farmers, taking into account the sustainability of the actionsalso in terms of environmental impact. Moreover, Italy continues to focus great attention on theparticipatory approach in the identification and implementation of integrated rural developmentprogrammes, on the empowerment of the role of women in agriculture and on topics such as waterscarcity and environmental protection and conservation.

Italy’s humanitarian action is based on the principles set by the Good Humanitarian DonorshipInitiative and, as an EU Member State, on the EU Consensus on Humanitarian Aid and the related actionplan adopted in 2008.

Italy, recognizing the overall leading coordination role of United Nations in the internationalhumanitarian action, supports, in particular, the UN-OCHA leadership when humanitarian responses areneeded. At operational level, it channels about 40% of the humanitarian resources through UNConsolidated Inter-Agency Appeals and International Red Crescent Movement appeals and 60% throughthe bilateral channel. Each year, the Financial Law approved by the Italian Parliament determines thefinancial envelope for humanitarian assistance. Moreover, in order to give immediate response toemergency appeals, the emergency office has created a financial mechanism called “emergency bilateralfund”, a cash reserve from which financial withdrawals can be made and promptly transferred to specificinternational organizations.

Aid effectiveness and capacity development

Coherently with the commitments towards the principles of Aid Effectiveness, over the past fewyears the overall Italian approach has switched so as to become more harmonised and aligned, relyingprogressively less on direct DGCS-managed programmes and more on partner countries’ ones. For thisreason, the DGCS recently set up a Working Group on Aid Effectiveness (WGAE), in charge ofimplementing the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, and whose aim is to elaborate ashared action plan, updating sector guidelines and renewing the evaluation and monitoring system.

Overall, the 2008 DAC survey on monitoring the Paris Declaration shows that, with regard to anumber of indicators, Italy has made important improvements in relation to the goals set for 2010. Forexample, over the recent years, Italian Cooperation has been relying progressively more on multi-donorpooled funding, recognizing that coordinated actions are keener to support more sustainable, equitableand effective development processes in partner countries. Nevertheless, Italy is aware that improvementsare still needed with respect to other issues, such as decreasing the number of Project ImplementationUnits (PIUs). As an EU Member State, Italy is committed to the implementation of the EU Code ofConduct on the Division of Labour. Specifically, in each partner country, IC is working on the reductionof the sectors of intervention: in Albania, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Mozambique this process is currently ata more advanced stage. At present, Italy is in-country facilitator in the ongoing Division of Labour processin Albania and is focal point for the Health sector (with the World Health Organization).

The concept and actual implications of capacity development (CD) are widely understood andaccepted within Italian Cooperation, both at headquarter and at field level. For this reason, the networkof UTLs has been mobilised for a first inventory of best/worst practices and lessons learnt which couldpave the way for drafting specific guidelines, to which attention will be given in the near future. AmongCD practices, Italy has been supporting mainly triangular cooperation and the provision of technicalassistance for developing capacities in partner countries particularly for managing public financial,procurement and monitoring systems.


1. Chapter 1 – Strategic orientation

1.1. General orientations

Italy is conscious of the fact that the ongoing financial and general economic crisis could,on the one hand, produce negative consequences on human security especially in leastdeveloped countries (LDCs) as well as in fragile states and, on the other hand, it could worsenthe existing gap between North and South. As one of the main players in the field ofinternational development cooperation and as one of the ten largest DAC donors in terms of aidvolume in recent years, Italy feels a special responsibility towards developing countries and isaware of its role in development aid, also as a member of the G8 and as one of the foundingfathers of the EU.

In May 2008 political elections took place in Italy and an electoral shift brought to powerthe right wing coalition. Shortly afterward, the internal organization of the Ministry of ForeignAffairs (MFA) and of the Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS) was alsoslightly modified. However, regardless of the natural, partial reorganization that usually followspolitical elections, continuity was sought in terms of strategic orientations and commitments.Development cooperation is one of the main components of Italian foreign policy and Italyplays an active role in many multilateral fora dealing with development aid. Since 2003, ItalianDevelopment Cooperation has been committed to the implementation of the principles of AidEffectiveness, internationally agreed in the frameworks of the “Rome Declaration onHarmonization” (2003), the 2005 “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness” and the 2008 “AccraAgenda for Action” (AAA). Also by actively taking part into the “2008 Doha Conference toReview the Monterrey Consensus - Financing for Development”, Italy is demonstrating particularsensitivity towards the needs of developing countries in the ongoing global financial crisis, aswell as the need to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

As one of the founding members of the European Union (EU), Italy is greatly involved inthe EU processes dealing with Aid Effectiveness, as shown by its commitment to implementingthe “European Consensus for Development”, agreed in 2006. As a follow-up of the High LevelMeeting held in Accra last September, Italy is progressively engaging itself in theimplementation of the process of Division of Labour (DoL). In this regard, Italy is focusing onthe implementation of the 2007 “EU Code of Conduct of Division of Labour”, also by takingthe role of Lead Facilitator in Albania. In the EU context, as well as in the domain of theOECD-DAC, Italy is increasingly paying attention to the issue of policy coherence fordevelopment (PCD).

In an effort to make the Italian Cooperation system more consistent vis à vis the principlesset in Paris and Accra, a Working Group on Aid Effectiveness (WGAE) has been set up as ofSeptember 2008. The group, which gathers officials from the different DGCS offices as well as arepresentative of the CSOs, is proceeding to the update of sector guidelines and the renewal ofthe evaluation and monitoring system while specific importance is being given to other issuessuch as further untying aid and budget support. The WGAE is in charge of implementing theParis Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, as well as following the DAC Peer Reviewprocess for 2009.

The need for greater clarity in stating aid policies, including that for poverty reduction,was one of the main “2004 Peer Review” recommendations towards Italy. According to theDAC, Italian aid policies should be made accessible to all and described more operationally. Inthis direction, recently, the DGCS, in close consultation with other entities, elaborated the“2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”, which plan the development aid policiesand activities for the next three years.

Though Italy renews its commitment to progressively increase the ODA volume towardsthe final objective of 2015, as agreed in Monterrey, yet, the quantitative development of its aidflows will inevitably be affected by Italy’s serious budgetary constraints. The 2009 decline in theamount of funds allocated for development cooperation activities set by the annual Financial


Law has to be assessed in the frame of what Italy has done so far: in fact, until 2007/2008, Italyhas been one of the major donor among those providing financial support for developmentactivities in partner countries, also through the contributions made to NGOs, InternationalOrganizations (IIOO) as well as to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.Italy is firmly committed to continue mobilizing, with a renewed dynamism, its cooperationsystem at large, the Sistema Italia, which engages many actors from local and central publicadministration bodies, the civil society and the entrepreneurial world, to whom a more solidinstitutional support will be guaranteed. In particular, Italy will put special emphasis inpromoting public-private partnerships while being aware of the fact that a well-definedframework will be essential in order to guarantee that human development will represent thebulk of the goals pursued. Overall, Italy is convinced that the implications and potentials of thedevelopment cooperation policy cannot only be limited to the issue of ODA financial flows:rather, development and its financial modalities have to be considered in a more comprehensiveview, coherently with the financing for development holistic agenda and with an approach thatfosters the utmost sharing of responsibilities with partner countries.

The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals within 2015, to which Italy iscommitted both at bilateral and at multilateral level as well as in the frame of the EuropeanUnion, not only stands as an ethical obligation of solidarity towards those populations deprivedof their essential needs but also as a strategic investment for the benefits of Italy itself. Italianaction will continue to be inspired in particular by those MDGs directly linked to povertyreduction, health and sustainable development issues. Coherently, Italy has given its support forthe opening of the European branch of the Millennium Campaign in Rome, with the aim ofstimulating the debate and of raising awareness on such issues.

Italy will organize the Expo which will be hosted by the city of Milan in 2015, the year setas deadline for the achievement of the MDGs. For this reason, some 485 cooperation projectsare in the pipeline and they will address mainly the food security, health, women’sempowerment and biodiversity sectors in Africa, Caribbean, Pacific and Latin Americancountries. Special attention will be given to fostering synergies and complementarities with thepolicies and programmes of the Italian Cooperation.

Since the international community agreed on the binding necessity to give priority toeradicating extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, Italy has decided to address half of its totalODA for activities in the Continent for the next three years. Coherently, the Italian ODA flowsto Sub-Saharan Africa have significantly increased over the past few years: grants increased fromsome 125 million USD in 2005 up to 218 million USD in 2008.

Italy is committed to progressively decreasing the share of tied aid. On 25 July 2008, theOECD-DAC extended the Recommendation to untie ODA so as to include another eight nonLDCs which are among the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). Subsequently, inDecember 2008, the Steering Committee of the Italian General Directorate for DevelopmentCooperation adopted the necessary measures to apply the above-mentioned Recommendation.

Italy strongly reaffirms the need to mainstream gender issues into development policies andprogrammes as well as to support women’s empowerment activities, with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. The Italian commitment towards these issues is embedded in the “2009-2011Programming Guidelines and Directions”; furthermore, initiatives such as the 2007 BamakoConference on “The empowerment of women in West Africa: a dialogue between institutions,civil society and Italian cooperation” testify the increasing Italian effort in this field and, at thesame time, boosted the implementation of gender related activities.

As far as the designation of a focal point for development cooperation is concerned, theincreasing importance of development cooperation in a changing international landscape, as afundamental part of national foreign policy led the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs to keep forhimself the portfolio for development cooperation. This important decision made the highestauthority responsible for Italy’s foreign policy to also be the focal point for developmentcooperation at both national and international level.

As far as the simplification of administrative and budgetary procedures is concerned, theItalian MFA has already started working on it, with a view to increase the efficiency and the


effectiveness of the system and to reduce the current administrative time to implementdevelopment aid. New procedures on procurement, technical assistance, soft loans andmonitoring and evaluation are currently being developed. Furthermore, due to an ongoingdecentralization process undertaken by the DGCS in the last couple of years, UTLs’responsibilities have increased.

Finally, the issue of human resources is key and has to be considered in order to ensurethe necessary expertise and skill profiles in the field of development cooperation, even thoughspecific budgetary and legal constraints set restrictions on the recruitment of staff resources. Inthis regard, the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of ForeignAffairs is, at present, working on setting up a national selection of experts in the field ofdevelopment cooperation.

1.2. The Italian Cooperation System (IC)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of Development Cooperation mainly throughthe Directorate General for Development Cooperation - DGCS. At field level, the IC operatesthrough Local Technical Units - UTLs (Unità Tecniche Locali), based in 25 partner countries anddirectly attached to the Embassies. The other main administration in charge of development-related activities is the Ministry of Economy and Finance - MEF, which manages mainly ODAthrough Multilateral Development Banks - MDBs and is in charge of the contributions to theEuropean Union. Other ministries such as those of Health and the Environment also manage afew development cooperation activities.

Italian Cooperation has always sought collaboration and synergies with the Sistema Italia, arather multifaceted group of stakeholders which include Non Governmental Organizations(NGOs), Regions and Local Authorities, economic associations and universities.

The IC system includes Non Governmental Organizations, whose number has been steadilyincreasing over the years. Considering coordination a top priority, in 2008 the DGCS hasfinalized an Agreement with the Italian Non Governmental Federations representing the mainNGOs active in Italy, which placed collaboration on new modern bases. Its main and generalobjective is about improving Aid Effectiveness of the Italian Cooperation System by putting intopractice the Rome, Paris and Accra principles, as well as contributing to the alignment of Italytowards the international consensus agreed at both OECD and EU level. This collaborationbetween Institutional and non-Institutional actors will specifically consist of providing the DGCSwith a technical and different point of view in the elaboration of the national plan of AidEffectiveness and the 2009 OECD-DAC Memorandum of Peer Review. Furthermore, thisAgreement is contributing to respond to a request for more transparency and more detailedinformation on the activity of the Italian Development Cooperation.

The Italian cooperation system is also made up of Regions and Local Authorities whichcarry out activities in several partner countries with the involvement of actors of theirterritories. The so-called decentralized cooperation might well be considered one of thepeculiarities of the Italian cooperation: with a steadily increasing number of initiativesimplemented and human and financial resources allocated, the MFA felt the urgency offostering coherence and coordination with the concerned actors. For this reason, a newAgreement between Italian Regions and the Italian MFA has recently been signed. Workingwith Local actors is meant to be a new stimulus for the Italian Development system. At thesame time, the DGCS is working with Regions and Local Authorities on the setting up of adatabase to keeps track of all the programmes and projects implemented by the decentralizedcooperation actors.

The support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has traditionally been apriority for Italian Cooperation which, for this reason, has always sought to increase thecollaboration opportunities with industrial and manufacturers associations: their experience andknow-how are, in fact, the key to support private sector development, to enhance public-private dialogue as well as to foster Italian SMEs’ involvement in partner countries. Moreover, in


recent years, commercial banks have increased their interest, and participation particularly inprogrammes which focus on remittances and migrants.

Italy has traditionally fostered links and collaboration among Italian universities and thosein partner countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans and the Mediterranean basin,where synergies are sought with cultural cooperation activities. In addition, Italian Cooperation,in collaboration with universities, supports the organization of master courses and grantsscholarships.

1.3. The legal foundations

Italian Cooperation is ruled by Law 49 of 1987 and its following integrations. Italy is awarethat its Development system would benefit from an updated legislation which would enable itto keep the pace with the modern challenges in the field of development cooperation. Thereform would represent the occasion to endow Italian Cooperation with a system of strategicconduction and an operational management fully in line with new scenarios and needs ofdevelopment aid.

In 2004, also as a response to the recommendations of the OECD/DAC Peer Review, theneed for a legislative reform of Law 49/1987 clearly emerged. In this regard, severaldevelopment cooperation draft bills were discussed in the Italian Parliament during the lastLegislature (2006 - May 2008), including a draft bill presented by the government. A criticalfactor in hampering the afore-mentioned reform process was the wide range of opinions andviews, within the Parliament, on the modalities for the creation of a separate Agency fordevelopment cooperation. Due to the early elections and change of government, these draftbills on the reform of the Italian cooperation system were not approved.

Within the context of the previous Legislature (2006 - May 2008) 1, as well as in the contextof the current one 2, the possibility of a reform of the Italian Development Cooperation systemis under consideration. In this sense, general and widespread consensus will be sought, withinthe Parliament, on the need to update Law 49, with a view to pushing forward the afore-mentioned reform. One of the main goals of a renewed development cooperation system isconsidered to be consistent with building a dialogue that involves the main relevant actors andstakeholders in Italy’s development cooperation.

1.4. Sector priorities

As far as the “2004 Peer Review” recommendations are concerned, the OECD-DAC wasacquainted with the necessity for Italy to define a national vision for development cooperationderived from a more inclusive and broad-reaching dialogue with Italian peers in development.Italy was also required to achieve an operational strategy on how to contribute to theachievement of the MDGs by 2015. In this regard, Italy took a few steps forward by endowingitself with strategic policy orientations in the last few years. To this regard, the DGCS, afterproceeding with a consultation with other Ministries and Institutional bodies dealing withDevelopment Cooperation, elaborated the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”,which plan the development aid policies and activities for the next three years. This documentidentifies geographical and sector priorities considered fundamental in the implementation ofaid policies.

1 “Law 49/87 is important but outdated: it has to be modified”, said the Secretary of State for DevelopmentCooperation, Patrizia Sentinelli, on 18th October 2006 in a speech at the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairsof the Italian Parliament.

2 “The reform of Law 49/87 on development cooperation is one of the legislative initiatives to be taken by theItalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, on 2nd July 2008 in a speechat the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Italian Parliament.


Moreover, a relevant contribution to the definition of a national vision to be implementedtogether with an operational strategy is annually given by the “Relazione previsionale eprogrammatica della cooperazione allo sviluppo”, a report addressed to the Italian Parliamentby the MFA, which sketches the priorities of Italian Cooperation.

The multi-annual 2007-2009 strategic note (“Nota informativa sugli indirizzi diprogrammazione 2007-2009”, DIPCO 14/2007) had already better defined a national vision, byidentifying Sub-Saharan Africa and countries in a conflict or post-conflict situation (in particularIraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, Palestinian Territories) as a priority for aidallocation. The document also rationalized priority sectors with a focus on health, education,environment and community assets (with particular reference to rural development, organic orconventional agriculture) and alternative and renewable resources, global public goods andgender equality.

In addition, the IC has recently undertaken a process of updating and elaborating thematicguidelines, through a consultation process with other Ministries, Institutions and civil society,which provide policy orientations and operational strategies for the implementation ofcooperation activities in specific sectors. The Guidelines on the Health sector have recentlybeen updated while the others (see table below) will be completed within the first semester of2009.

Theme Status

Health Updated in 2009

Gender Equality andWomen’s Empowerment Currently being updated

Persons with disabilities Currently being updated

Minors Currently being updated

Education Currently been elaborated

Poverty reduction Update foreseen

Decentralized cooperation Elaboration foreseen

Budget support Elaboration foreseen

Country systems Elaboration foreseen

According to the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”, the main sectors ofinvolvement are those described in the following paragraphs.

1.4.1. Agriculture and food security

Italy will continue its efforts to build a global partnership for food security and for facingtoday’s structural challenges related to infrastructure and commerce, research, coordination andsynergies among international donors. However, for a complete and detailed description of theItalian Cooperation’s main actions and orientations in the field of agriculture and food security,see paragraph 6.2.

1.4.2. Environment, management of natural resources

Building upon the Millennium Development Goals’ recognition of the critical role ofenvironmental sustainability in the fight against poverty, Italian Cooperation has been pursuinggoal number 7 with growing investments at both bilateral and multilateral levels. Under theItalian presidency, the G8 has selected Environment, land use and natural resource managementas a priority sector in 2009.

The Environment Programme of the DGCS has adopted, at both policy and project levels, astrategy based on a systemic approach to development, aimed at reducing the risk of collision


between environment conservation and poverty alleviation goals. Coherently, Italy promotes theintegration of social and economic aspects into all initiatives designed to protect theenvironment, and vice versa, also in support of the preparation of the 2012 World Summit onSustainable Development.

This very systemic approach emerges as a key issue for the DGCS, when pursuing policycoherence for development. Over the years, Italy has actively been promoting synergies in theUN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant conventions, including bysupporting the establishment of a coherent set of activities in arid lands with the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity. In acoordinated action which involves the MFA, the MEF and the Ministry for the Environment,Land and Sea (IMELS), the DGCS has provided political, technical and financial support toseveral multilateral and bilateral processes aimed at adapting development pursuits in differentsectors to Climate Change.

The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions (GMP) waslaunched in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development by the governments of Italyand Switzerland together with FAO and UNEP, in recognition of the global role played bymountain ecosystem services in the provision of strategic development resources and their tightcorrelation with climate changes. Such a support at global strategic level is corroborated by anumber of projects implemented by the DGCS under the GMP policy strategic guidelines, atboth the bilateral and multilateral levels.

Keywords such as networking, south-south cooperation, know-how and technologytransfer, institutional capacity building, have also guided the DGCS in its contribution tobuilding the foundations of a further global process: a programme aimed at supportingbiodiversity conservation and sustainable development of the islands, recognized as the mostvulnerable to climate change. Building upon the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS)partnership launched by the Italian government in the framework of the 2005 MauritiusConference on Sustainable Development, the DGCS established, jointly with partnergovernments, International Organizations and NGOs, the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA).Within this framework, numerous initiatives have been implemented by Italy on relevantpriority conservation issues including preparedness to cope with the impacts of climatic events,resilience and disaster prevention, energy efficiency and promotion of renewable energies.

At multilateral level, Italy actively supports United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) activities such as, among others, the Caribbean Challenge initiative for biodiversityconservation and Marine protected areas networks and the Karakorum Trust Fund forsustainable development in northern Pakistan. Moreover, it sustains the activities of theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with which Italy has a FrameworkAgreement: initiatives include the “Programme of Work on Island Biodiversity” and the“Renewable energy project with the Pacific Island States”. Italian Cooperation also supportsenvironmental initiatives implemented by other organizations such as the EuropeanCommission (EC), the World Bank (WB), UNDP, FAO, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)and UNDESA.

At bilateral and multi-bilateral levels, the DGCS has fostered technology and know-howtransfer both at south-south and north-south level, including towards disaster prevention andpreparedness, consolidation of institutional capacities to manage trans-boundary ecosystemsand climate change challenges at the regional, national and cross-border levels (with activitiesin, among others, China, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestinian Territories). In particular, with regard tothe latter, while actively supporting global trans-boundary protected areas policy development(such as on the South Africa – Mozambique – Zimbabwe borders), the DGCS has implementedenvironmental projects in the framework of major processes, including peace parks, post-conflict rehabilitation, fight against drugs and conservation and requalification of the Amazonforest biome. Finally, DGCS has been active in monitoring atmospheric processes and theirbearing on the sustainable management of ecosystem structures and services, with particularregard to the impact of climate changes on the productivity of strategic natural resources suchas water and soil.


1.4.3. Health

Italian action in the field of health and development is strictly oriented towards theattainment of the Health MDGs targets. Hence, IC focuses on pursuing the objective ofdeveloping the capacities of the partner countries’ national systems in: i) reducing newbornand child mortality; ii) improving maternal health; iii) tackling the spread of pandemic diseases(HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) and eradicating Polio. The commitment on MDGs-related objectives finds substantial synergies in the continuous focus on some IC traditionalfields of expertise such as health systems strengthening, including the development of healthmanpower, and the promotion of universal access to basic health services. Likewise, IC willmaintain its focus on other issues such as the control of non-communicable diseases, therehabilitation of disabilities due to physical, sensory, cognitive or intellectual impairments andmental disorders.

Over the past few years, Italy’s overall commitment to health and development has steadilybeen increasing, both in terms of bilateral and multilateral ODA. In particular, Italy activelysupports the fight against major pandemics, through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the GAVIAlliance, also by adopting innovative financing mechanisms such as the Advanced MarketCommitments (AMC) and the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFF-Im).

With regard to child mortality (MDG 4), Italy, in collaboration with, among others, WHOand UNICEF, promotes breastfeeding, immunisations, access to clean water and basic sanitationas well as the integrated management of childhood illnesses such as diarrhoeal diseases, acuterespiratory infections and malaria. The strategic approach mainly used on Maternal and ChildHealth is the support to the development of the health systems both at central and peripherallevels.

With regard to maternal health (MDG 5), Italy actively operates in partnership with,among others, UNICEF, UNFPA and WHO, in countries with the highest rates of maternalmortality. Through awareness-raising and the strengthening of basic services, the IC promotessexual and reproductive health and safe motherhood. Moreover, Italy, in close collaborationwith Regions and Local Authorities, non-governmental and faith-based organizations and otherpublic and private actors, is engaged against genital mutilation, gender-based violence andtrafficking of young women, the latter also in collaboration with UNICEF, UNFPA, IOM andUNICRI.

With regard to combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6), Italy has increased,over the years, its financial allocations to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis andMalaria: since 2001, Italy is the third donor and, like Japan and the USA, holds its own seat onthe Board. In addition, Italy carries out specific bilateral initiatives for the control of endemicdiseases, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, by providing technical assistance to nationalprogrammes, training of trainers, strengthening of services as well as by assisting orphans andfamilies hit by high mortality diseases. Finally, particular attention is given to initiatives for theprevention of sexually transmitted diseases and for the prevention of the mother to childtransmission of the HIV virus.

More in general, IC endeavours to increase the overall quality of and access to healthservices for the poorest and most vulnerable groups through: physical rehabilitation of healthfacilities (as in South Sudan), integration of public and private health care systems (as inUganda), training of local personnel (as in Somalia and Niger), strengthening of healthinformation systems (as in South Africa and Ethiopia).

IC provides soft loans to middle income countries and grants to LDCs for the purchase ofbiomedical equipment (China, Argentina and Uruguay, Ecuador, Syria, Mozambique). In a trendtowards harmonization and alignment, Italy is increasing ODA investments through healthsector budget support (in Ethiopia, Palestinian Territories, Mozambique), associated withtechnical assistance for the elaboration and implementation of national health strategies andplans.


Finally, with respect to the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mentally ill people, withparticular attention to the most vulnerable part of the population, such as persons with disabilities,the elderly and people suffering from post conflict related traumas, IC is acting in Albania,Serbia, Morocco, Palestinian Territories and the Dominican Republic. With respect to cancerprevention and treatment, IC is acting in Morocco, Egypt, Palestinian Territories and Tunisia.

1.4.4. Education

The Italian Cooperation policy in the field of education is in line with the MillenniumDevelopment Goals agenda, which endeavours to achieving universal primary completion andgender parity in both primary and secondary education by 2015 (MDGs 2 and 3), and iscoherent with G8 commitments to “Education for All” (EFA), a priority highlighted since theGenoa Summit in 2001.

Moreover, in the present scenario of financial and economic crisis, the role of educationhas to be considered even more crucial in order to achieve sustainable economic growth andrecovery. Education represents an important factor of growth and stability at both the individualand community levels and has a positive influence on all development sectors. Without quality

Supporting the Ethiopian Health Sector Development Programme

In the framework of the Ethio-Italian Development Cooperation Country Program(signed in 1999), the two governments agreed, among others, to support the health sectoras a priority area of intervention, in order to improve the wellbeing of the population. Themodalities established for this support were, at that time, quite an innovation: since 2002,Italy has been supporting the Ethiopian Health Sector through the provision of 15,75million euros, directly granted to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, and high level technicalassistance to contribute to the implementation of the country’s Health Sector DevelopmentProgram (HSDP). In the 2002-2008 period, within this framework, IC provided financialresources and targeted technical assistance for strengthening the health systems in fourregions (Afar, Oromia, Somali, and Tigray), and at the central level (Human ResourceDevelopment, Drug Management, Health Management Information System). Thisframework, by facilitating the progress from the project-based approach to a countryprogramme-based support, has granted IC a good position in the further development ofhealth cooperation in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is one of the countries where the process of harmonisation, alignment andincreasing Aid Effectiveness in the health sector has registered some of the most remarkablesteps forward. In the framework of the Global Campaign for Health MDGs, the InternationalHealth Partnership (IHP) launched in London in September 2007, in line with the ParisDeclaration, has seen Ethiopia as one of the first wave of developing countries signing theglobal Compact, and Italy as one of the first signatories from the donors’ side. Furtherdevelopments in Ethiopia, strongly supported by IC technical assistance, brought to thedefinition and signature of the IHP country compact in August 2008 (Ethiopia was the firstcountry in the world to complete the process). The IHP, aimed at strengthening countryownership, mutual accountability and aid effectiveness, constitutes the framework withinwhich Ethiopia is developing suitable tools and conditions for wide sector budget support,thus increasing the amount of financial resources directed to the health sector throughmulti-donor channels. Italy, among other donors, is going to finance the PBS (Protection ofBasic Services), a pooled fund, coordinated by the World Bank, which provides support tothe Ethiopian HSDP. Future plans include the contribution to the MDG fund, the actual tool(currently being developed) for the Ethiopian health sector budget support. Italian technicalassistance is playing a substantial role in these processes, as also recognised by theEthiopian Ministry of Health and by other donors.


education for all, no country will be able to fulfil the engagements to ensure food security,prevent the spread of diseases, improve health and reduce poverty, in favour of the mostdisadvantaged groups including rural populations.

In April 2000, the Dakar World Education Forum launched a six-goal framework for actionto promote “Education for All”. Consistent with this framework, the policies of ItalianCooperation aim at strengthening the national education systems and supporting the localinstitutions responsible for education policies. Universal primary completion will be reachedonly through strategies capable of enhancing the quality of education systems (includinginfrastructures, teacher training, relevance of curricula, learning outcomes) as well as includingthe most vulnerable sectors of the population (girls, disabled children, ethnic minorities, ruralpopulations). Specific attention is devoted to countries affected by conflict or crisis, whereItalian Cooperation contributes to the United Nations agencies programmes, promoting anintegrated and harmonized approach.

Through the bilateral channel, Italian Cooperation has launched numerous programmes tosupport basic education, technical and vocational training as well as higher education, mainly inSub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda) and in the Mediterraneanbasin (Albania, Egypt, Morocco, Palestinian Territories).

Education programmes are designed in coherence with broader community developmentpolicies: indeed, schools are not “islands”, rather, they influence and contribute to social andeconomic cohesion. National education policies require the commitment of a range ofstakeholders in order to be implemented in an effective way. In the IC strategy, the involvementof communities and families is a priority, in order to ensure a better balance between needs andsolutions, a better distribution of resources, a growing feeling of ownership and personaldignity. The contribution of civil society to the design of education sector plans is an importantfactor to provide education services adequate to the society’s needs.

At the multilateral level, Italy supports UNESCO as the leading agency in the sector with acoordination role in EFA. From 2004 to 2008, joint programmes were launched to developcapacities of the Ministries of Education in Niger and in the Central African Republic, to assesslearning outcomes in Mozambique, to promote vocational training for girls in Sierra Leone andLiberia, to train teachers in Burundi, Guinea Bissau and the Democratic Republic of Congo andto support non formal education in Angola. Moreover, Italy has contributed to UNESCOeducation programmes in Somalia and Sudan in the context of the Consolidated Appeals,showing a special attention to fragile states.

Since its launch in 2002, Italy is a partner of the “Education for All - Fast Track Initiative”and has contributed with 21 million euros to the Catalytic Fund administered by the WorldBank. In 2008, Italy became a member of the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) Steering Committee and,in 2009, is co-chairing the initiative with Denmark. In this role, Italy is facilitating the reform ofthe Governance of the FTI aimed at reinforcing coordination among the global and the countrylevel, required by the enlargement of the partnership. Indeed FTI is a model of harmonizationand alignment of donors around national education sector plans embedded in povertyreduction strategies and is strongly contributing to increasing enrolment at the primary level.Long-term support to FTI and consolidation of its operational structures are needed to maintainenrolment results and expand the provision of primary education to reach universal completionby 2015.

Furthermore, in the framework of the activities in the education sector, Italy also supportstraining for students coming from partner countries, mainly for graduate and post-graduatecourses. IC provides scholarships or financial contribution to master’s degrees and specializationcourses organized by Italian universities. Scholarships are granted upon specific request(through Italian Embassies) made by the authorities of a partner country to the DGCS.

Both for scholarships and for master and specialization courses, Italy gives priority to fourthematic areas. In the field of primary resources management (water, agriculture, environment), ICsupported, among others, a master’s degree course in aquaculture and sustainable fishery at theUniversity of Bertinoro/Forlì (2005-2008) and a master’s degree in water management (2006-2008)at the Politecnico of Turin in collaboration with Hydroaid. In the field of SMEs development, IC


supported an “International Master in Microfinance” at the University of Bergamo (2007 and2008) and a master’s degree in “State management and Humanitarian Affairs” at the Universityof Rome, La Sapienza (2006). With regard to the health sector, IC sustained the “Programme tosupport graduate and post graduate studies for Libyan citizens” (2005-2007) at the UniversitàPolitecnica delle Marche. Finally, with regard to capacity and institution building, IC supporteda master’s degree in “Democracy and Human rights in South East Europe” at the University ofBologna (2006-2008) in collaboration with UNIADRIAON (a network of universities based inItaly, Greece and the Balkan countries) and a master’s degree in “Governance and productionsystems in Lebanon” at the Università per Stranieri of Perugia (2008).

1.4.5. Governance and civil society (ICT and e-government)

IC considers governance as a key element for the attainment of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals, as well as for ensuring better development performance and AidEffectiveness. In this context, Italy works with several partner countries with the objective ofstrengthening democratic institutions and practices (such as electoral and legislative systems), offostering citizen engagement (particularly women) and enhancing the participation of non-governmental organizations in the political process, as well as supporting the re-establishmentand strengthening of the rule of law.

In particular, the DGCS supports programmes for strengthening national Parliaments inJordan, Iraq, Lebanon Mauritania and Ghana. Italian Cooperation also finances initiatives insupport of electoral systems and processes in several countries including Timor Leste, Afghanistan,Mozambique, Yemen, Ethiopia, Ghana, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another important area of work is the support for the re-establishment of the rule of law incountries stricken by violent conflicts. In this context, Italy is playing a key role in thereconstruction of Afghanistan’s judiciary system. The programme supports the Afghan Ministryof Justice, the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office through legislative reform, theconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, and the organization of training courses forjudges, attorneys, and administrative staff. Italy also supports also several programmespromoting decentralization and local governance. Besides the Art Initiative (see box below),key programmes in this field are carried out in Senegal, Mozambique, Albania and Lebanon.

The ART Gold Experience

Italy considers governance and, in particular, democratic governance, a centralelement for the achievement of the MDGs as it provides the enabling environment for theirachievement. In this context, the government of Italy has been a central player insupporting the ART Initiative (Territorial and Thematic networks of Human DevelopmentCooperation) which fosters democratic governance through a territorial approachpromoting the active role of local communities.

Supporting the full ownership of partner countries, the ART programme involves theUN system under the coordination of UNDP (ILO, UNIFEM, UNESCO, UNITAR, UNHCR,UNOPS, WHO and others), national, regional and municipal governments, decentralizedcooperation actors, associations, universities, private sector and non-governmentalorganizations. ART supports national cooperation framework programmes for governanceand local development, termed ART GOLD. The framework programmes create aninstitutional context that allows the various local, national and international actors tocontribute to the country’s human development in a coordinated and complementary way.The full involvement of the different stakeholders is achieved through the establishment ofWorking Groups at national and local level. The Working Groups bring together existingpublic and private structures and associations helping to build democratic governance.Through a participatory approach the Working Groups identify needs and potentialities oftheir territory and jointly define strategies and concrete activities to be implemented.


Since the G8 Summit in Genoa in 2001, Italy has been committed to promotingdevelopment cooperation programmes aimed at reducing the “Digital Divide” in partnercountries. During the “Palermo International Conference” of April 2002, Italy launched theprogramme “e-Government for Development” (EG4D) aimed at strengthening the role of ICTtechnologies in support of public administrations in partner countries. Since then, IC hasfinancially supported 26 programmes which have been implemented with the technicaloverview of the Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration. The initiatives have beendeveloped in the Mediterranean Area, the Balkans, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, inpartnership with UNDESA, UNDP, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank withspecific focus on e-government, e-procurement, e-customs and e-taxation. These initiatives havealso involved public and private firms and other development actors such as NGOs, ScientificInstitutions, Universities, and Local Authorities both in Italy and in Partner Countries.

Initiatives include the Gov-Net Programme in Mozambique, which has created an e-Network among all the Ministries of the Mozambique government; in its second phase, theProgramme (currently ongoing) is extending the Gov-Net also at Local Authority and civilsociety level, with some 15.000 stakeholders involved. Furthermore, in collaboration with theItalian Parliament and UNDESA, Italian Cooperation is contributing to the IT system support ofParliaments in developing and transition countries: 14 African Parliaments have alreadybenefited from the Programme.

Within this framework, the Italian government supported the “Tunis United Nations Summiton the Information Society” in 2005, the participation in the OECD Initiative for promotingGood Governance in the Middle East and North African Countries and the action aimed atextending the benefits of ICT technologies to African Parliaments through the setting up, inRome, of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliaments, in collaboration with UNDESA. To date,there are several ongoing programmes also in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. Thelast Global Forum on ICT for Parliaments, which took place in Budapest in 2009, has givenmomentum to new initiatives aimed at giving ICT support to Parliaments, in particular in theBalkans, Latin America and Africa.

Finally, given the positive results and potentials in this field, ICT and Development is goingto be among the highlights of the 2009 Italian Presidency of the G8 Summit.

1.4.6. Support to small and medium enterprises

Italy strongly reaffirms its commitment to support private sector development in partnercountries. Namely, Italy believes that sustaining Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) isone of the key factors for increasing employment and for paving the way to a sustainable andequitable market culture in developing countries. In addition, given an industrial structureessentially based on MSMEs and on industrial districts, Italy can count on a relevant addedvalue, in terms of expertise and know-how, upon which it can build when operating in partnercountries in this field.

Italian Cooperation operates in such a manner to support, in particular, agriculture andmanufacturing activities, whose development has a more direct effect on poverty alleviation.

Activities are carried out with an integrated approach and have the objective ofstrengthening local capacities in: governance, local economic development, local healthand welfare systems, local basic education and training systems, environmental protectionand territorial planning. Italy finances ART programmes in Albania, Serbia, Lebanon,Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Central America. The frameworkprogrammes are instruments for the harmonization of the contributions of different donors.They are also supported by the governments of Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Spainand the Principality of Monaco. Regions and Local Authorities from the North and theSouth contribute also to the programme with both financial and technical resources.


Cooperation programmes and projects aim at improving the capacity of MSMEs to accesstechnical and financial resources in order to expand their activities, to update their technologies,to improve the quality of their management and the skill of their manpower. More in detail, atthe bilateral level, Italy sustains MSMEs development through credit lines, commodity aid,equities to joint ventures and technical assistance.

With regard to credit lines, the funds are channelled to the partner country’s bankingsystem which, in turn, on-lend soft loans to MSMEs, paying utmost attention to loans conditions,avoiding to produce distortions in the local market. A second instrument is commodity aid:funds as grant or credit at very favourable conditions (interest rate of 0,2% a year with a 38-yearterm for reimbursement) are granted to partner governments for purchasing machinery andequipment to be transferred or sold to public or private enterprises. At present, there are some38 ongoing programmes, both credit lines and commodity aid, implemented in 18 partnercountries. This type of project generally includes a technical assistance component whose mainduties entail the analysis and approval of the business plans submitted by local MSMEs whenrequesting the concession of a loan: this task can be conducted either by experts appointed bythe DGCS or by the UNIDO - Industrial Promotion Office (IPO). Among these projects, it isworth mentioning the Ghana Private Sector Development Fund, which addresses mainly agro-industry, commodities (raw materials) and manufacturing sectors. Furthermore, in Jordan, creditis given for activities capable of promoting technological innovation and employment (inparticular through labour-intensive projects).

The equities instrument promotes Italian direct investment in partner countries throughfunding part of the risk capital of Italian entrepreneurs in joint ventures with local companies:credit is granted at favourable conditions to Italian enterprises for partially financing their equityin the joint ventures.

Italy also provides grants to co-finance Local Authorities, NGOs and other actors forimplementing activities tailored at strengthening MSMEs. These projects generally entail actionsaimed at improving workers’ conditions, reinforcing institutional networks and enhancing skillsand capacities through vocational training in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Morocco,Algeria and in the Balkan area. When directly implementing bilateral initiatives, the IC can takeadvantage of the technical assistance of specialized IIOO such as UNIDO (as in Pakistan).Likewise, Italy operates also through the multilateral and the multi-bilateral channel, inparticular with UN agencies such as ILO and FAO.

Enhancing access to credit through risk mitigation mechanisms

Access to credit is one of the main factors hindering or, at least, slowing down theprivate sector and, particularly, MSMEs, in many partner countries. To this regard, riskmitigation mechanisms could contribute to coping with this problem. Low accessibility tocredit is mainly a direct consequence of general poor macro-economic conditions as wellas of unfavourable business environments which often represent a disincentive for privatecompanies willing to take, or to share, risks in region where they usually do not dobusiness.

What is more, Italy is keen to foster the mobilization of additional sources of financefor development, and is convinced that private sector can play an important role inalleviating poverty and in sustaining development processes in partner countries.Therefore, Italy, in the framework of its 2009 G8 Presidency, has proposed to the AfricanDevelopment Bank, the African governments and the direct investors in Africaninfrastructure, to finance assistance in order to support infrastructural project riskevaluation, to broker risk mitigation mechanisms and/or financing, and to organize aninternational conference which should raise attention on this issue and favour the debateon this fundamental topic. For this scope, Italy has pledged 2 million euros which will beused for recruiting a small team of experts as well as for financing capacity developmentactivities and the international conference.


1.4.7. Gender and women’s empowerment

Italian Cooperation activities related to the third MDG (Gender equality) are shapedaccording to the “Guidelines for Empowerment of Women and the mainstreaming of a GenderPerspective in Development Cooperation”. The guidelines, endorsed in 1998 and currentlybeing updated, are based on the principles set by the “Beijing Platform for Action” and othercriteria adopted at international level with subsequent treaties and declarations. In 2007-2008,gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives received a new impetus as aconsequence of the emphasis placed on the implementation of the MDGs and of the ParisDeclaration on Aid Effectiveness.

In particular, Italy identified the following priorities: i) support women in fragile states andconflict situations; ii) advance women’s economic and political empowerment whilesimultaneously informing and shaping national-level policymaking, generating strategic cross-national and inter-regional partnerships; iii) keep focusing on the implementation ofinternational agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol as well as UN Security Council(SC) Resolution 1325/2000 and 1820/2008.

At the operational level, the new approach translated into initiatives that mainstreamgender perspective throughout emergency programmes in fragile states and conflict situations(as in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Somalia and Sudan) as well as inprogrammes tailored to supporting women’s empowerment to fight against endemic poverty,especially in priority countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (as in Mozambique and Ethiopia). As aconsequence, the international Conference held in Bamako in March 2007 “The empowermentof women in West Africa: a dialogue between institutions, civil society and Italian cooperation”represented the occasion for launching a specific initiative for the empowerment of women inWest Africa: within this framework, gender desks were set up in the UTLs in Senegal and theIvory Coast.

During the same period, as a member of the UN Security Council, Italy supported theimplementation of UN/SC Resolution 1325/2000 and 1820/2008 and increased its participation todonor basket funds managed by UNIFEM in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Moreover, Italian supportto global campaigns was strengthened both at political and financial level focusing, in particularon programmes against gender based violence (UNIFEM/Palestinian Territories; IOM/Nigeria),Ending Female Genital Mutilations campaign (UNICEF-UNFPA/West Africa and Egypt); Pilotinitiatives on Women’s Empowerment and Local Development (UNIFEM/WELOD andUNFEM/MYDEL).

Finally, Italy is working on the improvement of monitoring and reporting activities, on theimplementation of gender activities so as to analyse lessons learnt and best practices, on theintroduction of the Gender Equality Policy Marker in the DGCS activities as well as on therevision of the Gender Guidelines.

1.4.8. Protection and enhancement of cultural heritage

Italy has traditionally devoted specific attention to protecting and enhancing culturalheritage in partner countries. Over the past few years, the DGCS has promoted activities in thisfield with the objective of supporting cultural identity, intended as a fundamental issue in orderto foster sustainable socio-economic development. Moreover, IC has strengthened its activitiesin this sector also in conflict and post conflict areas.

Italian Cooperation addresses the following main sectors: i) technical assistance to localinstitutions, ii) restoration of historical urban areas, iii) setting up of cultural centres, iv)rehabilitation of archaeological areas and v) rehabilitation and setting up of museums.Furthermore, environmental protection and rehabilitation is a cross-cutting component to whichthe majority of the programmes/project pay due attention.

At operational level, the DGCS operates through both the bilateral and the multilateralchannel. With regard to the latter, Italian Cooperation traditionally collaborates with the WorldBank, UNESCO, the Italian-Latin American Institute (IILA) and the International Centre for the


Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). Furthermore, Italy hassought synergies with the private sector with the aim of involving enterprises in activities boundto protect cultural heritage, recognizing the specific added value they can actually bring to thisend. Italy can also count on the important collaboration of the decentralized cooperation actors.In fact, Regions and Local Authorities have often brought their experiences and know-how inparticular in the field of tourism, art and crafts, restoration, promotion of cultural events and useof new information and communication technologies.

With regard to geographic areas, Italian Cooperation has numerous ongoing initiatives inthe Balkans, as, for example, the “Centre for restoration and conservation of monuments withinthe IMK Institute of Cultural Monuments”, in Albania (in collaboration with UNESCO); theprogramme “Pilot Activities for Education and Culture” in FYROM, which entails technicalassistance to local authorities for the decentralization of cultural and education activities (asforeseen within the Ohrid Agreements); the “Safeguard of the Cultural Heritage” project inKosovo whose aim is to contribute to enhancing interethnic and intercultural dialogue alsothrough strengthening capacities in the preservation and management of cultural endowments.Italy promotes the implementation of numerous initiatives also in North Africa, in particular inEgypt, with the support to the museum system, and in Algeria, with the “Valorisation of theCasbah of Algiers”. Moreover, there are several ongoing programmes and projects in the MiddleEast area: in Lebanon, a programme aimed at rehabilitating the archaeological areas of Tyr,Sidone and Baalbek, in Syria, an intervention for the restoration of the Damascus Museum andin the Palestinian Territories, the “Bethlehem Area Conservation and Management Plan” project,which supports local authorities in defining and implementing a legal framework to preserveand protect the Region’s cultural endowment. Finally, in Asia, IC has at present three ongoingactivities in China.

1.4.9. Other cross-cutting issues

According to recent estimates, 650 million is the number of persons today living withdisabilities: 80% of these live in developing countries, the majority of which in extremepoverty conditions. Moreover, among the poorest (those living on less than a dollar per day),one out of five has a disability. To this regard, studies have demonstrated a positive correlationamong poverty and disability: the latter is, in fact, often associated with lower literacy,employment, nutrition and vaccination rates. Likewise, disability also hampers the possibility tofully participate to the economic and social life of the communities, in particular when these arenot endowed with adequate infrastructures and services.

Therefore, in view of the fact that persons with disabilities represent a relevant share of thetotal world population and that they have a higher chance of living in poverty, the internationalcommunity is called to a renewed and enhanced effort to mainstream this issue intodevelopment programmes as well as to promote specific actions.

As of March 2007, Italy has signed the New York Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities, adopted by the UN General Council in December 2006, and subscribed by 126countries. Coherently, since then IC has launched numerous initiatives for the social,educational and work inclusion of the disabled; a good share of these initiatives includes also atechnical assistance component aimed at enhancing the related legislative aspects.

To date, the DGCS is financing and carrying out programmes and projects in Albania,Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, PalestinianTerritories, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Vietnam and Zambia. Of particular relevance are the activitiesin Kosovo and Serbia. With regard to the former, the DGCS is collaborating with the Office ofthe Prime Minister for the definition of the National Plan on Disabilities, which will be theoutcome of a coordinated and shared process which included central and Local Authorities,IIOO and the local CSOs, in particular those of persons with disabilities. Coherently with art.32 3 of the “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, the DGCS sent a

3 Art. 32 calls for “involving persons with disabilities in international development programmes”.


technical team of experts which included persons with disabilities. In Serbia, IC has recentlylaunched an initiative, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs,aimed at de-institutionalizing minors and persons with disabilities, with the involvement ofrepresentatives from the academic, institutional and civil society world of different Balkancountries (namely Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Serbia) as well as from Italy, sharingviews and approaches on this very issue.

Finally, Italy is currently updating the guidelines on disabilities (elaborated in 2002) byincluding principles and instruments for mainstreaming the issue within all IC programmes andprojects.

With regard to minors, IC promotes multi-sector integrated initiatives in which the younggenerations are considered as a fundamental resource for sustainable development, for theconsolidation of democratic and peace-engendering processes as well as for the strengtheningof gender policies. The principles and priorities in this field are set by the “Guidelines of theItalian Cooperation on Children and Adolescent Issues”, drafted by the DGCS in 1998 andupdated in 2004. The Guidelines are inspired first and foremost by the principles contained inthe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and related Protocols, in the Acts of the EuropeanUnion, in the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration, in the document “A World Fit forChildren” (whose Plan of Action was undersigned by numerous governments during the SpecialSession on Children of the United Nations General Assembly in 2002), in the Conventions of theInternational Labour Organisation (ILO), N°138 on minimum age and N°182 against the worstforms of child labour with the attached Recommendation 190 and, finally, in the indications ofthe European Union. In 2008, a “Working Group for the Application and Monitoring of theGuidelines” was established within the UTC; this is currently updating the guidelines byincluding principles and instruments for mainstreaming the issue within all IC programmes andprojects.

In this field, IC operates at both bilateral and multilateral level in collaboration with UNagencies, Regions and Local Authorities as well as with CSOs. Programmes and projectspromote human and civil rights of girl and boy children, adolescents, and young persons, so asto sustain and reinforce an action of cultural transformation that opposes all forms of disparitybetween, and discrimination of, human beings from the time of their birth.

In particular, IC initiatives tackle those factors at the basis of difficult and harmful situationsfor minors such as: extreme poverty, irregular urbanisation, breakdown of family andcommunity bonds, social exclusion, international trafficking of individuals (in particular of“women” who are still underage, adolescents, and children), child labour in its worst forms, theinternational clandestine-adoption market, sexual and commercial exploitation also in the touristindustry, Internet paedo-pornography, child soldiers in armed conflict, migration ofunaccompanied children and adolescents at both intra and inter-regional level.

Furthermore, Italian Cooperation, in collaboration with Regions, Local Authorities andCSOs, promotes education and awareness-raising initiatives aimed at improving theunderstanding of the conditions of children and adolescents in partner countries as well asamongst immigrants communities in Italy.

1.5. Geographic priorities

Italy is aware of the need of concentrating its intervention in a smaller number of partnercountries, as recommended by OECD/DAC in the 2004 Peer Review. Coherently, an importantstep in this direction are the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions” which identifythe Italian Cooperation geographic priorities for the next triennium and where, for the first time,countries are divided into Priority 1 and Priority 2. Furthermore, Italy will continue to devotespecial attention to fragile states and to countries in crisis and post conflict situations such as,among others, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Darfur region of Sudan, where it operateswith an approach coherent with the DAC principles for good engagement in fragile states andsituations.


1.5.1. Sub-Saharan Africa

The geographical Office IV of the DGCS is in charge of IC activities in Sub-Saharan Africa.Italy is aware that achieving the MDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa still stands as the major challengefor international development cooperation. In this regard, throughout the years, Italy hasincreased the amount of grants and of human resources devoted to eradicate poverty andsustain an equitable development in the area. Its efforts duly take into account the necessity toshape its intervention according to the principles of Aid Effectiveness, in particular bycoordinating and harmonizing it with the partner countries and with the other donors.Coherently, in the next three years (2009-2011), Italy will devote half of its total ODA to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Priority 1 countries Priority 2 countries

Niger Burkina FasoSenegal GhanaSudan Sierra LeoneEthiopia Guinea BissauSomalia KenyaMozambique

In priority countries, activities will be mainly concentrated in the sectors described in theprevious paragraph. Among these countries, Ethiopia and Mozambique have represented,over the years, the two major recipients of Italian aid (see also table in §3.2). More ingeneral, the definition of priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa is the result of a consultativeprocess which involved the partner countries and the DGCS which ensures the coordinationof negotiation activities and a periodic consultations with partner countries’ governments.More in details, priority countries are identified according to their needs and to the capacityof IC to meet them in an effective manner. In addition, relevant criteria are also the provencapacity of partner countries’ relevant authorities to effectively receive and manage ODA aswell as the degree of involvement of IC, in terms of financial and human resources, in aspecific country, in the attempt to give continuity to operations. Political evaluations ofopportunity also have a role, primarily in the choice between bilateral and multilateralinstruments. In countries not Priority 1 nor 2, IC will limit its intervention mainly until theongoing activities will come to an end, coherently with an effective exit strategy whichentails progressively leaving the ownership of programmes and projects to partner countries’concerned parties.

On a general basis, programmes and projects have always been devised and identified inclose coordination with partner countries in sectors which the latter identify as a priorityaccording to their poverty reduction strategies. As a general tendency, the IC concentrates itsactivities on sectors where it can express a major added value, namely health, education, ruraldevelopment and women’s empowerment (mainly after the 2007 Conference held in Bamako– see §1.4.7); this is the result of a demand-driven approach, with partner countriesspecifically requesting such interventions (Ethiopia and Mozambique among others). Overall,Italy has been making major efforts in strengthening the ownership level and in extending theuse of country systems to the maximum extent possible; in this sense, over the past fewyears, the number of programmes with management and funding directly earmarked tocentral and Local Authorities has definitely increased, in particular by recurring to theprocedures of art. 15 of Law 49/87.

In general, Italy gives preference to bilateral initiatives in countries with a fair degree ofpolitical stability and a proved technical capacity to manage ODA whereas the multilateralchannel is preferred primarily in fragile states and in crisis and post conflict situations.


Regional approach is more prominent in West Africa with activities such as, for example,the support to a natural park on the border between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso; the gender-focused initiatives which followed the Bamako conference and the Italy-Cilss Fund for localdevelopment in Senegal, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Though programmes tend to focus on aspecific country at the time so as to maximize their impact, they are devised taking intoconsideration general common issues such as desertification and drought so as to fostercoherency in the implementation of projects. Overall, the multilateral channel is preferred whenit comes to sustaining initiatives of a regional dimension.

1.5.2. Balkans, Mediterranean and Middle East countries

The geographical Office III of DGCS is in charge of the IC activities in the Balkans, theMediterranean and in Middle East countries. These areas include countries where Italy hasdeveloped some of the most long lasting and multifaceted relations. In particular, the Balkansrepresent a laboratory for the Sistema Italia at work, an area where Italy has deployed a hugeeffort at all levels, especially starting from the implosion of the former Yugoslavia, from militaryto humanitarian, from economic to the social sectors. On the other hand, Italy aims atconsolidating its role and at supporting the development process in Mediterranean countriesalso through the valorisation of remittance flows originated in Italy. Finally, the Middle East

The Italy-CILSS Fund to combat desertification for poverty reduction in Sahel

The Italy-CILSS Fund to Combat Desertification for Poverty Reduction in Sahel (ICF) isone of the most important Italian initiatives in the Sahel Region. The Fund aims at improvingthe socio-economic conditions of the most vulnerable populations, reducing factors causingpoverty, exclusion and inequalities and giving access to economic opportunities and basicsocial services, with natural resource management as cross-cutting issue in Senegal, Mali,Niger and Burkina Faso. Around 15.5 million Euro, administrated by UNOPS, are availablefor activities to be implemented in extremely vulnerable administrative areas (Zones at HighEnvironmental and Social Risk - ZARESE). Local administrative bodies and associations, suchas Farmers’ and grass-root Organisations (F-GRO), are the promoters and managers of smallsized projects: they identify, design and implement the initiatives financed through the Fund.ICF has an environmental oriented approach.

The ICF supports ownership at three levels (regional, national and local) and it aimsat strengthening capacities and coordination in the definition and implementation of foodsecurity, natural resource management and decentralisation strategies, in a coherentmanner with respect to poverty reduction and sector policies. Based on a localdevelopment approach, the ICF favours the development of local capacities and supportsthe organization and mobilization of F-GROs, especially the planning and implementationof local development initiatives, complementing government activities without distortingestablished priorities. All proposed initiatives must be aligned with country strategies andcoherent with local and national priorities and are implemented by the local promoters (F-GROs, local institutions).

Partners – national and decentralised institutions, NGO and F-GROs – recognised theFund as an innovative and effective tool supporting coordination and participation for thedefinition and implementation of local development plans; furthermore, they positivelyassessed the contribution of the ICF to the effective establishment of a more participatorydecision making process. In fact, local governments elaborated new (or updated the existing)development plans, working in close collaboration with the civil society, and implementednumerous small-initiatives financed by the ICF. Finally, of particular relevance is theeffective exchange and collaboration established between local governments and nationalinstitutions able to sustain a real transfer of competencies and of strengthening synergies.


continues to be an utmost priority, especially in crisis and post conflict scenarios, where Italyhas been deploying an increasing effort directed to support reconstruction and to foster thesetting up of donor-coordination mechanisms.


Kosovo AlbaniaFYROM SerbiaBosnia-Herzegovina MoroccoEgypt MauritaniaTunisia YemenPalestinian Territories SyriaLebanonIraq

The definition of priority and non-priority countries is the result of a planning activity on amulti-year framework basis which has been conducted at both regional and country level. Inthe next few years, Italy will concentrate on Priority 1 and 2 countries, whereas, in non-priorityones, it will progressively undertake an exit strategy which entails bridging the ongoingprogrammes and projects to the next phase, one in which partner countries will take on fullownership.

In recent years, IC has made tangible progress toward harmonization and alignment withdonor countries. Italy increased its participation in local aid coordination groups, as in the caseof EU coordination groups, taking the leadership in specific sectors (e.g., the “Migration and co-development” and the “Local development” groups in Morocco and Lebanon) or in multilateralsector groups (e.g., the “Shepherdship initiative” in the health sector working group in thePalestinian territories and the Iraq Reconstruction Forum and the International Funds for IraqReconstruction).

Moreover, the growing importance of the cooperation initiatives carried out by the ItalianRegions and Local Authorities as well as the increasing amount of funds disbursed to co-financeItalian NGOs has fostered partnerships with the CSOs in partner countries, in particular in thePalestinian Territories, in Lebanon, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo.

The Italian integrated approach in Lebanon

The ROSS (Rehabilitation, Employment, Services and Development) EmergencyProgramme was launched in the aftermath of the July 2006 war in Lebanon. An EmergencyProgram Office was established in Tyr in September 2007, as the only governmental officeamong Donors in South Lebanon. In 2008, a technical working group was establishedbetween Italian and Lebanese experts in connection with international institutions andagencies in order to produce a mid-term (2009-2011) priority intervention plan consideringthe Lebanese government’s plans, the Italian government commitment to the MDGs and theongoing process of Division of Labour among EU donors (Italy is coordinating the EU donors’working groups on local development and environment). Moreover, the coordination withUNRWA and UN-OCHA is very close. The OECD/DAC “Guidelines on Poverty Reduction”, theParis Declaration and the Accra Agenda are always a basic assumption in designing theprojects, enhancing democratic governance and supporting local development. All theprojects apply to the OECD/DAC “Principles for good International Engagement in FragileStates & Situations”, with specific regard to principles 5, 6 and 10 (links between political,security and development objectives, promotion of non-discrimination, avoiding pockets ofexclusion). Local Authorities, universities and CSOs are actively involved through workshopsand conferences. As the main UNIFIL contributor, Italy promotes an active military-civiliancooperation (CIMIC) involving the DGCS, NGOs, the Embassy and the UN system.


Programming is strictly based on consultative processes with partner countries’governments as well as on their national development strategies and priorities. Beginningtowards the end of the ‘90s, bilateral consultative groups and meetings have been set up inorder to implement multi-year investment programs (MYIP) in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia,Morocco, Serbia and Albania. MYIPs have been defined on the basis of priorities identified bylocal governments, taking also into account of cooperation programs run or under negotiationwith the main international donors such as the European Commission and the World Bank.

The adoption of a regional approach has increased since the last Peer Review of 2004.After Lebanon and Jordan, regional programmes are now operational in the PalestinianTerritories, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Water source management, agriculture and irrigation,health, protection of cultural heritage, migration and development are the main sectorsaddressed. Coherently with a regional approach, a strategy aimed at integrating the Palestinianpeople residing in the refugee camps hosted in Lebanon contributed to the stabilization of bothsocieties: Italy has recently pledged some 5 million euros during the international conference onthe reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp held as of June 2008 in Vienna.

1.5.3. Latin America, Caribbean, Asia and Pacific

The geographical Office V of the DGCS is in charge of the IC activities in Latin America,Caribbean, Asia and Pacific. Italy can count on long-lasting and solid relations with LatinAmerica and, as outlined in the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”, its effortwithin the area will continue in the next three years. However, in countries such as Argentina,Uruguay and Brazil, which are now dynamic and growing economies, its involvement willprogressively be fine-tuned according to the changing priorities. The same applies for Chinaand India. Particular attention will continue to be devoted to Afghanistan, whose reconstructionprocess will continue to stand as an utmost priority for Italy. To this regard, in a regionalstabilization and security perspective, Italian involvement in Pakistan will increase in the nextfew years and priority will be given to interventions to support the return of Afghan refugees:for this reason, the IC will carry out debt swap and it will consider the setting up of a fieldoffice in the country. Finally, possible interventions in the agriculture and food security sectorsin North Korea are foreseen.


Ecuador HaitiPeru Viet NamBolivia MyanmarEl SalvadorGuatemalaAfghanistanPakistan

Priority countries have been selected according to their latest performance in terms of socio-economic and human development. This selection is the result of a planning activity, on a multi-year framework basis, which has been conducted at both regional and country level. Moreover,the IC experience and potentials in the area have indeed been taken into consideration. On theother hand, Italy is progressively decreasing its efforts, in terms of both human and financialresources allocation, in non-priority countries (neither Priority 1 nor 2), namely in those countrieswhich, at present, are experiencing a positive trend of economic growth (albeit this might be arather inhomogeneous one) such as Brazil, Argentina, China and India. In general, coherentlywith the need of a higher concentration of aid, in “non-priority countries” Italy aims atprogressively decreasing its ODA flows for the coming years and, in the meantime, concludingongoing activities and limiting its future interventions essentially to capacity building.


Italian Cooperation in Latin America and Asia has, in the recent years, focused on health,rural development, environment and territorial management, food security, governance andsupport to Small and Medium Enterprises, with the majority of the programmes being multi-sector ones. Moreover, several programs entail minors’ rights protection and gender equalitycomponents. The aforementioned sectors will be the focus of the IC also for the next threeyears.

Planning is strictly based on consultative processes with partner countries’ governments aswell as on their national development strategies and priorities. When choosing between bilateralor multilateral channel, the IC takes into account both the socio-political context of the partnercountries as well as its government’s structures’ capacity to effectively manage, and thusexercise full ownership on, the planned programmes. On the other hand, Italy relies more onthe multilateral channel (in particular, UN agencies) in countries with a higher level of politicalinstability such as Myanmar, Laos and North Korea. Furthermore, Italy rather earmarks funds tothe multilateral channel in case of activities which require specific technical know-how andexpertise which could be guaranteed by organizations such as, among others, FAO or UNICEF.

The Italian intervention in Afghanistan

In coherence with the DAC “Principles for good International Engagement in FragileStates & Situations”, the Italian Cooperation has gradually adjusted its approach inAfghanistan over the last couple of years: programmes and projects, rather than beingdirectly carried out by the IC or entrusted to NGOs and UN Agencies, are now beingimplemented by making an increasing use of the partner countries’ financial managementand procurement systems. What is more, Italy is playing an active role in promoting bettercoordination among donors: recently, it supported the setting up of a mechanism whichlinks civil development and humanitarian activities carried out in Afghanistan by the ItalianDefense and Foreign Affairs Ministries.

Italian aid is provided according to the Afghan National Development Strategy(ANDS) agreed between the Afghan government and the International Community at theParis Conference in 2008. Negotiations and consultations with donor partners are constantand effective (the cooperation with UNAMA, WB, EU and the Joint Committee andMonitoring Board - JCMB-is very close). Italy supports national programs such as NationalRoads, Justice Sector and Rural Development-Local Governance. Issues encompassed byANDS such as Counter Narcotics, Disbandment of Illegally Armed Groups, Law and OrderTrust Fund and Gender issues are supported as well. The “Principles for GoodInternational Engagement in Fragile States” and the “Whole of Government Approaches toFragile States” are applied in all projects with frequent communications and meetings withAfghan stakeholders.

When operating in priority countries like Afghanistan, Italy can rely on the ordinaryfinancial mechanism (the Law 49/87) as well as on funds allocated by means of a specificannual Law through which additional resources are made available for DevelopmentCooperation activities in those countries where Italy is also engaged in peace-keepingactivities (Missioni Internazionali). In Afghanistan, funds are mainly used to support theAfghan National Development Strategy, both through multilateral mechanisms (multidonortrust funds) or through bilateral agreements in support of specific national investmentprogrammes (in this case, funds are directly channelled to the relevant line Ministry), aswell as for the rehabilitation of basic infrastructures and services and other non-programmable interventions. If, on the one hand, the use of a double track for financingintervention is favouring the predictability of aid flows, on the other, the availability of twofinancial mechanisms has allowed a rapid response by the IC to development andhumanitarian needs in the country, ensuring a timely fulfilment of its internationalcommitments as well.


Numerous IC programmes have a regional dimension, in particular those addressingenvironment, child protection and gender. For example, DGCS funded the International Unionfor Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for activities tailored at protecting the natural resourceendowment of the Himalayan region; moreover, the IC provided a grant to UNICEF for aprogramme which tackled children exploitation and traffic in South East Asia (Indonesia,Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and China).

1.6. Communication to the Parliament and to the wider public

An increase in public awareness on development issues requires a better informationstrategy targeting the public and involving Parliament and other stakeholders, as well as theneed to communicate more and better what has been done. Gaining public support is, in fact,fundamental in order to enhance a domestic culture towards development cooperation. Italy isaware that a growth of confidence towards Italian Development Cooperation can be achievedby operating effectively, efficiently and rapidly and by creating a dynamic exchange ofinformation on the activities with the national media and civil society (NGOs, Universities etc.),as well as by increasing the involvement of Local administrations. It has to be underlined thatone of the “2004 Peer Review” recommendations was aimed at continuing to develop a better-defined strategy to raise public awareness of development issues, including a stronger alliancewith other official and non-state actors.

In this regard, the Directorate General for Development Cooperation, aware of thenecessity to better communicate its policies as well as its activities, created, in April 2007, the“Portale della Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo”, Italian Cooperation’s official website. Thisalso responds to the principle of transparency towards Italian citizens in order to define a clearstrategy to permit public opinion to be updated on development cooperation activities.

Moreover, the DGCS is actively proceeding with the implementation of the new project ofthe weekly bulletin of Italian Development Cooperation, called “DIPCO”. It aims at changingthe current structure of DIPCO from a sort of official journal of development cooperation, into amore modern instrument for informing public opinion and civil society about the strategies andthe activities put forward by the Italian Cooperation system. The new DIPCO will amplify itsrange of interests by introducing new thematic issues dealing with development cooperation, aswell as by updating public opinion on the main tasks Italian Cooperation is conducting. Inaddition, Italian Cooperation issues a periodic newsletter, available on the official website,which provides an insight on development activities, emergency programmes, guidelines,country information, job and internship opportunities as well as analyses on specific issues.Finally, UTLs publish, on their own websites, periodic newsletters which provide informationon the main ongoing activities of Italian Cooperation in the countries of reference.

A Document Centre (DC) was set up at the DGCS (in 1982), with the aim of providinginformation services on general and sector issues related to development cooperation,International Organizations’ activities as well as to ongoing IC programmes and projects. TheDC is endowed with numerous documents in various formats (books, working papers, DVD,VHS, photo collections etc) among which are publication of some of the main IIOO (OECD,UN, European Commission) and of Italian universities and research institutes. The DC is opendaily to the public: PhD and undergraduate students as well as development professionals takeadvantage of it to the benefit of their research activities. To date, the DGCS is working onenhancing the information services provided by the DC by strengthening its structure, namelyby increasing: the financial resources available for buying new materials (publications ofparticular relevance are being collected also through the voluntary contributions of researchinstitutes), the spaces of the Centre and human resources dedicated to it.

As far as awareness raising is concerned, a specific initiative will be associated with the100th edition of the “Giro d’Italia”, the major Italian bike event, scheduled for May 2009. Inparticular, three main events are foreseen (at the beginning of the race, in the middle and at thearrival), during which some of the highest State Officials, together with Director General of


Italian Cooperation and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will provide information and raiseawareness on the issues related to development cooperation. Moreover, each of the 21 stages ofthe race will be associated with a specific Italian Cooperation “story”, to which nationwidecoverage will be assured thanks to daily reports by the national broadcasting channel (RAI) andby one of the major Italian newspapers. This event can be considered as part of the renewedengagement of the DGCS, and of its Director General in particular, to intensify communicationactivities towards the general public through interviews with press and TV journalists.

Concerning communication to the Parliament, Law 49/87 provides for the annualtransmission of two reports, of which the Minister for Foreign Affairs is in charge. The first one,attached each year to the “Financial Provisional Expenditure Document” of MFA, containsproposals and reasons for the allocation of financial resources, geographic and sector prioritiesas well as envisaged cooperation actions. The Parliament discusses the report together with the“Financial Provisional Expenditure Document” and publishes it on the Italian Official Journal(Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana).

The second one, the “Annual Report to the Parliament on the implementation of thedevelopment cooperation policy”, reports on the development cooperation policy and activitiescarried out in the previous financial year. Based on specific documents provided by UTLs anddiplomatic delegations, it contains analyses and evaluations on: i) types of programmes carriedout in each partner country; ii) their implementation status; iii) targets, expenditure frameworkand outcomes of each bilateral, multilateral, multi-bilateral, ordinary and emergency programmeas well as of NGOs’ interventions. Furthermore, since 2007, the Report has been dedicatingmore room and attention on how the activities implemented are actually pursuing andachieving the objectives set in the Paris Declaration and in the Accra Agenda for Action as wellas their coherence with the MDGs. In particular, the Reports now include a specific Annexwhich highlights those programmes and projects which show the best performance in terms ofthe 5 principles of Aid Effectiveness. Moreover, the 2008 edition will mention “champions”(experts, volunteers, persons from the private sector and from religious related organizations)who, during the year, have achieved particularly remarkable results in the field of development.In general, the Annual Report to the Parliament is deemed to play an enhanced role in terms ofcommunication, awareness and public opinion involvement. Finally, in order to guarantee awide circulation of these reports, both within and outside the Ministry, they are published in theDIPCO and are also available on the Italian Cooperation’s website.

A third Report, on the Italian participation in the multilateral international financialorganisations, is submitted to the Parliament by the MEF. This latter contains information onpolicies and strategies adopted in the year of reference and on the criteria followed for thedisbursement of soft loans and for financing multilateral institutions, development funds andspecific programmes to multilateral banks.


2. Chapter 2 – Policy coherence


According to the “2004 DAC Peer Review” recommendations, policy coherence should bean explicit goal of the Italian government. This should include a specific public statement oncoherence for development, including reference to themes of special interest such as foreigndirect investment (FDI) or untying.

Some progress has been achieved in the last five years towards the implementation of thePolicy Coherence for Development. Italy has renewed its engagement towards PCD by signing,in June 2008, the “OECD Ministerial Declaration on Policy Coherence for Development”.Moreover, the issue has been taken into consideration within the context of the ItalianPresidency of the G8, as emerged also in the “G8 2009 Italian Policy Paper”. Furthermore,awareness of PCD has been raised in many Italian Ministries dealing with developmentcooperation, which in many technical fora have underlined the importance of that instrument tofurther enhance Aid Effectiveness. As far as the political basis is concerned, within the DGCS, aprocess on how to set up a methodological approach of policy coherence is currently ongoing.The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is developing a reflection on the modalities of a PCD. Inthis regard, the political relevance of the policy coherence for development will be ensured bymaking the decision makers much more aware of the increasing necessity of it, in a globalcontext of rationalizing aid flows due to the current financial crisis and in accordance with theprinciples of Aid Effectiveness.

A systematic and comprehensive promotion of the PCD could not be ensured without thedefinition of a methodological approach. In particular, a methodological approach should serveas a guideline in order to achieve real and shared progress even in the capacity and resourcesof our institutions. In the lack of a systematic approach for PCD, specific and sector progress inthis field has nevertheless been achieved by each Italian institution dealing with DevelopmentCooperation.

An informal basis, the “Strategic Planning and Budget” Office, together with the EU AffairsUnit, in the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of ForeignAffairs has taken the lead in the coordination of policy coherence for development becoming,de facto, a focal point for the matter. Its role consists in giving impulse to fostering the reflectionon the development of PCD.

It is fundamental to make clear that a dialogue on PCD between donors and partners isnecessary. In particular, we consider it important to define country case studies to measure theprocess of PCD. In this sense, in the light of the “mutual accountability” principle, theassessment of country case studies should go together with the identification of donordevelopment policies. Given that partner countries should be involved in country level impactassessment, they could take part in the debate on policy coherence in particular within jointperformance assessment groups.

Again, according to the “2004 DAC Peer Review” recommendations, Italy should mobiliseexpertise and analytical capacities both within and outside government to identify policyareas incoherent with its development cooperation objectives. Consultation with civil societyand research community would strengthen these actions. In this regard, Italy is planning waysand modalities to increase analytical capacities and to involve more and more the civil societyin the process.

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also working on public awareness on PCD bytrying to make more aware, first of all, other Ministries dealing with development cooperation.The Italian MFA will send them an Informative Note in which the rationale of policy coherence,its story, its legal basis and political bias are explained.

Some concrete measures have been taken and others have been foreseen in order toimprove information-sharing among Italian Ministries on PCD issues. As an example, the ItalianMinistry of Foreign Affairs will publish on its website (www.esteri.it), as well as on the DGCS’


website (www.cooperazioneallosviluppo.esteri.it), a section dedicated to the issue of policycoherence for development. This section will be a sort of database in which everyone can findinformation and documents on PCD.

2.2. Coordination and dialogue mechanisms

The involvement of the Parliament in the formulation of development policies hasincreased with respect to the past Peer Review period. Through its addressing and controllingactivities directed to the government (motions, resolutions, agendas bearing instructions,questions, etc.), the Parliament: i) defines directions and guidelines affecting and influencing thegovernment’s action in the field of development; ii) highlights problems and needs notspecifically addressed within the legislative activity; iii) draws the attention of the parliamentarydebate and public opinion on relevant matters; iv) induces the government to take officialpositions on the issues brought to its attention. The Parliament, in addition, decides on thefinancial envelope to be allocated to MDBs and on the repartition of the funds among differentinstitutions 4. Moreover, parliamentary surveys also play an important role in addressing andmonitoring activities and for providing suggestions for governmental activities in this field.Cooperation issues are discussed within the two foreign affairs commissions of the Chamber ofDeputies and of the Senate.

The recent launch and implementation of two initiatives can be seen as a sign of theincreasing importance that development cooperation issues are gaining also in the Parliament.The first one is the Permanent Committee on the MDGs, created by the Foreign AffairsCommission of the Chamber of Deputies as of July 2008, which is in charge of investigatingsome specific development issues, namely the achievement of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals. The analysis that the Committee is carrying out aims at examining the activity set up bythe international community, and in particular by the Italian government, to achieve the eightMillennium Development Goals: more specifically, it intends to monitor the initiatives takenby G8 countries, in the light of the guidelines resulting from the work of the UN GeneralAssembly and thematic meetings. In order to do this, it takes into account the importantinteraction among donor countries and among the institutional level, private sector and civilsociety. Furthermore, through this analysis, the Committee assesses the relevance of initiatives,financial aspects, and possible relations with international institutions, which could be usefulto characterize the Italian position on various issues and to identify the most appropriate waysto give greater visibility, especially in European locations, to the Italian involvement inachieving the MDGs. The resulting investigative activity does not only produce a database, butit also contributes to orient the activities of the Italian government: in fact, the Committeeperiodically reports the main findings and results of its activity to the Foreign AffairsCommission of the Chamber of Deputies. A further objective is that of assessing the level ofcoherence between the policies carried out at the government level and those implementedby regions, Local Authorities, and individuals. Finally, in order to make public opinion awareof these issues, the work of the Committee will be completed with the approval andpublication of a final document. The second initiative is the Parliamentary group for povertyreduction: set up as of October 2008, it includes deputies from both government andopposition coalitions.

As mentioned before (§1.5), in order to guarantee transparency, the IC provides all relevantinformation on its activities through the “Annual Report to the Parliament on theimplementation of the development cooperation policy”. The MFA drafts it and then transmitsthe Report to the “Cross-ministerial Committee on Economic Planning” (CIPE - ComitatoInterministeriale per la Programmazione Economica): the latter approves it and sends it to the

4 Following the 2004-2005 replenishments of several Funds, the Italian Parliament approved two important billsto cover overdue arrears to IDA and other Multilateral Development Funds. Laws 222/2007 and 246/2007 haveallocated 800 million euro, of which 526 million to IDA and the remainder to the Regional Development Banks.


Parliament. The Committee also deals with a number of development-related issues as well aswith policy coherence.

The “Steering Committee for Development Cooperation” (Comitato Direzionale per laCooperazione allo Sviluppo), a cross-ministerial body presided over by the Italian Minister ofForeign Affairs, is involved in the approval of initiatives related to development cooperation.The Committee, whose main functions are identified by art 9 of Law 49/87, is headquartered atthe MFA and brings together senior officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and theMinistry of Economic Development. One of its main functions is the endorsement of thestrategic policy lines in the field of development cooperation, as well as the approval andfunding of projects, programmes, emergency initiatives as well as the approval of contributions(voluntary and aimed at specific initiatives) to UN Agencies and IIOO at large. All decisions andacts are approved by duly taking into account the policies of the different governmentdepartments represented and, in this regard, it is also an important forum of concreteachievement of policy coherence for development.

A cross-ministerial Technical Working Group has recently been established with the mainobjective of defining and managing a roadmap on the Italian ODA. The working group,coordinated by the DGCS and MEF (in particular, the International Financial Relations Directorateof the Treasury Department), gathers some of the main Italian development stakeholders such asthe Ministries of Economic Development, Agriculture, Environment, Health and Defence as wellas the Civil Protection Department, the Italian Red Cross, ANCI (National Association of ItalianMunicipalities - Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani) and OICS (Interregional Observatoryon Development Cooperation - Osservatorio Interregionale Cooperazione allo Sviluppo). Inaddition, the working group aims at fostering transparency and predictability of aid by providingdata and figures on the overall IC system for the benefit of the annual Financial Law.

The decentralized cooperation system could well be considered as a means by whichpolicy coherence is fostered through a bottom-up approach. Regions have, in many cases,adopted laws and frameworks for development cooperation that provide general guidance todifferent actors of their territories, including universities, private companies and chambers ofcommerce. In recognizing decentralized cooperation as an important component of officialdevelopment assistance, IC has, over the years, devised and put in place reference frameworkswith the aim of fostering coherence and complementarities.

In this direction, the “State - Regions Consultation” (Conferenza Stato-Regioni) represents across-institutional coordination mechanism of the utmost importance. Decentralized cooperationand the development activities of the Regions in partner countries are among the various topicsdiscussed at this level; moreover, great attention is devoted to issues regarding the coherence ofthe strategies adopted by regional authorities vis à vis those of the IC.

2.3. Policy coherence themes

In recent years, the Italian government has actively been promoting synergies between theUN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other relevant conventions. Inparticular, Italy is one of the most important world financial contributors to the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). At the same time, Italy has also been activelyengaged in the United Nations Forum on Forest processes, placing special emphasis on the roleof sustainable forest management in adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Synergiesbetween UNCCD national action programmes (NAPs), which are building bridges betweendevelopment and environment policies, and United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange national adaptation programs of action (NAPAs), present a unique opportunity toestablish comprehensive policy instruments. Such an integrated approach to tacklingdesertification and climate change will have multiple benefits, especially for the poor in theworld’s dry lands, who are suffering the most from the double blow of desertification andclimate change. In this sense, Italy works on linking the activities of the UNCCD, United NationsForum on Forests (UNFF) and UNFCCC rather than designing, implementing and managing


climate policy separately from combating desertification and deforestation, hence fosteringpolicy coherence. Indeed, coordinating mitigation and adaptation strategies to address aspectsof climate change and desertification and deforestation in one stroke does facilitate thedevelopment of innovative poverty reduction strategies, strengthens the adaptation capacities ofvulnerable lower income groups, and fights climate change through carbon sequestration andemission reductions. Carbon sequestration projects in the wide expanses of dry lands agro-ecosystems, for example, could have significantly greater benefits than expected through soilconservation. The sequestration of carbon in these soils has the potential to tackle degradationand increase the productivity and sustainability of these ecosystems. Reforestation is a vital waybut is not the only way. These projects could also provide significant social benefits byincreasing food security which in turn would promote better habitat conservation. Localpopulation could therefore mitigate climate change while combating desertification andprotecting biological diversity.

Moreover, Italy is actively involved in activities keen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:the related Revised Guidelines were approved on December 19, 2002 by the “Cross-ministerialCommittee for Economic Planning” (CIPE) together with the related National Action Plan (2003-2010). These documents identify the policies and measures already decided, even if not fullyimplemented, and some other additional measures envisaged to enable Italy to meet itscommitment under the Kyoto Protocol. Alongside with domestic measures, the National Planprovides for the use of the Clean Development and Joint Implementation mechanisms to reachthe Kyoto target. The competent ministries are currently working on the review of theGuidelines to update the national greenhouse gas emissions projections and identify additionaldomestic policies and measures to reach the national target.

With regard to migrations and remittances, Italy is engaged in the follow up to the G8Heads of State and Government Declarations of 2004 (Sea Island), 2007 (Heiligendamm) and2008 (Toyako) all of which contain positive reference to remittances. The BerlinRecommendations (2007) have identified the areas of action in the field of remittance with aview to facilitate: i) data on remittances; ii) research on the impact of remittances ondevelopment; iii) general principles for international remittance services; iv) remittance flowsand the deepening of development impact on such flows; v) use of official and bankablechannels; vi) innovative payment instruments and vii) creation of a global working group onremittances.

At EU level, Italy is engaged in the implementation of the EU - Directive on PaymentServices/PSD. Italy has encouraged in relevant EU dialogue formats, and especially with Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the inclusion of action items relevant to migration anddevelopment and remittances.

Furthermore, the Italian competent authorities and research institutes have worked outanalyses that identify obstacles to the transfer of remittances. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs isfinancing initiatives aimed at encouraging the diaspora to invest in the countries of origin andplays an advocacy role together with other competent authorities for better financial services formigrants. Italy also gives relevance to innovative instruments of payments that facilitate thetransfer of remittances, also in the framework of the programmes of international organizationssuch as the MIDA (Migration for Development in Africa), carried out in collaboration with theInternational Organization for Migrations - IOM.

Similarly, the Bank of Italy has actively collaborated in the elaboration of the GeneralPrinciples for International Remittance Services. Moreover, the Bank of Italy, being thepayments systems supervisor and in line with EU legislation, is working on the liberalization ofdirect access to payments systems for Money Transfer Operators. This is likely to be crucial inorder to increase competition in the remittance sector. A project that enables the publicdisclosure through a website of transfer costs by operators elaborated by Italian stakeholders,including banks and research institutes, is regarded as a useful tool and such work has beenencouraged.

Balance of Payments data on remittances has improved steadily in Italy since 2005, whendirect data collection from Money Transfer Companies operating in Italy was implemented. For


the future, the Bank of Italy intends to adopt the operational definitions, recommendations andbest practices on improving the quality and coverage of data on remittances according to thecompilation guide drafted by the Luxembourg Group. On the regulatory environment for themoney transfers market, Italian legislation on the cross-border transfer of money is in line withall Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) internationalrules currently in place.

Finally, the G8 Summit Declaration encourages the creation of a Global RemittancesWorking Group. To this regard, Italy has promoted the launch of the Global RemittancesWorking Group in 2009, which intends to provide facilitation for the achievement of therelevant international objectives in this field.


3. Chapter 3 – ODA volume, channels and allocations

3.1. Overall ODA volume

The overall ODA disbursed by Italy has, from the time of the last Peer Review, increasedboth in absolute terms and as a percentage of the GNI. Indeed, ODA passed from 2.461 millionUSD in 2004 to over 4,4 billion in 2008, with an 81% increase in absolute terms. The ODA/GNIratio has also increased, passing from 0,15 in 2004 to 0,20 in 2008. The peak of ODA wasrecorded in 2005, when Italian aid assistance flows reached 5 billion USD: this was mainly dueto a high debt relief component.

(Million USD)

The overall increase in ODA is even more evident when taking into consideration the yearsbefore the last Peer Review: in absolute terms, with respect to 2001, Italy has more thandoubled its aid flows. The Italian Cooperation resources allocated to the multilateral channel aregenerally higher than those for the bilateral one though, for the next few years, and starting in2009, Italy envisages strengthening the latter. This is already noticeable as, in fact, thebilateral/multilateral ratio passed from 29% in 2004 to 40% in 2008.

(Million USD)

In general, it is possible to state that Italy recurs to bilateral initiatives in those partnercountries with a satisfactory degree of political stability and a proved sound technical capacity tomanage ODA. On the other hand, the multilateral channel is preferred when the country doesnot have such features, hence, primarily in fragile states and in situations of conflict or postconflict with a high degree of instability. The multilateral instrument is preferred also for activitieswith regional coverage. With regard to the financial competencies of the different publicadministrations over development cooperation issues (data of 2007), MFA accounts for 43,5% ofthe bilateral channel and 42% of the multilateral; MEF, 47% of the bilateral channel (credit lines,though this is shared with the MFA) and 58% of the multilateral; other central administrations, 8%of the bilateral channel; Regions and Local Authorities, 1,5% of the bilateral channel.

Finally, in order to increase predictability of aid flows, the 2009 Financial Law approved bythe Parliament introduced a multi-year planning (2009-2011) system: indications on the fundingallocations for development cooperation activities for the next three years, as well as on thepercentage of bilateral aid that will be allocated to each of the 4 geographic areas ofintervention, are contained in the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”.

3.2. Bilateral channel

Italy relies on the bilateral instrument in general when an adequate legal framework andthe partner country’s capacity to rapidly use the amounts provided are in place. In the next few


years, according to the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”, IC will reinforcethe bilateral channel by gradually increasing the financial and human resources devoted to it. Atfield level, over the last few years, a process of delegation of duties and responsibilities to UTLsis being implemented. Namely, field offices have now more autonomy in taking decisions andin advising the DGCS on project funding and management. Stronger UTLs with a broadermandate will be the key to enhance the bilateral cooperation channel.

The bilateral channel entails instruments such as grants, soft loans and debt relief. As forgrants, Italy operates mainly through art. 15 of the Implementing Regulation of Law 49/87,which, upon the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding among Italy and the partnercountry and of a Financial Agreement, sets the possibility of a direct disbursement towards thepartner government’s budget. This mechanism fosters ownership by assigning directmanagement and responsibilities to the partner country. As for soft loans, Italy operates throughthe Revolving Fund for Development Cooperation which is under the supervision of MEF. TheFund is managed by a contracted private Bank (Artigiancassa S.p.a.) operating underinstructions from MFA and MEF, according to the respective competencies. Finally, debt relief ismanaged via normal Paris Club operations, while extra-Paris Club debt swaps are authorized byItalian Law 209/2000, under specific circumstances.

Italy is aware of the need of concentrating aid flows to a more limited number of partnercountries; nevertheless, it has to be borne in mind that the ten largest recipients of Italianbilateral aid received, alone, 83% (in 2005), 86% (in 2006), 75% (in 2007) and 73% (in 2008) ofItalian ODA. The tables below outline a specific Italian orientation towards operating in crisisand post conflict scenarios as well as in fragile states also through the bilateral channel: in 2008,Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan and Mozambique were among the ten largest ODArecipients. Countries highlighted in yellow are Least Developed Countries.

Moreover, the table below provides figures on the bilateral ODA by region; Middle EastAsia and Sub-Saharan Africa stand as the priority areas for Italian Cooperation in terms ofbilateral aid throughout the years taken into consideration. A more comprehensive overview ofall the different regions is provided in Annex 1.

2005 (Million USD)

Iraq 953,71

Nigeria 529,62

Ethiopia 86,93

Nicaragua 80,96

Congo, Rep. 61,24

Madagascar 51,00

Morocco 39,43

Afghanistan 27,39

South of Sahara, Regional 25,97

Eritrea 25,00

2006 (Million USD)

Nigeria 754,98

Iraq 485,18

Serbia 129,65

Ethiopia 105,39

Cameroon 63,63

Zambia 51,66

Lebanon 44,26

Afghanistan 32,50

Mozambique 30,24

Albania 30,13

2007 (Million USD)

Iraq 480,93

Morocco 83,75

Ethiopia 75,47

Lebanon 65,41

Afghanistan 62,04

Sierra Leone 44,31

Mozambique 42,58

China 42,13

St. Vincent & Grenadines 41,41

Serbia 22,62

2008 (Million USD) preliminary data

Iraq 844,57

Afghanistan 105,16

Palestinian Admin. Areas 68,10

Ethiopia 64,57

Lebanon 60,67

St. Kitts-Nevis 33,53

Mozambique 32,72

Sudan 32,44

Albania 30,94

Angola 29,32


3.3. Multilateral channel

Traditionally, the multilateral channel, whose competences are shared among MFA andMEF, accounts for the major share of the ODA since, in fact, Italy relies on multilateralimplementation mechanisms as an effective means for sustaining development processes inpartner countries and for supporting, in particular, regional and sub-regional approaches. Theelection of Italy as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council strengthened thisposition and put forward in a stronger way its engagement in the field of Human Rights.Moreover, Italy is committed to implementing to the maximum extent possible therecommendations set in the 2004 PR, in particular by: fostering the adoption of a more results-based approach for multilateral budgeting procedures, making allocation decisions rationalemore transparent and publicly accessible, supporting an enhanced cooperation between theMFA and the MEF and upgrading the MEF capacities in monitoring, evaluating and planning thecontributions to IIOO.

Italy recognizes a specific added value to IIOO (and to UN agencies in particular), mainlyin terms of their capacity and vocation to operate in crisis and post conflict scenarios, inhumanitarian emergency settings as well as in sensitive sectors such as good governance,human rights and the rule of law, democratization and the protection of the most vulnerablepart of the population. The Italian involvement in the field of multilateral cooperation attainsthe strategic and planning level (through the participation to the executive boards of some ofthe main IIOO) as well as the operational and financial ones.

Allocations to multilateral development cooperation activities through IIOO and UNagencies are earmarked on an annual basis through the Italian Financial Law: hence, in order toreduce the unpredictability of funding, which would affect in particular multi-year initiatives,voluntary contributions usually cover the total amount requested for specific initiatives.

The DGCS recently elaborated the “General Guidelines for interventions through themultilateral channel”, which define Italy’s orientations and criteria for prioritizing fundingallocations to IIOO. In general, agencies are selected according to the competitive advantage intheir specific fields of activity as well as by taking into consideration the feedbacks from bothUTLs and evaluation reports. Well-performing IIOO are granted voluntary contributions tosupport their core activities, as well as global and sector-based Trust Funds, besides specificcountry projects. Internal discussions between the Multilateral and Bilateral Desks of ItalianCooperation are organized prior to any decision regarding Italy’s contributions to InternationalOrganizations in order to encourage synergies between multilateral and bilateral initiatives andavoid overlapping and duplications.

According to the “General Guidelines for interventions through the multilateral channel”, inorder to prioritize funding decisions to specific IIOO, for which the advice of the Italiandiplomatic representations at the IIOO is fundamental, the following criteria are duly taken intoconsideration: i) “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”, ii) priorities of the 2009


G8 Italian Presidency iii) MDGs, iv) effectiveness and capacity to produce sustainable impactdemonstrated by the various IIOO, v) complementarities with bilateral cooperation, vi) presenceon the Italian territory of headquarters of IIOO whose core activities are relevant to agricultureand food security, education and training as well as to humanitarian sectors (such as the“Agricultural Hub” in Rome, the “International Training Hub” in Turin and the “HumanitarianLogistic Hub” in Brindisi). In general, priority sectors for the coming 3 years will be those set inthe “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions” and Italian funding through themultilateral channel will be assigned accordingly. In particular, priority will be given tohumanitarian action (which in 2009 will receive 27% of the total funding for multilateral aid)and to rural and agriculture development (22%). The percentage of funding allocated for theEnvironment sector is low (3%) due to the fact that additional resources will be accounted onthe Sustainable Development Fund of the Ministry of the Environment.

Moreover, the balance is pursued between the resources earmarked directly to IIOO’sbudgets and those assigned to finance specific projects: the latter (multi-bilateral channel) willbe used in order to support projects with particular relevance and added value for a specificpartner country, in particular in countries of Priority 2 (as identified in the “2009-2011Programming Guidelines and Directions”). Finally, IC is taking into consideration theopportunity to develop, in the near future, ad hoc strategic guidelines for those IIOO withwhom Italy has the most solid and financially relevant collaboration.

Allocations to Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) for capital increases and/or fundreplenishments are disbursed (in cash or promissory notes), following relevant legislation fromParliament, by the International Financial Relations Directorate of the Treasury Department(IFRD) of MEF. Financial participation in the MDBs represents an important component ofItalian development cooperation and, for this reason, periodic discussions on the subjectinvolve officials of the Italian government, CSOs and IFIs.

The effective use of resources channelled through MDBs is an utmost priority for Italy.During the last negotiations for the replenishment of the different Funds, Italian officials haveparticularly stressed the need to focus on effectiveness of aid mechanisms and on results.Currently, in almost all the MDBs, resources are allocated to borrowing member countriesthrough performance-based allocation mechanisms. Therefore, evaluating these mechanisms isvery important: Italy relies on the in-house evaluation reports produced by each institutionrather than carrying out its own.

The largest part of Italian multilateral contribution is allocated to the EuropeanCommission, through the European Development Fund (EDF) and the EC budget. The secondrecipient of Italian multilateral ODA is the World Bank Group, which include IBRD, IFC, MIGAand IDA. Agencies, Funds and Programmes of the United Nations also receive a high amount ofmultilateral funds, in coherence with the Italian traditional support of the UN Institutions.

Special focus is placed on the International Organizations based in Italy, in particular thoseoriented towards humanitarian aid, food security and financial support to the agricultural sector.Italy also plays an important role in supporting of UN activities in the field of humandevelopment (UNDP), gender issues (UNIFEM), environment (UNEP), good governance(Democracy Fund and Peace Building Fund) and human rights. Italy is also deeply engaged tosupport the health sector, being one of the major contributors to the Global Fund for the Fightagainst AIDS, TB and Malaria.


Italy follows with attention the ongoing debate within the International Organizations onAid Effectiveness and plays an active role, through the Italian Permanent Missions to, andthrough participation in the governing boards of, the various UN entities, by strengtheningaccountability and by fostering the adoption of Result Based Management. Coordination withother donors takes place regularly both in the field and through the Italian Permanent Missionsto the various UN Entities.

Decisions on earmarking funds are based upon the feedbacks on the overall quality andeffectiveness of the interventions implemented by the different IIOO: in this regard, theperception and assessment of partner countries’ concerned governments departments and ofUTLs are taken into consideration. In addition, experts funded by Italian Cooperation often takepart in independent evaluations of multilateral initiatives funded through Italian voluntarycontributions.

Innovative financing mechanisms

Italy is highly involved in the international efforts for identifying innovativedevelopment funding mechanisms. In particular, Italy participates in the Leading Group onSolidarity Levies to Fund Development (the so-called 46 Group), a forum for discussingadditional sources of financing for development. Moreover, the Italian Ministry of Economyand Finance has participated in the establishment, launch and implementation of theInternational Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm) initiative (473 million eurosapproved by the Parliament in 2005), an innovative financing mechanism that issues bondsguaranteed by donors to frontload financing for immunization.

At the beginning of 2007, the same Ministry was the main international promoter ofAdvance Market Commitments (AMCs), an initiative aimed at fostering private research forvaccines through market mechanisms. As a lead donor, Italy contributes with some 635million USD, with multi-year appropriations made available by the Financial Law for 2008; afirst contribution of 36.04 million euros was disbursed to the World Bank in December 2008.

In 2007, Italy has authorized a 40-year commitment of ODA flows to the Multilateral DebtRelief Initiative (MDRI) and AMC initiatives. Within the context of the G-8, Italy reaffirmed itscommitment to exploring innovative mechanisms to link ODA and workers’ remittances,aimed at reducing the cost of transfers and promoting matching funds through public andprivate partnerships for enhancing effectiveness of remittances in development terms.

MEF has been active in supporting and implementing the government’s special effortin 2007 to mobilise additional, fresh resources for ODA through exceptional legislation in2007 (surplus revenues decrees) allocating around 1 billion euros to ODA-related activities(260 million euros in July and 739 million euros in September). These measures have madeit possible to disburse contributions due to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis andMalaria for the years 2006-2007 as well as pay in advance the contribution due for the year2008 and meeting part of the overdue financial obligations to IDA-14.

Furthermore, in coherence with the Sistema-Italia philosophy, which fosters synergyof all relevant actors, including the private sector and civil society, MEF appointed a publichealth specialist and world leading scholar to represent Italy at the GAVI Alliance Board (aduty which is normally assigned by donors to high-ranking government Officials). Hisoutstanding expertise on vaccine and health policy issues is recognised as a value addedto GAVI (a public-private partnership).

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Minister of Economy and Finance is a member,on an individual basis, of the High Level Task Force on Innovative Finance for HealthSystems. The International Financial Relations Directorate of the MEF is supporting him inthis endeavour.


4. Chapter 4 – Organization and management


The Italian Cooperation functions and management are carried out first and foremost bythe MFA and, in particular, by the DGCS and the UTLs. The MEF also carries out a relevantamount of activities and, in particular, it deals with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) andthe EU. However, while with regard to IFIs, the MEF is responsible for the institutional relationsas well as for the financing, with regard to the EU cooperation, the MEF has only a financialresponsibility, having the MFA the primary competence in this field. CSOs and the decentralizedcooperation actors also play a key role within the wider Italian Cooperation system. To thisregard, Italy is making an effort in order to achieve an enhanced level of coordination amongthe various actors involved and, in general, so as to make the Sistema Italia a more solid andeffective one: new framework agreements with both CSOs and Regions and Local Authoritieshave been recently signed. Moreover, the Working Group on Aid Effectiveness (which will bebetter described in §5), has enhanced dialogue and coordination on specific issues at DGCSlevel.

OECD/DAC, in the 2004 PR, had outlined that the Central audit office (Ragioneria Centrale)represented a factor which, to some extent, slowed down the project approval process. Inresponse to this, the DGCS and the Ragioneria Centrale have worked in close collaboration,kept each other updated more frequently and identified critical points in an attempt tosmoothen this process up. In this sense, new procedures for the approval of NGOsprogrammes, which speed up payments and allow more flexibility, have been defined whileguidelines have been defined and procedures streamlined on procurement, technical assistance,soft loans, and other relevant administrative, which have helped clarifying roles andresponsibilities.

A process of decentralization of duties and responsibilities to UTLs is currently undergoing;through this, the field offices’ mandates and responsibilities have increased and made thembetter suited to operational needs. Furthermore, seminars and training programmes for staffhave been carried out involving UTLs.

Finally, in response to the OECD/DAC recommendation contained in the 2004 PeerReview, the MFA is at present working on a new recruitment procedure which will increasehuman resources specifically dedicated to development cooperation.

(*) Si conclude la pubblicazione del Memorandum.


4.2. Organization

4.2.1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs: DGCS, UTC and the UTLs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the management of developmentcooperation activities, mainly through the Directorate General for Development Cooperation -DGCS (Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo). The latter includes 20 officeswhose main functions and responsibilities are described in the table below.

Office

Office I. Policy analysis,planning andstatistical reporting

Office II. Relations withinternational organisationsand the EC

Offices III, IV and VNegotiations with partnercountries

Office VI. Emergencyoperations and food aid

Office VII. Relationshipswith Italian NGOs

Office VIII. Relationshipswith IFIs

Office IX. Training andscholarships in Italy

Office X. Legal affairs

Office XI. Procurement

Office XII. Personnel

Office XIII. Gender, minorsand persons with disabilities

Central Technical Unit -UTC

Inspection, monitoring andinitiatives assessment unit

Coordination andcommunication Unit

Environment Unit

Decentralized CooperationUnit

Multilateral coordinationUnit

EU Affairs Unit

Functions

Sector policies, planning and programming financial resources, statistical reporting anddatabase, annual reporting to parliament and public information activities and theactivities related to the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Relations with the agencies of the UN family (including the planning of voluntarycontributions) and the EC, including the implementation of the Italy-EC frameworkagreement in collaboration with the MFA DG for European Integration.

Respectively responsible for aid initiatives in Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, theMiddle East; Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and Latin America, each office in collaborationwith the respective MFA geographical DG. Particular responsibility for countryprogramming and disbursement of funds pledged within bilateral, multilateral and multi-bi agreements.

Response to man-made and natural disasters, through emergency actions and food aidplanning (including relationships with specialised international organisations).

NGOs activities, granting official recognition and access to DGCS funding, co-financingNGO-promoted projects, verifying the status of volunteers and other expatriate expertsemployed by NGOs within co-financed projects.

“Financial cooperation”, including private sector development and balance of paymentsupport, soft loans and debt reduction actions.

Funding of training courses organised in Italy on development cooperation issues andfor the management of the scholarships programme.

Legal advice related to bidding procedures, contracting and managing claims against theadministration.

Procurement related to both the operations of the DGCS and the implementation ofdirectly managed DGCS projects in partner countries.

Personnel with fixed-term contracts or seconded to the DGCS, and of the DGCSadministrative management of development cooperation field offices.

Analyses and proposals aimed at promoting the role of women in developing countries.Protection of minors and disabled persons in development cooperation.

Technical support related to project identification, formulation, appraisal, monitoringand evaluation.

Monitoring and assessment of bilateral and multilateral programmes and projects co-financed by Italian Cooperation.

Responsible for information and communication activities of the DGCS in closecoordination with the Press Service Unit of the MFA.

Responsible for liaising with other administrations, CSOs and research institutes dealingwith environmental issues; in charge of policies in the field of water management andfor coordinating Italian participation in UN environment Fora (water, forestry,desertification, sustainable development).

Responsible for liaising and cooperating with Italian Regions and Local Authorities indevelopment cooperation activities.

Responsible for programming, and taking decisions on the financing of, specificprogrammes implemented by IIOO.

Responsible for coordinating EU Development Cooperation related issues such as theEU Consensus on democracy and the Division of Labour.

The Central Technical Unit - UTC (Unità Tecnica Centrale), set up in 1987 through Law 49,carries out a number of duties which include providing technical support during the entireproject cycle, devising and drafting thematic guidelines and liaising with the UTLs. In particular,UTC is in charge of the identification, formulation and appraisal of IC bilateral programmes andprojects as well as of their management and monitoring. Furthermore, UTC experts carry outanalysis and research activities.

UTLs are the field offices that deal with development cooperation activities and are part ofthe DGCS/UTC. Their number has increased (from 20 to 25) with respect to the last Peerreview, and often their mandate covers more than one country 5. They are part of the respectiveItalian Embassies, which guarantee general coordination as well as overall policy and strategicorientation, holding consultations and negotiation at the political level. Most of the time,relations with the Embassies are systematic and integrated, though both UTLs and Embassies areaware that there is room for further improvement in this direction. In any case, the Director ofthe UTL has to report both to the DGCS and to the Ambassador.

The director of the UTL is appointed for 4 years and is selected by the DGCS throughinternal procedures among the UTC staff. Decision-making related to programming andfinancing is mainly centralised at HQ level: UTL is involved in identifying, preparing andmonitoring bilateral and multi-bilateral initiatives while the degree of involvement is less forItalian voluntary contributions to International Organisations. In general, the appraisal processof any new initiative is based first and foremost on the partner countries’ strategies andpriorities and, in addition, it considers the IC’s general orientations and guidelines, the lessonslearnt from past experiences, the MDGs, the principles regulating Aid Effectiveness and the EUprinciples regulating aid.

Due to an ongoing decentralization process undertaken by the DGCS in recent years, UTLs’responsibilities have increased as so that:

• Programme and project identification, drafting and management can be under thetechnical supervision of the UTL;

• The Director now acts as a long term expert of the UTC in the country and, hence, cansign funding proposals for development cooperation initiatives;

• The Director can define ToRs apt to select candidates for long term expert positions aswell as recruit junior international staff.

The UTL implements and monitors ongoing programmes and maintains technical relationswith all the national and international organizations, line ministries and NGOs. It activelyparticipates in donors’ thematic round tables, bringing the official Italian position on thedifferent issues on the agenda.

In some cases, regional coordination mechanisms among UTLs are in place as, forexample, in the Balkan area (between Belgrade, Sarajevo and Tirana), where consultationmainly refers to EU accession-related issues and in Latin America (see box on triangularcooperation in §6.1.2).

UTL represents a fundamental interlocutor for all Italian development actors in the field, inparticular for CSOs and regional and Local Authorities. In this sense, it provides information onthe main Italian and international policy orientations. UTL carries out systematic consultationswith NGOs with the purpose of: i) being briefed on the status of ongoing activities (in particularthose co-financed by the IC), ii) gathering grass-root information iii) acting as a facilitator vis àvis the partner countries’ institutions, iv) seeking advice on possible finetuning and (re)shapingof Italian strategic orientation in the country.

At present, there is no training strategy specifically tailored for UTL staff. Thus, personnel istrained mainly on the job. To this regard, the possibility of carrying out systematic trainingprocedures is partially hindered by the fact that UTLs generally do not have any specific budgetfor it.

In terms of communication, the Embassy has the responsibility of coordinating mediarelations and the formal communication with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; informationis spread also through the periodic newsletters issued by the UTLs and through their websites.

5 UTL are operative in: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, IvoryCoast, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Serbia,Sudan, Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, Uganda, Viet Nam.



4.2.2. The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF)

The Ministry of Economy and Finance is responsible for managing and monitoring part ofthe Italian ODA. Within the Treasury Department, the International Financial RelationsDirectorate (IFRD) deals with several international economic and financial issues, and morespecifically: i) macroeconomic analysis and economic policies of the Euro area and of otherindustrialised countries; ii) relations with the European Union (preparation of ECOFIN andEFC), with Informal Intergovernmental Groups (G7, G10, G20), with International FinancialInstitutions (IMF, Multilateral Development Banks) and with OECD; iii) international debt ofdeveloping countries (Paris Club); iv) development cooperation and innovative financingmechanisms; v) internationalisation of the production system.

International references, including the Monterrey Consensus, the MDGs, the DACGuidelines on Poverty Reduction, the European Consensus on Development, the ParisDeclaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, are fully taken into account as guiding principlesof MEF’s action.

As stated earlier, Italian multilateral assistance is managed through two major channels.While the MFA - DGCS is responsible for relations with UN agencies (including thedisbursement of both obligatory and voluntary contributions), the MEF is responsible formultilateral aid through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). In fact, since the MEF is ashareholder of all the MDBs, the IFRD is responsible for the institutional relations with themand for the financial participation of Italy in the capital and in the resources of theseInstitutions.

The IFRD operates in coordination with the MFA for all European Development Fund(EDF) related matters. It regularly participates in all EDF Committee meetings (those where theMFA has the lead) and it manages EDF-related financial activities, namely: i) disbursements tothe Fund 6; ii) disbursements to the European Investment Bank (EIB) Investment Facility; iii)disbursements to the EIB to cover the call for guarantees against EIB loans to ACP granted onits own resources. MEF, along with the MFA, deals as well with policy issues related to the EDFwhich are addressed by the ACP Group.

The IFRD also monitors and supervises the Revolving Fund for Development Cooperationwhich finances soft loans to partner countries, agreed by the MFA with the partner country, thenapproved by the Steering Committee for Development Cooperation and finally authorized bythe MEF. In addition, the IFRD plays an active role in defining, along with the DGCS, guidelinesand policies related to the use of Italian soft loans.

Coherence between aid delivered by the MEF (mainly through Multilateral DevelopmentBanks and Funds) and aid delivered by the MFA is assured, first of all, by the fact that thegeneral policy guidelines of Italian development cooperation, defined by the Ministry of ForeignAffairs, represent the reference framework also for the MEF, mainly in terms of geographicaland sector priorities. Secondly, MFA and MEF keep a constant dialogue: their representativesperiodically meet and exchange information on their activities and priorities, especially withregard to Trust/Thematic Funds (the MFA finances thematic trust funds addressing specificissues, in almost all the MDBs) or other common sectors. Specific meetings are held toexchange more in-depth views on strategic and national priorities.

In compliance with Law 49/87, an official of the IFRD represents the MEF at the SteeringCommittee for Development Cooperation (Comitato Direzionale). While intervening on anyitem on the agenda of the Committee, the MEF places special emphasis on operations financedthrough soft loans, in consideration of its supervisory task on the Revolving Fund fordevelopment cooperation.

4.2.3. The Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS)

Since 2002, in order to meet the commitment under decisions FCCC/CP/2001/L.14,FCCC/CP/2001/L.15 and the “Bonn Declaration” of 2001, the Ministry for the Environment, Land

6 Three installments per year upon request of the European Commission (the average yearly disbursement isaround 350 million euro - the EDF X share for Italy is equal to 12.86% of the contributions of the EU Member States).

and Sea (IMELS), has been authorized by Law June 1, 2002, n° 120, to finance activities for 68million euros/year in developing countries to substantively contribute to the implementation ofthe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. Thoseresources are not considered in the ODA register/accounting and are thus considered “new andadditional” ones. In fact, with the signature of the Kyoto Protocol and its ratification, new andadditional financial resources aimed at technology transfer in the environmental sector weretriggered. These can be considered additional resources responding to the commitments setforth by articles 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5 of the Framework Convention on Climate Change 7, which haveto be used by industrialized countries for assisting developing countries and transitioneconomies in the implementation of policies and strategies according to the Conventionobjectives. In particular, they are required to supply financial resources through programmesand projects which promote the transfer of technologies capable of reducing the impact ofhuman activities on climate change and support adaptation measures.

Furthermore, Italian action in the field of environment and climate change has to beconsidered within the wider framework of the European Union which, in the last 20 years, hasbeen one of the main driving forces with respect to setting global standards on environmentalprotection and, thus, it requires each Member Country to be actively involved in coordinatingwith partner countries and with the UN for the implementation of programmes and projectswhich respond to such standards.

With the overall aim of supporting the implementation of Multilateral EnvironmentalAgreements, IMELS has implemented since 2004 numerous projects on climate change andrelated topics in partner countries, with the aim of promoting a more efficient use of energy,water resources, and of renewable energy sources; furthermore, it has provided professionaltraining, fostered the exchange of know-how as well as propped up eco-efficient technologies.Among its major cooperation activities, IMELS is developing programmes and projects in China,India, the Mediterranean basin, Central and Eastern European countries, Latin America and theCaribbean and in the islands of the Pacific.

What is more, IMELS carries out numerous activities jointly with international multilateralorganizations such as UNESCO, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and EasternEurope (REC), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, FAO, the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP) and the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP).

More in details, the GEF, in the 2001-2006 period received 58 million euros as a financialcontribution from Italy for its activities related to climate change and, in addition, IMELS co-financed also a number of projects within the Facility. In 2003, IMELS contributed with 1 millioneuro in support to the Least Developed Countries Fund and pledged 10 million euros for theSpecial Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

Since 2003, IMELS has signed a partnership agreement with the World Bank forparticipating in a number of funds aiming at purchasing emission reductions from projects thatboth benefit the global environment and transfer clean technologies for sustainabledevelopment in developing and transition countries. In particular, IMELS participates in theCommunity Development Carbon Fund, which has been established by the World Bank topromote mitigation projects and extend the benefits of carbon finance to the poorest countriesand poor communities in all developing countries: Italy contributed with 7 million USD whileadditional 700.000 USD have been devoted to the CDCF-Plus (the related facility for technicalassistance in project development). Moreover, it also contributes with 2.5 million USD to theBio-Carbon Fund, a public-private partnership that provides carbon finance for projects thatsequester greenhouse gas emissions through land-use activities. Finally, IMELS created in 2003the Italian Carbon Fund, a public-private partnership managed by the World Bank with acapitalization that, to date, amounts to 150 million USD. The Italian Carbon Fund supportsprojects that generate emission reductions eligible under the Clean Development Mechanism(CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI), as well as the Emission Trading Scheme of the EuropeanUnion. At the same time, the Fund is designed to assist partner countries to achieve sustainabledevelopment by leveraging substantial investments in modern energy services and technologies,

7 Beforehand, financial resources were provided through the so-called “Carbon tax”, or ecological taxN° 448/1998 “aimed at the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions”.



including investment from the private sector. Furthermore, IMELS, in collaboration with theWorld Bank (through its Environment and Social Development Sector Unit of East Asia andPacific Region) and the government of China, is supporting an Italian Trust Fund forEnvironmental Protection in China which was created in 2004. The trust fund aims at supportingChina’s long term strategy for balancing economic growth with sustainable natural resource useand environmental management, with a particular focus on climate change.

Finally, IMELS is promoting and supporting programmes on scientific and technologicalresearch in the Mediterranean Region, the Balkans and Asia with the involvement of theacademic and business sectors. These initiatives are focused on the implementation of R&Dprojects whose technological components will play a key role in the near future to reducegreenhouse gas emissions and address the negative impacts of climate change.

4.2.4. Other relevant ministries involved

There are a few more ministries which, to a lesser extent with respect to theaforementioned ones, conduct activities in the field of development cooperation.

The Ministry for agriculture, food and forestry policies (MAFFP) is involved indevelopment cooperation activities mainly within the EU policy for external relations. Inparticular, in the past few years, the MAFFP has been providing technical assistance to EUacceding countries within the PHARE Programme (2000-2006) and, nowadays, through theTransitional Facility (2007-2013), which also defines geographic and sector priorities as well asindications on the relevant output and impact indicators to be used. In general, it has to beunderlined that the links between the EU (and Italian) strategic framework for third countriessupport and the OECD support framework are cross-referenced at MFA rather than at MAFFPlevel. For its activities, the MAFFP mainly resorts to in-house expertise, both from its internalstaff or from regional administrations; furthermore, the involvement of universities and researchinstitutes often represents an important added value.

Within the MAFFP, the Forestry Department (Corpo forestale dello Stato) carries outinstitutional cooperation activities with its peers mainly in the Mediterranean countries and inKosovo. The Forestry department works in close collaboration with the FAO (e.g., project“Participatory and integrated forest fires management plan” in Syria), with the EU (FLEGT actionplan) and it has been an active player in the G8 preparatory meetings with a focus on illegallogging.

Finally, the national FAO Committee grants the link and coordination among the Italiangovernment and the international UN organizations and others working in the agricultural andfood sectors, namely FAO, IFAD, WFP, Bioversity International, OECD, WTO and similarinternational organizations. Its duties include, in addition, raising awareness among the Italy’sgeneral public on themes such as agriculture and food security and sustaining the elaboration ofstudies on specific relevant subjects.

The Ministry of Labour, Health and Welfare - Health Sector (MLHW-HS) does notdirectly implement cooperation projects, rather, it promotes and coordinates collaborationactivities and projects implemented by other actors; in this sense, it works in close collaborationwith the DGCS, Regions, hospitals, universities, other health bodies and the civil society as wellas with other geographic directorates of MFA and in the frame of EU funded programmes. Morein details, the General Directorate for EU and International Affairs has a specific mandate todeal with the World Health Organization and to foster the collaboration with partner countriesin the field of health and medical sciences: for the latter, specific bilateral agreements and plansof action are an essential basis upon which programmes and projects are implemented. Ingeneral, the MLHW-HS gives utmost priority to developing the capacities of publicadministration that deal with health issues in partner countries, mainly through training andtechnical assistance. Bilateral frameworks identifies the needs and priorities of the partnercountries and set the strategy and actions to be undertaken.

In terms of geographic focus, over the last two years, the Mediterranean and Middle EastCountries have been considered a priority in particular for supporting the implementation of anew health policy, “Diplomacy for health”, an approach which considers health an essentialpre-condition for development. For this reason, a Joint Secretariat gathers Regional

representatives and the National Institute for Health: coordination meetings have the objectiveof defining specific strategies. Joint Country groups are also gathered in order to shareinformation among the concerned parties and to collect and evaluate new collaborationproposals. Other geographic priorities for the MLHW-HS are Europe, in particular Albania,Bulgaria and Poland, both for bilateral collaboration and for the implementation of twinningprogrammes funded by the European Commission, the Caucasian area (Moldova, Armenia andGeorgia) and Latin America, in particular through the EC programme EUROsociAL.

4.2.5. The Italian Department of Civil Protection

The Civil Protection Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (DPChereafter) is the coordinating body of the National Civil Protection Service and, according to itsmandate, is responsible at national level for the protection of the country’s people and goods,undergoing particular threats and dangers rising from natural, environmental or man-made risks.Likewise, the DPC plays an important role when a civil protection intervention is carried outabroad. Also in this case, the activities of the components of the National Civil ProtectionService are indeed coordinated by the DPC. In recent years, the Italian Department of CivilProtection, within the limits of its competences, has contributed to the national developmentcooperation policy. In particular, starting from 2004, in several international crises, the DPC hasplayed an important role in bringing aid to the population affected by a disaster and incontributing to the local development through post-emergency assistance.

The type of international missions that the DPC can carry out were firstly defined by Law49/1987, in particular, by article 11, which highlights that the interventions following disasters orextraordinary events can be carried out in agreement with the Minister for civil protection 8.More recently, the legal foundations have been integrated by Law 152/2005, which underlinesthat the DPC is competent for operating in international crises in cooperation with the Ministryof Foreign Affairs. The law further highlights that the President of the Council of Ministers or theHead of the DPC delegated ad hoc, can issue emergency ordinances aimed at avoiding dangersituations or further damage to people and goods abroad, allowing the DPC to exercise thesame powers as for emergencies occurring over the Italian territory.

However, the DPC does not only intervene in case of natural or man-made disasters, buthas been active, in recent years, as a humanitarian actor by using its human resources andtransportation means to bring humanitarian aid in several countries. Humanitarian flights of theDPC were authorized by the Italian government to bring aid material and food items to Mali in2005, medical material to Angola between 2004 and 2005, following a violent epidemic ofMarburg fever that hit the country (and following the declaration of critical situation in Angolaby the Presidency of the Council of Ministers which authorized the DPC’s intervention).

The DPC also conducts capacity building activities in the Mediterranean and BalkanCountries where it is particularly active as the primary counterpart of the local civil protectionauthorities with whom it has developed, throughout the years, strong bilateral relations. Inparticular, being the leading partner of the consortium that manages the EUROMED Programmefor Prevention, Reduction and Management of natural and man-made disasters, the DPC willpromote a civil protection culture in this area and contribute to developing local civil protectionsystems. Other initiatives in which the DPC participates and that contribute to building a civilprotection culture in this area are the Adriatic-Ionic Initiative and the Central EuropeanInitiative. This capacity-building activity was also carried out, after the reconstruction phase, inSri Lanka (in the Tsunami aftermath) where, following a request from the Local Authorities, theDPC implemented a programme of rehabilitation, assistance and training of the local civilprotection structures.

Overall, the growing number of international interventions has pushed the DPC alsotowards the development of a set of procedures of accountability and transparency based onthe highest international standards that now constitutes a cornerstone of all the humanitarianactivities of the Italian Civil Protection.

8 The Minister for civil protection has been substituted in the current civil protection system by the Head of theCivil Protection Department.



4.2.6. NGOs

Non-Governmental Organizations play an important role on the Italian developmentcooperation scene. Their number steadily increased over the years and, to date, those officiallyrecognized by the MFA are 240. However, to date, in Italy, about 20.000 CSOs are engaged in thefield of development cooperation with some 1,3 million employees (both paid and on a voluntarybasis). Their major added value rests in project implementation skills and in their knowledge andunderstanding of the partner countries where they operate. However, their role in terms ofadvocacy and awareness raising among the population is still less prominent than the one playedby NGOs in some other countries, essentially due to the bigger size of the latter.

Law 49 of 1987 rules and defines the activities of, and the procedures related to, the NGOs.In addition, Law 288/91 (and its following integrations) provides the legal basis for insuranceand salary-related issues of Italian international volunteers.

Officially recognized Italian NGOs receive financial support by the MFA-DGCS for theimplementation of projects proposed by them (progetti promossi): in this case, the DGCS canco-finance up to 70% of the total project envelope. Furthermore, NGOs generally rely on otherfinancial sources, such as the European Union, Italian Regions and Local Authorities, otherMinistries (Education, Health and Interior) as well as on other Directorates General of the MFA(e.g., Mediterranean and the Middle East and Cultural Promotion).

Overall, there is a good degree of consultation among the DGCS and the NGOs, inparticular when identifying and drafting project proposals. This close collaboration ensures thatnew activities are coherent with IC strategic orientation. Moreover, the DGCS considers theexperience and know-how of the NGOs of the highest value, in particular when it comes toshaping and/or finetuning its policies and priorities. In fact, NGOs are also a bridge towardsCSOs of partner countries and for facilitating the endorsement of their issues and prioritieswithin the Italian strategy: the participation of CSOs of partner countries is an essential elementfor the approval of any progetto promosso.

4.2.7. Decentralized cooperation

Decentralized cooperation is defined as the development activity carried out by ItalianRegions and Local Authorities in partnership with their peers in partner countries and with theinvolvement of the CSOs as well as of other territorial actors (such as universities, private andpublic companies, chambers of commerce, etc). The number of Regions and Local Authoritiesoperating in partner countries has steadily increased over the years and it could be wellconsidered one of the main added values and peculiarities of the Italian Cooperation system. 40to 60 million euros is the estimated amount of financial resources allocated by the decentralizedcooperation system each year for development programmes and projects.

The increasing importance of decentralized cooperation is outlined also by the fact thatseveral Regions and Local Authorities have elaborated their own specific Laws which ruledevelopment cooperation activities. Given the primary competence of the MFA in settingpriorities for development cooperation (as part of the foreign policies as a whole), programmesand policies of each and every Local Authority needs a prior approval by the MFA - DGCS.

Regions and Local Authorities finance their activities through both their own and externalsources. With regard to the latter, decentralized cooperation can be financed in the frameworkof Law 49/87 and of other instruments such as Laws 212/92 and 180/92, CIPE ad hoc funds andLaw 84/2001 on the Western Balkans (see box below). Moreover, decentralized cooperationoften accedes to EU funded programmes.

In terms of priorities, the following are the focus sectors: institution and capacity building,participative democracy and decentralization processes, cultural heritage, private sector, health,welfare, agriculture and food security, environment. Likewise, geographic priorities are theWestern Balkans and Latin America. Among the initiatives in Latin America, it is worthmentioning the Programme FOSEL, which involve 12 Italian Regions and aims at supportingindustrial and economic development in Argentina and the Programme Brazil - PROXIMO,promoted by four Italian Regions, which addresses SMEs, environment and agriculture(cooperatives) related issues. To a lesser extent, decentralized cooperation is present also inSub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South East Asia.

Numerous agreements provide the framework within which decentralized developmentcooperation operates. The following are the basic ones: i) the Agreement between the Italiangovernment (MFA, Ministry of Economic Development and Department of Regional Affairs -Presidency of the Council of Ministers) and the Regions (including the Autonomous Provinces ofTrento and of Bolzano), signed as of December 2008, and regulating foreign affairs matters; ii) the18 agreements signed by the MFA and specific Italian Regions and Provinces, eight of which havebeen signed after 2004; iii) the framework agreements between the DGCS and ANCI (NationalAssociation of Italian Municipalities - Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani) and the DGCS andthe Union of Italian Provinces (Unione Province Italiane - UPI); iv) art. 7 of the bilateralFramework Agreement on Cooperation among Italy and Albania; v) the Additional Protocol to theTechnical Cooperation Agreement on Decentralized Cooperation between Italy and Brazil; vi) thebilateral agreements between Italian Regions and their peers in partner countries: in the 2006-2008period, some 129 of such agreements were signed, 55 of which in the Balkan countries, 34 inLatin America, 19 in the Middle East and North Africa, 9 in Sub-Saharan Africa and 6 in Asia.

4.3. Management

4.3.1. Coordination

The DGCS is in charge of coordinating the Italian Cooperation system as a whole. Thismeans liaising with the UTLs as well as with the other relevant Ministries involved, in particularthe MEF and IMELS. In addition to these, the DGCS takes care of fostering coordination with theother Italian actors part of the cooperation system, such as CSOs, Regions, Local Authorities,universities, public and private firms.

A constant consultation process among the different Offices of the DGCS and the UTLs isin place. The continuous dialogue on strategic orientations and policy priorities among thecompetent territorial offices (III, IV and V) and the UTLs fosters information sharing and ahigher degree of coherence when it comes to devising programmes and projects.

The Steering Committee for Development Cooperation (see §2.2) represents the mainvenue for coordinating policies and strategies of the MFA, the MEF and the Ministry forEconomic Development.

Law 84 of 2001 on the Western Balkans

Law 84 of 21 March 2001 contains “Provisions for the Italian Participation in theStabilisation, Reconstruction and Development of the Countries in the Balkan Area”. The Lawrepresents a framework deemed to regulate the interventions in the Western Balkans of theItalian cooperation system as a whole. It stands as an important milestone, both as an attemptto rationalise and systemically coordinate the various national stakeholders involved and interms of decentralised cooperation, to which the law recognises a primary role through itsarticle 7. The multi-actor approach is a founding characteristic of Law 84/01: the managementof funds involves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with respect to activities concerningdevelopment cooperation), the Ministry of Economic Development (promotion and assistanceto enterprises), Local Authorities, Regions, and the Ministry of the Environment (environmentalmonitoring). The Presidency of the Council of Ministers is entrusted with the channelling andcoordination of activities, through the Committee of Ministers and the Technical OperatingTechnical Unit for the Balkans (UTOB), specifically set up for this purpose.

In the past few years, some 77 projects have been launched and implemented in theframework of the art. 7 of Law 84/2001 in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania. They involved 18 Italian Regions, with supportprovided by the DGCS in collaboration with UTOB. In particular, interventions aimed atcreating and/or strengthening territorial partnerships among Local Authorities on bothsides of the Adriatic Sea and entailed economic and commercial issues, culturalcooperation, democratic governance, human rights as well as supporting localadministrations’ capacity development. To this end, the projects involved universities,research institutes, CSOs, public and private enterprises and chambers of commerce.



The State - Regions Consultation (Conferenza Stato Regioni) represents the main forum fordialogue and coordination among these two actors. Over the past few years, the DGCS has madean effort aimed at enhancing this dialogue. To this regard, also the “2009-2011 ProgrammingGuidelines and Directions” call for an enhanced coordination which will be sustained throughthe recently signed Agreement between the Italian government and the Regions. Moreover, theDGCS, together with Regions and Local Authorities, is working on the setting up of a newnational database on the ongoing decentralized cooperation initiatives; this is being implementedin collaboration also with OICS, UPI and ANCI (which respectively represent Regions, Provincesand Municipalities), and will significantly contribute to Italian data collection of ODA.

In an effort to improve dialogue and coordination with the CSOs, the MFA has recentlysigned (January 2009) a Memorandum of Understanding with two among the main Italianfederations and associations of NGOs (see box below).

4.3.2. Budgeting procedures and human resources

All programmes and projects directly managed by the DGCS and whose cost is higher than1.032.912 euros need the approval of the Steering Committee whereas, for lower amounts, theyare approved directly by the Director General. On the other hand, emergency initiatives, of anyfinancial amount, are authorized by the Director General upon the approval of the Minister ofForeign Affairs (or his delegate).

Italian Cooperation provides financial support to NGOs for the implementation ofprogrammes and projects in partner countries (progetti promossi) as well as for awareness-raisingand information activities in Italy (INFOEAS Programme). This topic is ruled by Law 49/87. Thetotal financial envelope available for such activities is defined annually by the Financial Law.

The project proposals are submitted by NGOs to the DGCS, in charge of coordinating theex-ante evaluation process needed for approval. In particular, for each proposal DGCS requiresan assessment by: UTC, UTL, Embassy, Technical Evaluation Unit. Subsequently, the projectneeds the approval of the Steering Committee and, in case of a multi-annual initiative, the

Consultation with CSOs: a renewed effort

Over the last few years, the IC renovated its efforts to consolidate dialogue and directconsultation with the civil society organizations. In particular, from 2006 onward, CSOs activelyparticipate in strategic discussions taking place at the MFA level: this has started a period ofopen and wide consultation, especially on specific sector topics such as gender and health.

This consultation process represents a new, important path. It is receiving higherinstitutional recognition and more clear-cut deadlines, in particular through the signing, inJanuary 2009, of a Memorandum of Understanding between MFA and two of the mainItalian federations and associations of NGOs (CINI and the Associazione ONG Italiane). Theobjectives of this collaboration are the Italian Aid Effectiveness Plan, including themonitoring of its implementation, and an intellectual contribution for the drafting of theMemorandum for the 2009 Peer Review. To this end, the NGOs Associations have appointedthe coordinator of their newly established task force as a focal point at the DGCS who, for ayear, will foster the direct link and coordination among state and civil society actors.

In 2008, the consultation process with civil society was linked, in particular, to the“Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness” and to the “Doha International Conferenceon Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the MonterreyConsensus”. To this regard, the MFA, upon proposal of the CSOs, decided to includemembers of the latter within the Official Italian delegation to the Accra Forum as well as toendorse a number of important inputs coming from them. This positive collaboration hasfostered the aforementioned MoU among MFA, CINI and the Associazione ONG Italiane.

Finally, the longest lasting consultation process among MFA and CSOs is that relatedto the GFATM. NGOs, together with the Ministry of Health and the National HealthInstitute are represented in a working group coordinated by MFA and actively participatein the discussion of Italian strategic orientations before any GFATM assembly. The CSOcoordinator is officially part of the Italian Delegation attending the Board meetings.

approval of MEF, too. The procedure for INFOEAS projects (annual) is the same except for theassessment of the UTLs, Embassies and of the MEF. The financial contribution is disbursedgradually and only upon provision of sound documentation.

Currently, the DGCS can count on a staff of 485 persons, based both in Rome and in thefield (in UTLs). The table below provides details for each category:

Personnel category Number

Career foreign service officers (Diplomats) 28Development Cooperation professionals 73UTL personnel (administrative and development

cooperation professionals) 116Administrative Staff 265Other experts 3

Total 485

4.4. Monitoring and evaluation

The DGCS is mainly a cooperation financing agency and performs the external monitoringof all bilateral, multi-bilateral and NGOs initiatives through UTC and UTLs which, in turn, utilizein many cases freelance consultants. In this context, particular attention is paid to accountingcontrol, a process entailing three different levels, the external auditor, DGCS and the ControlBodies of the Ministry of Economy.

As far as evaluation is concerned, an independent Evaluation Unit in the DGCS was establishedin 1996. Notwithstanding its scarce human and financial resources, in 1999, the Unit outsourced fourassignments to specialized contractors in order to evaluate initiatives related to: i) education sector;ii) Sub-Saharan Countries; iii) Joint ventures made up by Italian enterprises in DevelopingCountries; iv) a handbook concerning DGCS monitoring and evaluating activities. These

The ongoing rationalization and simplification process of the DGCS procedures

In 2005, the DGCS started a process aimed at simplify all the working procedures ofthe development cooperation so as to make them more rational and compliant with theParis Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Hence, the DGCS, with a specific organizationalrole played by Office X and UTC, took on the coordination of this process. The first stepwas to identify and classify all existing procedures by collecting the existing practicesamong the different DGCS offices. Subsequently, they were sorted according to thefinancial instrument adopted (grant or loan) and to the degree of involvement of the DGCSin the project cycle (identified by the DGCS or identified by other actors). The third stageof the process was to get rid to the maximum extent possible of all non necessary stepsand to successively come up with shared, standard procedures. Best practices were alsoduly taken into consideration in order to shape the new procedures accordingly.

The new standard procedures have been adopted by all DGCS offices and areavailable on the MFA intranet. These are subdivided into four main categories: i) soft loansdirectly identified and managed by the IC; ii) soft loans identified by other actors andfinanced by the IC (such as those to Italian SMEs to invest in partner countries); iii) grantsdirectly identified and managed by the IC; iv) grants identified by other actors andfinanced by the IC (such as the contributions to IIOO and the co-financing to LocalAuthorities and NGOs initiatives). To date, the procedures on soft loans are those whoseimplementation is at a more advanced stage.

Though the process is still ongoing and a number of steps have yet to be madetowards an actual simplification of procedures, the DGCS is committed at all levels in thepursuit of this important goal.


assignments were finalized in 2002 but their findings and recommendations had a limitedimpact because of the scarcity of feedback actions. In 2005, the name of the Evaluation Unitwas changed to “Inspection, monitoring and initiatives assessment Unit”.

Furthermore, preceding the approval of any project, an ex ante evaluation is carried out bythe Nucleo di Valutazione Tecnica (NVT), a technical body of the Steering Committee whichformulates comments and recommendations on which the Committee bases its decisions.

To date, the DGCS strongly recognizes the importance of a result-based approach in itsaction and of more systematic and planned monitoring and evaluation activities for improvingits performances and tuning up its organization and procedures. Italy is aware that itsmonitoring and evaluation (M&E) system needs a significant steer in order to endorse theOECD/DAC 2004 Peer Review recommendations and to conform its action to the ParisDeclaration and to the Accra Agenda. To this regard, Italy is committed to strengthening theInspection, monitoring and initiatives assessment Unit, increasing its resources and progressivelyharmonizing the evaluation and the related feedback procedures to the best practices of theinternational community, involving as much as possible the partner countries.

For the time being, the Inspection, monitoring and initiatives assessment Unit is finalisingnew evaluation guidelines and a three-year evaluation programme to be submitted to theSteering Committee for its approval (see box below).

At field level, UTLs carry out the monitoring of bilateral, multi-bilateral and Italian NGOinitiatives, though they do not have the mandate for monitoring those implemented with theItalian voluntary contributions to IIOO. Furthermore, preceding the approval and launch of anyproject activity, an ex ante evaluation is conducted, at Headquarter level, by the Inspection,monitoring and initiatives assessment Unit and, at field level, by the UTL: the latter assesses therelevance of the project vis à vis the context of destination.

Monitoring and evaluation procedures for NGO co-financed projects (progetti promossi) areset by specific guidelines and entail three main phases: ex-ante, mid term (in itinere) and final.Ex ante evaluation is based on a number of criteria such as relevance to Italian and partnercountries priorities, relevance to MDGs as well as on partnership quality, inclusiveness andsustainability. The DGCS constantly monitors and assesses the ongoing activities, payingattention to both accounting and technical issues. In particular, assessments are performed byUTC and the DGCS through field missions whereas continuous monitoring is carried out by theUTLs. Particular attention is devoted to accounting control, a process entailing three differentlevels (an external auditor, the DGCS and the MEF Central Budget Office located at MFA). Thefinal payment is disbursed by the DGCS only upon approval of the final report and accountantdocumentation provided by the NGO.


Monitoring and Evaluation. A new action plan for the future

The need for enhancing M&E is outlined also in the DGCS 2009-2011 strategy and,therefore, the DGCS is giving a strong momentum to it. The DGCS is, in fact, elaboratingnew guidelines and a three-year evaluation programme (2009-2011) which outlines prioritythemes. In particular, in the next few years, the focus will be given on evaluating initiatives:

• specifically related to the achievement of the first MDG (eradicate extremepoverty); attention will also be given to activities implemented in the field of agricultureand rural development;

• carried out in Ethiopia and Mozambique, two among the main recipients of ItalianODA;

• carried out through art. 15 of the Implementing Regulation of Law 49/87, thosedisposing a direct financial transfer to partner countries’ governments.

In addition to the above-mentioned priorities, IC will possibly concentrate also on thejoint evaluation of multi-bilateral programmes. In this case, the exercise should be carriedout in close collaboration with the International Organization and with the partner countryinvolved. Ad hoc procedures will be elaborated in the near future in order to foster theimplementation of such activities.


5. Chapter 5 – Aid Effectiveness


Italy confirms its commitment towards implementing the principles on Aid Effectiveness setin the 2005 Paris Declaration and renewed in the Accra Agenda for Action. In particular, IC ismaking an effort in order to endorse such principles at all levels. Therefore, over the past fewyears, the overall approach has switched so as to become more harmonised and aligned,relying progressively less on direct DGCS managed programmes and more on partner countries’ones.

More in details, in the next few years, Italy will increase the use of General Budget Support(GBS) and, for this reason is, at present, elaborating a specific set of guidelines. Likewise, ItalianCooperation is relying progressively more on multi-donor pooled funding, recognizing thatcoordinated actions are keener to support more sustainable, equitable and effectivedevelopment processes in partner countries.

Overall, the 2008 DAC survey on monitoring the Paris Declaration shows that, with regardto a number of indicators, Italy has made important improvements towards the objectives set for2010. Nevertheless, Italy is aware that improvements are still needed with respect to otherissues, such as decreasing the number of Project Implementation Units (PIUs).

Italy’s approach to fragile and conflict-affected states acknowledges the need for fulladherence to the Principles of Aid Effectiveness and the European Consensus for Development,as pointed out by the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”. As an example, Italyhas gradually changed its approach in Afghanistan in the most recent years, switching fromdirect execution towards more aligned and harmonised programmes, with an increased use ofpartner country’s financial management and procurement system.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment will continue to be given priority withinItaly’s global aid strategy. Specific programmes for women’s empowerment and capacitybuilding of national institutions, including the promotion of women’s participation in thereconstruction of countries in conflict or post conflict situation will be supported (in particularin Lebanon and Palestinian Territories).

The DGCS recently set up a Working Group on Aid Effectiveness (WGAE). The groupbrings together officials from the different DGCS offices, with the aim of elaborating a sharedaction plan which will be completed by the end of 2009. A representative of the CSOs isactively participating to the WGAE.

The draft Action Plan on Aid Effectiveness aims at defining a road map with the stepsnecessary for achieving the 2010 targets set by the Paris Declaration. In particular, the followingare the main issues addressed: i) simplification of procedures; ii) mainstreaming AidEffectiveness: sector guidelines, country programmes, evaluation; iii) untying aid; iv) generalbudget support and programme-based aid; v) specific guidelines defining Italian priority interms of international organizations; vi) PIUs and joint field missions; vii) training and humanresources; viii) communication; ix) monitoring the implementation of the action plan.

5.2. Ownership

Over the past few years, Italy has made important efforts towards devising andimplementing actions bound to leave the highest degree of ownership to partner countries. Forthis reason, all interventions rely first and foremost on the development strategies of the partnercountries and, hence, strategies and projects are shaped accordingly. In order to come up withbest suited strategies, Italy carries out negotiations and consultations with partner countries atdifferent level: at headquarter levels they are generally carried out by the territorial desks of theDGCS (Office III, IV and V) whereas, at field level, a key role is played by UTLs. What is more,the DGCS foresees the drafting of specific guidelines on country systems in the near future.


Programmes and projects are always implemented in close collaboration with relevantministries and Local Authorities. Line ministries are given progressively more responsibilities anddirect management authority over IC funded activities. Moreover, Italy supports partnercountries’ governments in the definition and implementation of sector and thematicprogrammes (see, for example, the health sector in Ethiopia, § 1.4.3).

Italy is progressively shifting from project-based to direct budget support and multi-donorpooled funding approaches. In some countries, (e.g., Ethiopia, Serbia) aid mechanisms fordirect financial transfer also to Local Authorities are in place. When providing direct support,Italy provides also technical assistance to central and Local Authorities in order to develop theircapacities mainly in terms of policy planning and service delivery.

In some cases, IC operates through bilateral financial facilities which provide funding on-demand: Local Authorities and CSOs define priorities and activities and then finance themthrough the available fund, according to specific manuals of procedures (as in the case of theItaly - Cilss Fund in Senegal, see §1.5.1).

The dialogue with partner countries’ CSOs is mediated mainly by Italian NGOs; moreover,UTLs involve them in information-sharing meetings. Italy does not have any financial instrumentcapable of directly financing them but it financially support CSOs through the co-financing ofItalian NGO activities (progetti promossi) and through International Organizations. Nonetheless,recently, Italy has set up special funds, directly managed by UTLs, through which it is possibleto co-finance local CSO initiatives (e.g., in Senegal and the Ivory Coast). Overall, local CSOs actmainly as operational and facilitating partners in programme implementation as well as inemergency operations (as in Afghanistan).

5.3. Alignment

Italian Cooperation has made important steps forward in elaborating country strategies andprogrammes consistent with partner countries’ strategic documents and priorities. In this sense,the 2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration shows that Italy has increased the use ofpartner countries’ systems and procedures. Italy is currently making all necessary efforts forachieving the objectives set for 2010.

Italy has taken some step, forward in terms of aid predictability. To this regard, the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions” include the provisional IC funding allocation forthe coming three years, a planning exercise never done beforehand. Moreover, Italy adoptsspecific multi-year planning in many partner countries. Finally, the wider use of budget supportand multi-donors’ pooled funds increases the percentage of aid reported in partner countries’national budgets.

In fact, following the OECD/DAC Recommendation to untie ODA to the Least DevelopedCountries approved on April 25th 2001, the Steering Committee of the DGCS decided, in July 2004(Decision n. 98), to untie all the soft loans to the Least Developed Countries and then, in October2008 (Decision n. 221), approved new soft loans percentage criteria for further untying aid to alldeveloping countries, according to the different fields to which the loans programmes areaddressed 9. The newly set criteria will ensure a decrease in the share of tied aid for the coming years.

5.4. Harmonisation

Italy has taken some steps forward in the harmonization of procedures. The percentage ofaid disbursed through programme-based approach has increased over the recent years. To this

9 In particular, the new criteria are the following: i) work sector, 95% of goods and services is free fromrestriction (i.e., percentage of goods that can be purchased in the local market or in other neighbouring developingcountries); ii) all other sectors, the sourcing of goods and services is free from restriction until 75%; iii) loans for thedevelopment of SMEs, the sourcing of goods and services is free from restriction up to 30%; iv) micro-credit, thesourcing of goods and services is free from restriction until 75%.

extent, Italy is committed to continue working in this direction and to progressively extend thisapproach to all partner countries where it operates.

With regard to coordination with other donors, UTLs actively participate in thematic roundtables and in coordination mechanisms at different levels: i) with other bilateral and multilateraldonors, ii) with EU donors, iii) with partner countries governments. Italy is particularly active incoordination activities in conflict and post conflict situations as, for example, in Lebanon where,in Tyr, it established an Emergency Program Office (September 2007) in order to guaranteecoordination at field level. What is more, the continuous consultation and coordination processis the key to conduct effective and comprehensive context analyses.

Moreover, UTLs keep track of, and coordinate, all Italian development stakeholders activein a specific partner country. For this reason, UTLs continuously update databases withinformation on the ongoing projects implemented by CSOs and decentralized cooperation, all ofwhich are invited to report on any implemented activity to the local UTLs.

As an EU Member State, Italy is committed to the implementation of the EU Code ofConduct on the Division of Labour, approved by the Council of the EU in 2007. This processestablishes that each EU donor has to progressively concentrate its action in each partnercountry so as to reach a maximum of three sectors with the aim of contributing to therationalization and coordination of the international aid flow. Specifically, in each partnercountry, IC is working on the reduction of the sectors of intervention: in Albania, Ethiopia,Lebanon and Mozambique this process is currently at a more advanced stage. At present, Italy isin-country facilitator in the ongoing Division of Labour process in Albania and is a focal pointfor the Health sector (with the World Health Organization). In its role as in-country facilitator,Italy has started promoting the implementation of the Fast Track Initiative - DoL, together withthe local EC Delegation and with an active involvement of the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Agency. In addition, IC is in close contacts with the government through theDepartment for Strategy and Donor Coordination and it constantly shares information with otherdonors.

In countries where it can count on a long lasting experience and a relevant financialenvelope, Italy is advancing its candidature as lead donor. In Ethiopia, IC aspires to be theleader in Health and Education; in Kenya it is focusing its intervention on Water, Health andEducation; in Lebanon it is coordinating the EU donors’ working groups on local developmentand environment while in terms of sector concentration it is proposing the agro-economic,social and environmental sectors as its focal ones. In more general terms, IC is studying howbest to implement DoL in all its forms; specific instructions in this regards have recently beensent by the DGCS to all Embassies and UTLs.



6. Chapter 6 – Special issues

6.1. Capacity development

6.1.1. General orientations

The concept and actual implications of capacity development (CD) are widely understoodand accepted within the Italian Cooperation, both at headquarter and field level. According toDAC Guidelines 10, capacity development is the process whereby people, organisations andsociety as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and maintain capacity over time. Based onthis broad definition, DAC has elaborated a three-level framework of analysis (enablingenvironment, organisations, individuals) focused on four basic issues: understandinginternational and country contexts; identifying and supporting sources of country-ownedchange; delivering support; learning from experience and sharing lessons. CD has to beconsidered in the wider framework defined by the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda forAction: sustaining the development of internal capacities in partner countries is the key toachieve a more effective delivery of aid. Therefore, following the AAA, six priority areas havebeen identified: civil society and private sector; national, sector and thematic strategies;technical cooperation; enabling environment; country systems; fragile situations.

At the end of 2008, an informal working party on CD was established at OECD/DAC levelin which Italy participated through a focal point. The objective is to encourage mainstreamingof CD as a cross-cutting issue while capitalising upon the vast array of practices that Italy hasbeen developing at field level and that are relevant to CD. To this end, the network of UTLshas been mobilised for a first inventory of best/worst practices and lessons learnt which couldpave the way for drafting specific guidelines, to which attention will be given in the nearfuture.

6.1.2. Capacity development priority areas

As already mentioned, the relationship with local CSOs is usually mediated through ItalianNGOs active in a specific country. A consultation process is in place in particular with thoselocal CSOs and business-related actors with whom IC or Italian NGOs work. Therefore, ItalianNGOs play a significant role in CD-related needs assessment and impact evaluation and, for thisreason, they are increasingly more involved in CD mainstreaming.

Institutional capacity for designing clear development strategies is still an issue in manyCountries. Where strategies exist, alignment is a major commitment of Italy. At country level,Italy takes part in donor coordination activities and is increasingly focusing more on CD issuesas part of the policy dialogue on AAA implementation.

In general, Italian Cooperation has a long-lasting tradition of programmes and projectsaimed at strengthening institutional capacities in partner countries. In fact, almost allprogrammes, regardless of their core sector of activity, are conceived so as to entail a capacity-building component. Overall, when identifying activities, utmost attention is paid to the fact thatcapacity development needs are demand-driven.

In several countries, IC carries out programmes to support the development of publicadministrations’ capacities: particular attention is paid to modernising public administration atthe local, regional and national level, through ICT as, for example, in Tunisia, where Italyfunded a programme to develop public administration’s capacities in e-procurement through atrust fund of the World Bank in 2007 and in Morocco, through the “Development GatewayFoundation - E-procurement Project”, which created a website and a database on all publicprocurement open competitions in the country. Similarly, Italian Cooperation supports theEgyptian government in the setting up of a sustainable management system of migratory flows.

Many partner countries pointed out the enhancement of human resources skills andcapacities as a central issue on their development agenda. For this reason, several ICprogrammes endeavour to develop lifelong training systems, especially through e-learning,with the direct involvement of local stakeholders for designing training curricula and modules.

10 The challenge of capacity development: working towards good practice, OECD 2006.

What is more, all programmes of this kind pay considerable attention to raising the awarenessof the local counterparts on the benefits of the new skills acquired and on the necessity tovalorise them to the maximum extent possible.

As previously mentioned (see §5.2), IC is increasingly recurring to budget support, whereasthe use of multi-donor pooled funding has become widespread: through such an approach,together with the provision of ad hoc technical assistance, IC endeavours to strengthen partnercountries’ capacities in managing external funds. More in detail, as far as grants are concerned,the use of budget support (both in sector-wide or project-based approaches) mainly dependson the institutional capacities of partner countries. This option is progressively being sustained,in accordance and coordination with other major donors, also through the provision oftechnical assistance aimed at developing local capacities in managing public procurement,financial and monitoring systems. Finally, with regard to soft loans, country systems are alwaysin charge of managing resources: to this regard, IC generally supports the development ofpartner countries’ capacities so as to comply, in particular, with Italian administrativeprocedures.

In recent years, Italy has been engaged in promoting triangular cooperation, in particular inLatin America (see box below). Moreover, in order to foster capacity development, IC carries outappropriate and periodic context and needs analyses. To this regard, UTLs play a key role inconducting such a task. All strategic and policy documents used by the IC are drafted on the basisof consultative processes with partner countries’ governments and Local Authorities.

Nonetheless, Italy is aware that programmes and projects still need to enforce the inclusionof other CD related issues. It is the case of technical assistance, where there is still room forincreasing the use of local expertise. In addition, though the great potentialities of south-southcooperation are clearly understood, this approach needs to be further developed.

Likewise, Italy is aware of the need to further decrease the number of ProjectImplementation Units: to this regard, intermediate steps will be taken to reduce existing PIUs toone single sector/country unit, while gradually shifting to direct secondment of experts to thepartner country system in close coordination with other donors (e.g. with sector “lead donors”,in particular where Division of Labour process is at a more advanced stage). To this regard, theVI Italo-Tunisian Joint Great Commission (October 2007) decided to create only one PIU incharge of the implementation of all the Italian bilateral initiatives in the country.

Triangular cooperation

In recent years, Italy has started to operate also through Triangular cooperationmechanisms, in particular with Latin American countries such as Brazil and Argentina. Tothis regard, Italy signed a Triangular Cooperation Agreement with Argentina in March2007. Within this framework, activities are to be developed in Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguayand Peru, in particular in the field of vocational training and health.

Similarly, Italy and Brazil have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with theobjective of implementing development activities in different countries. Among the sectorsaddressed, the agreement gives priority to providing training and technical assistancebased on the experiences matured in Brazil: in particular, attention will be given to thefields of infrastructures, health and water management. The first activities are foreseen inMozambique where, building upon the past projects implemented in Salvador de Bahia inthe framework of the “Cities Alliance for Cities without slums” (to which both Italy andBrazil are associated), Italy and Brazil envisage launching an initiative aimed at fightingurban poverty and social exclusion in Maputo. In addition, initiatives in the field of waterand waste management (in collaboration with the Hydroaid consortium) and publictransportation (in collaboration with the ASSTRA consortium) are envisaged.

Furthermore, at present, Italy is part of a triangular cooperation agreement withTunisia and Niger. In this framework, since 2006, some 1,5 million euros have beenearmarked for providing short and medium term training to Nigerin health sector personnel(both technical and administrative): the programme entails internships and on-the-jobtraining for the benefit of Nigerin medic and paramedic staff both in Tunisia and Senegal.



As stressed before in the Memorandum, Italian Regions and Local Authorities carry outnumerous development activities in partner countries. In this sense, decentralized cooperationdoes, indeed, represent an effective tool in order to enhance capacities in partner countries insuch a way as to assure the utmost level of ownership and appropriation by, in particular, theLocal Authorities. In fact, civil servants’ and officials’ capacities are supported by their peersfrom Italian territories rather than from cooperation experts.

Italy strongly supports the principle that a development relationship with partnergovernments is based upon respecting human rights and strengthening social, economic anddemocratic governance. This is particularly true in fragile and post conflict situations whereeffective coordination with states, international actors and the civil society are essential toprovide the basic functions needed for poverty reduction, development, security and humanrights protection. In this perspective, Italy recognizes the important role played by Non-Governmental Organizations and civil society towards the promotion of development, goodgovernance and the democratization process. With this in mind, intervention planning is asmuch as possible carried out in close coordination with partner countries, donors, civil society,Local Authorities and all the relevant stakeholders. Capacity building is considered a keycomponent in order to foster the sustainability of development, mitigating risks and providingthe necessary training and assistance to partner countries (see, in particular, the cases ofLebanon and Afghanistan, respectively §1.5.2 and §1.5.3).

6.2. Agriculture, high food prices and donor response

6.2.1. General orientations

In 2008, the dramatic economic scenario and the intensity of the food crisis called for amore sustained, action-oriented and effective response to current and future food insecurity.The international community has engaged in a constructive dialogue aimed at findingsustainable global responses to safeguarding world food security and to guaranteeingvulnerable populations with access to sufficient, affordable and safe food. To this regard, theinternational community agreed that fostering a sustainable agriculture would be the key forceto overcome the global food crisis.

To ensure an immediate and effective reaction to this crisis, Italy has taken appropriateactions through bilateral and multilateral initiatives, in particular with the World FoodProgramme, IFAD and FAO. It is common view that, nowadays, in order to overcome the foodcrisis and to ensure food security and food safety, sustainable agriculture is a key priority. TheFAO High Level Conference on “Food Security” in June 2008, the G8 Leaders Declaration inToyako and the Spanish event in January 2009 have defined the framework to address thismultifaceted and structural crisis. To date, there is an urgency to promote integrated strategies,agricultural research and development, improved, locally adapted and sustainable farmingtechnologies, biodiversity and the improvement of local markets.

Agriculture and food security continue to be a key priority for Italy and, thus, the importanceof this topic will be remarked also during the 2009 G8. In order to sustain agriculturaldevelopment and to support partner countries coping with high food prices and food insecurity,Italy is following a double track. On the one hand, it continues supporting partner countries’capacities especially in terms of resource management, with particular attention to biodiversity,forests, water and renewable energy resources. On the other hand, Italy is actively sustaining theestablishment of the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (GPAFSN).

Overall, the Italian development agricultural policy devotes particular attention to thediversification of farm and non farm sources of income for the farmers, taking into account thesustainability of the actions also in terms of environmental impact. Moreover, Italy continues toconfer great attention to the participatory approach in the identification and implementation ofintegrated rural development programmes, to the empowerment of the role of women inagriculture and to topics such as water scarcity and environmental protection and conservation.

In order to provide a response to cope with high food prices, Italy has decided to operatein close coordination with the international community, as it firmly believes that only aharmonized, pooled, international action can provide the necessary answers to tackle theproblem. This effort has also translated into financial support to the Consultative Group on

International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the aforementioned enhancement of theprocess of GPAFSN.

6.2.2. Italy’s action in the field of agricultural development

At multilateral level, IC supports the action of numerous IIOO, mainly belonging to the UNfamily. During the 2005-2008 period, Italy gave priority to food security, water use inagriculture, and legal frameworks. The activities, both with regional and sub-regionalapproaches, aimed at improving food security through the collaboration with RegionalEconomic Organizations committed to addressing food insecurity amongst their membercountries such as the UEMOA Commission in Western Africa, the CARICOM Secretariat in theCaribbean Region, the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat in the Pacific Region. The initiatives haveprovided support to the re-focusing of a food security strategy aimed at achieving food securitythrough commercialization and income generation throughout the whole value-chain, focusingon the development of agriculture into a modern, diversified and competitive commercialsector, supporting smallholders and farm-based organizations to take advantage of tradeliberalization and of regional trade agreements.

Moreover, in 2008, Italy promptly responded to the IFAD and FAO initiatives of “soaringfood prices” by providing financial contribution to their specific trust funds and, at present, isactively supporting the United Nations High Level Task Force on global food security crisis(UNHLTF). Likewise, the IC has developed successful partnerships with the CIHEAM (CentreInternational de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes) and, in particular, with itsItalian based branch in Bari, the IAM (Istituto Agronomico del Mediterraneo), through the multi-bilateral channel (mainly for activities in the Balkans, Northern Africa and Middle East Asia).

With regard to GPAFSN, this was formally presented at the FAO High Level Conference inJune 2008 and endorsed at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit by the G8 Leaders. During thefollowing months, it was conceived as the means, building on existing UN and otherinternational institutions, to ensure continued high level policy attention to global food securityand, at country level, to facilitate effective policies and plans for agricultural development, foodsecurity and nutrition. GPAFSN could provide the world’s most vulnerable people with anadequate and effective response to food insecurity and malnutrition.

In this sense, the Partnership should not become either a new organization or a newfinancial instrument overlapping existing country level processes, but, rather, a country-targetedinstrument building on, and strengthening existing ones, to promote more effective andcoherent actions at the global, regional and country level. The Global Partnership should be aninclusive instrument aimed at reaching out to all relevant stakeholders to foster global foodsecurity, through the promotion of better global policies and best practices, and thecoordination and effective use of resources at country level.

At bilateral level, Italy has a long-lasting tradition in the field of agricultural and ruraldevelopment: numerous programmes and projects are currently being carried out in manypartner countries. With regard to different geographic areas, IC has focused on a number ofsub-sectors according to the priorities identified by partner countries. In the Mediterranean area(North Africa and Middle East Asia), IC activities are mainly focused on fruit cultivation,production of oil and natural resources management. Within the area, Italy has ongoingprogrammes in Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories. Moreover,interventions include rehabilitation of existing networks while promoting best irrigationpractices and advancing modern water-efficient techniques such as pressurized and dripirrigation most adapted to arid and semi-arid areas, making efficient use of rainfall by setting upcatchment reservoirs and promoting recycling of greywater and reuse for urban agriculture.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Italy has a long lasting tradition in particular in the Sahel region,with ongoing programmes and projects in countries such as Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso,Ghana, Gambia, Cape Verde and Mali. Programmes in this area mainly address ruraldevelopment, irrigation and desertification. In East Africa, the ongoing programmes in Kenyaand Mozambique are tailored, in particular, to food security. In Central America, it is worthmentioning a programme implemented in Nicaragua addressing the economic reintegration ofex combatants: through the provision of training and of production tools, they have beensupported in starting up their own agricultural activity.



IC programmes in the field of agriculture are sustainable and integrated, with LocalAuthorities and farmers’ associations having full ownership of the processes. Particular attention ispaid to the setting up of cooperatives: this is undoubtedly one of the main strengths andpeculiarities of the Italian production system which has been successfully replicated in manypartner countries such as, among others, the Dominican Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina andLebanon. Activities include technical support to farmers and cooperatives to increase agricultureproductivity and advance best agricultural practices while providing extension services andpromoting crops with comparative advantages, restoring livestock and sustaining socio-economicalgrowth, supporting women’s cooperatives through promotion of typical crafts and traditions agro-food products, supporting small producers by increasing their access to local markets whileadvancing the field-to-market concept and promoting natural and organic food products.

Another feature of IC in this field is in fostering the links among agricultural productionand the market: programmes include activities aimed at sustaining the development of clustersand of industrial districts (another specific Italian peculiarity). In particular, such activities aim atraising the overall quality of the products so as to make them compliant with internationalstandards and thus more “marketable”. Likewise, in some cases, programmes have facilitatednegotiation processes with private companies.

Finally, IC works in close collaboration with relevant central authorities in partner countriesby supporting policy and strategy definition processes (as in Ethiopia, Mozambique andLebanon).

Italian Cooperation support to agriculture sector in Lebanon

The Italian Cooperation’s support to the agriculture sector in Lebanon is deliveredthrough two general aid frameworks: a short-term emergency programme and a longer-term development programme. Both programmes share common goals of achievingbalanced development by concentrating on less developed regions, promoting sustainableagriculture and improving the social and economic structures of the rural population witha specific focus on vulnerable groups and the role of women in rural development.

The short-term emergency program (ROSS) was developed as a quick response to2006 hostilities which resulted in severe physical damage to agriculture especially in SouthLebanon and Upper Bekaa and exacerbated the livelihood of the rural population alreadyliving on the edge of poverty. The ultimate goal of the emergency programme is torehabilitate agriculture and improve the living conditions and social and basic services ofthe rural areas most affected by the conflict. The Rehabilitation of Agriculture in SouthLebanon and Bekaa programme is concentrated in the areas most affected by the 2006conflict, mainly in South Lebanon (Tyr and Nabatieh) and Bekaa (Baalbek and Hermel).Agricultural projects financed under the emergency programme are mainly implementedthrough Italian NGOs and may be grouped under three categories: i) support toagricultural cooperatives, ii) rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation networks, iii)conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

On the other hand, the long-term agriculture development programme was conceivedas a means to support and reinforce the role of the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)through capacity building, technical assistance and transfer of modern agricultural practices.The overall objective is to support the MoA in developing a food security vision and toadapt local and regional agriculture policies, strategies and norms. The direct interventionof the Lebanese government in the agricultural sector is rather limited despite its economicpotential and viability. The MoA is responsible for the formulation and implementation ofagricultural development policies and strategies in the various regions of the country.However, existing budget and staff recruitment restrictions imposed on MoA have resultedin a lack of focus and development of local agricultural policies and strategies. The ItalianCooperation’s support to MoA comes through technical support and strengthening theministry’s capacities to draw a long-term food security vision and affect sustainable andstrategic agricultural development plans and policies at both local and national level.

7. Chapter 7 – Humanitarian Assistance


To date, Italy has not elaborated a specific action plan for regulating humanitarian action.However, some of the principles inspiring its action in the field are those contained in the GoodHumanitarian Donorship Initiative and, hence, its objectives are coherent with those of “savinglives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity during and in the aftermath of man-made crises and natural disasters, as well as to prevent and strengthen preparedness for theoccurrence of such situations” (principle 1 of GHD). Moreover, Italian humanitarianinterventions endorse the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. Inrelation to this, Italy provides annual support to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund -CERF and is committed to finance, whenever possible, forgotten crises, to work in the field incoordination with NGOs and beneficiaries and to provide, when requested, an intellectualcontribution to the UN humanitarian reform process.

In addition, as an EU Member State, Italian humanitarian action is based also on the EUConsensus on Humanitarian Aid and the related action plan adopted in 2008. Furthermore, Italyrecognizes the value of maintaining the integrity of the humanitarian action and, hence, indirectlypromotes respect for International Humanitarian Law, by financially supporting UN-OCHA andthe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) advocacy activities on such issues ofhumanitarian concern as international humanitarian law promotion. Finally, Italy is aware of theprinciples contained in the “Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets inDisaster Relief” and in the “Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets toSupport Humanitarian Activities in complex Emergencies”. In general, the involvement ofmilitary forces in the delivery of humanitarian aid is possible only in case of major disasterswhen their logistical and security support is recognized as fundamental. In all other cases,humanitarian aid is first and foremost delivered through humanitarian actors such as UN, RedCross Family and NGOs, coherently with humanitarian principles and recognizing the overallleading role of UN-OCHA.

In general, Italy pays the utmost attention to the fact that planning of bilateral interventionsis made in close collaboration with partner countries. In this respect, the annual reports deliveredby implementing agencies or by ad hoc recruited evaluators, enable the assessment of the actualinvolvement of the local communities concerned by the emergency interventions.

Italian humanitarian action recognizes the importance of the post emergency phase, as anexit, when possible, from pure emergency and a bridge towards development programmes.Therefore, Italian emergency programmes aim at tackling the major, most urgent and dramaticneeds, without neglecting those aspects that may be relevant in terms of assuring the continuumunder a development perspective.

The DGCS - Emergency Office has a mandate to provide (when officially requested)humanitarian assistance to affected populations, victims of natural disasters or complexemergencies. In our response, the protection sector plays a primary role together with theemergency food assistance, shelter, health, water and basic education sectors. In addition, Italysupports the “protection component” of humanitarian assistance through the multilateralchannel, in response to UN flash and CAP appeals (e.g. UNHCR and UNICEF) or the ICRC’semergency appeals.

In its humanitarian action, Italy strives to build action plans that aim at recovering, as far aspossible, sustainable livelihoods existing before the exogenous shocks. This objective is pursuedthrough the implementation of projects to cope with the most urgent needs of vulnerablepopulations and focused on the reconstruction phase, the so-called “early recovery phase”.

If, on one hand, Italy does not specifically carry out “crisis-risk reduction” interventions, onthe other hand, it recognizes “disaster risk reduction” as a component of humanitarian action.Therefore, it supports disaster prevention activities, in harness with UN agencies or NGOs,aiming at reducing the vulnerability of populations in hazard-prone areas. Specifically, the



Italian government supported, with a contribution of 950.000 euros, a UNESCO project named“Improving emergency response to Ocean-based extreme events through Coastal mappingCapacity Building in the Indian Ocean aimed to advance in the establishment of a Tsunamiearly warning system in the Indian Ocean”.

Italy, recognizing the overall leading coordination role of the United Nations ininternational humanitarian action, supports, in particular, the UN-OCHA leadership whenhumanitarian responses are needed. In general, our major implementing partners among UNagencies are WFP, UNHCR, the already mentioned UN-OCHA, WHO, FAO and UNICEF. Inaddition, Italy supports the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies(IFRC) and ICRC, in particular in recognition of their proven experience and neutrality indelivering humanitarian aid. Our country is acquainted with the special mandate of the ICRC,that of protecting and delivering humanitarian assistance in conflict situations: for this reason,Italy has signed a partnership Agreement with the Committee as of May 2008 in order toestablish a “revolving DGCS-ICRC Emergency Trust Fund”, aimed at sustaining the ICRC’shumanitarian action, especially in complex emergencies. Finally, Italy relies for its activities onthe Italian NGOs active in the emergency sector and on local NGOs: for the latter, Italianexperts often provide technical assistance specifically tailored to developing capacities inmanaging emergency funds.

7.2. Financial mechanisms

Each year, the Financial Law approved by the Italian Parliament determines the financialenvelope for humanitarian assistance: hence, the predictability of financial flows toimplementing partners is directly linked to the aforementioned Financial Law and to the fiscalyear. Beside that, in case of sudden natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies, a specificlaw can be issued by the Parliament to finance the interventions (as it happened in 2006 in theaftermath of the Tsunami in South East Asia). Additional funds are provided in the framework ofspecific financing laws (such as Law 38/2007, Law 45/2008 and Law 12/2009), which are usuallyissued on a yearly basis. These laws regulate the Italian participation to missions in support ofpeace and stabilization processes in specific countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon,Somalia and Sudan, affected by fragility and post-conflict crises. Fragile and post-conflict statessuch as Somalia and Sudan, are also assisted through the instrument of debt cancellation, suchas Somalia and Sudan, which mainly involves unpaid instalments in arrears.

Moreover, in order to give immediate response to emergency appeals, the emergency officehas created a financial mechanism called “emergency bilateral fund”, a cash reserve from whichfinancial withdrawals could be made in order to be promptly transferred to specificinternational organizations (such as WFP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, UN-OCHA, WHO, FAO, IFRCand ICRC). The fund is refinanced once (or more) during the year through voluntarycontributions and it is jointly managed with the interested agency. Through this mechanism,Italy actively supports various humanitarian interventions in response to Consolidated AppealsProcesses (CAPs), Flash Appeals and Emergency Appeals. Likewise, the emergency bilateralfund mechanism is the key to ensure timeliness and flexibility when supporting humanitarianaction. Although Italy’s policy framework does not specifically commit it to the “principle ofproportionality”, it does allocate resources according to identified needs.

Almost all allocations for humanitarian actions (about 95%) are earmarked to specificprogrammes, the rationale of this clear-cut direction being the requirement (vis à vis financialregulations and public opinion) to provide evidences on “how and where” the funds for officialhumanitarian assistance expenditure are used.

Nonetheless, Italy firmly believes in the importance of contributing to multi-donor pooledfunds which serve as a first emergency response mechanism in case of natural disasters orconflicts as well as providing humanitarian assistance also to neglected emergencies andforgotten crises. For this reason, Italy has been supporting the CERF since its setting up: overall,it has contributed with over 5.6 million USD since 2006 and, after a careful evaluation, it has

allocated some 980.000 euros for 2009. Moreover, Italy committed 3.275.000 euros (disbursed in2007 and 2008) as a support to the GFDRR (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction andRecovery), an instrument managed by the World Bank, which operates through multiple donorfunds with the objective of enabling low and middle income countries to mainstream disasterreduction in national development strategies. Finally, Italy financially supports the UnitedNations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), managed by the WFP and located at themilitary airport of Brindisi. The UNHRD contains stocks of emergency relief items, such asmedicines, shelter materials, water treatment systems, rapid response and logistics equipmentthat can be immediately dispatched in response to man-made crises or natural disasters.

Italy channels about 40% of its humanitarian resources through UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals and International Red Crescent Movement appeals and 60% through thebilateral channel. With regard to bilateral initiatives, Italy launches emergency programmes as aresponse to specific needs arising from stricken communities: Italian Embassies and UTLs play akey role in providing timely and sound context information upon which interventions aredevised. In such situations, ad hoc funds may be set up at the Italian Embassy: in these cases,the Emergency Response Office works in close collaboration with Italian experts deployed foridentifying and managing the programmes, with partner countries’ authorities as well as withthe international humanitarian community active in the field (EU, UN, Red Cross Family andNGOs).

7.3. Managing humanitarian action

Office VI of the DGCS is responsible for managing humanitarian and emergencyinterventions and food aid. Its staff, which can be increased in case of major crises, normallyincludes one diplomat and 14 functionaries. Training is provided on a voluntary basis to thestaff directly involved in the emergency programmes. More in details, Office VI is responsiblefor: i) identification, management and monitoring of emergency aid directly and in collaborationwith international agencies; ii) food aid, in collaboration with the Agricultural Payments Agency(AGEA - Agenzia per le Erogazioni in Agricoltura); iii) sending of humanitarian flights, in orderto improve its bilateral response capacity.

As previously outlined, initiatives generally follow a request by an affected community oran international appeal, and aim at intervening in the initial emergency and rehabilitationphases, by involving the local community in identifying the specific problems and their possiblesolutions. Discussions with development units take place in the programming phase of theinterventions, in order to harmonize the action with the development programmes, avoiding theoverlapping of initiatives. In response to disasters, humanitarian flights or first aid deliveries canbe organized directly by the DGCS or in cooperation with the Italian Civil Protection and theItalian Red Cross, under the umbrella of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Italy is also careful to provide political and diplomatic support for the delivery of neutralhumanitarian assistance and to improve the security conditions of humanitarian operators. Withregard to the latter, when Italian NGOs are involved in UN emergency programmes, Italyrequires a formal assurance from the UN Agencies stating that the security measures establishedby the DSS (United Nations Department for Safety and Security) are applied also to theexpatriates working with them: this is a mandatory measure in order to make the Italiancontribution effective. The involvement of NGOs in emergency programmes is governed byArticle 1, paragraph 15-sexies of Law 80/2005 (mainly through calls for proposals). The ItalianDGCS has set up strategic guidelines and administrative procedures which provide the referencefor the involvement of the NGOs; these are available on the Italian Cooperation website.

Conducting sound evaluation exercises has a twofold importance: on the one hand, tocomply with the obligation of providing information on how public money is spent and, on theother, to assess if and to what extent the activities are achieving the objectives set. Theimplementation of the programmes is continuously monitored through annual reports deliveredby the implementing agencies or by specific monitoring and evaluation missions. With regard to



reporting expenditures, Italy regularly posts all requested standardized information in theUN-OCHA FTS and ECHO 14-points humanitarian reporting systems.

With regard to the communication procedure, when Italy undertakes an emergency actionas a response to occurring crises/disasters or when it releases a contribution in response to aninternational appeal, Office VI is in charge of delivering a press release to the internationalhumanitarian network (UN-OCHA) and to the press office of the MFA, in order to provideprompt and transparent information on the ongoing activities. Moreover, the developmentcooperation website, TV and press releases provide timely and thorough information on disasterand crisis management activities with the aim of raising awareness among the general public.

Finally, though not directly involved in the formulation of Common Humanitarian ActionPlans (CHAPs), the multilateral desk of the Emergency Office takes part in the UN/donormeetings where the CHAPs models are also analyzed in order to enhance the humanitarianresponse. However, at global level, the Italian UNDAC member provides his contribution to theteam by taking part in the meetings, exchanging views with his colleagues and by makingneeds assessments, if requested. At local level, Italian technical experts take part in regularmeetings organized by the UN Clusters, EC, NGOs, Red Cross Family and other relevanthumanitarian actors, providing their contribution to improve the operational capacities ofhumanitarian action.

Civil protection action in humanitarian settings

As previously described (§4.2.5), the DPC is part of the Italian humanitarian responsesystem: in the last few years, also as a consequence of a better defined legal basis (Law152/2005), it has conducted numerous activities in post natural and man-made disasterscenarios. Moreover, it has progressively widened its range of activities so as to includealso development and technical assistance. The following are some of the most relevantinterventions recently conducted.

In the immediate aftermath of the Tsunami that hit several regions of South East Asiain December 2004, the DPC was involved in assisting the local population. All the flightsthat were organized to repatriate Italian tourists also brought, as well, humanitarian aid tolocal populations and institutions. The DPC was particularly active in Sri Lanka where anadvanced medical post and twelve displaced people camps were set up. Apart from thesefirst aid interventions the DPC, following a request of the Sri-Lankan government, started along-term activity of assistance to the local population and institutions, through areconstruction programme that lasted until the end of 2007 and was financed by the fundscollected in Italy through the donor campaign run by the four main mobile telephonecompanies and supported by the media network. The total amount spent was of about53,4 million euros which financed some 56 development projects, out of which 14 weredirectly implemented by the DPC, 34 were implemented by NGOs with funding from theDPC and the donations and the rest by other institutional partners in collaboration with theDPC.

Starting from May 2006, in accordance with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and underthe coordination of the European Union, the DPC took the lead of the Italian post-disasterassistance mission to Indonesia following the major earthquake that hit the Region of Java.The most important and value-adding contribution of the DPC, in this event, was theexpertise provided through technical assistance mission implemented by an assessmentteam which assisted Indonesian technicians in monitoring the Merapi volcano, whoseactivity had started a few weeks before the earthquake, and in planning the emergency.The DPC assessment team was given mandate by the European Commission to coordinatethe technical and scientific activity concerning the Merapi volcano and technicallysupported UN-OCHA for monitoring the scenario and analyzing the risk-reducingmeasures adopted by the Local Authorities. At the end of the mission, the experts drafted a

7.4. Cross-cutting issues

In general, Italy does its best in order to endorse cross-cutting issues into its humanitarianaction. To this regard, environmental aspects are duly taken into consideration whenimplementing bilateral emergency projects, particularly in the recovery phase, following theprinciple of “building back better”, in order to bridge humanitarian interventions towards asustainable development phase in the affected country.

Gender issues are a key element of IC humanitarian action. Italy supports gender-orientedprogrammes when present in the humanitarian appeals, by earmarking a portion of themultilateral contributions delivered to international agencies. Particular attention to genderissues is given through bilateral programmes in Central America, Uganda, Lebanon and thePalestinian Territories.

Finally, in delivering humanitarian assistance, Italy pays attention to People living withHIV/AIDS - PLWHA (for example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo) as well as totuberculosis and malaria vulnerabilities, especially when supporting WHO’s emergencyprogrammes.

report defining action guidelines to improve the emergency response of the localstructures and to enhance the efficiency of the organization of international aid in case ofa volcano-related emergency.

In the 2006 summer crisis in Lebanon, the DPC had a leading role in coordinating thehumanitarian aid brought to the war-torn population. Assistance material and an advancedmedical post with the relative medical personnel were shipped over on the San Marco shipplaced at the disposal of the Italian assistance mission by the Italian Navy. The delivery ofhumanitarian aid was logistically organized and managed by the DPC in cooperation withthe Italian MFA.



Annex 1: ODA by region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Data on ODA flows to Sub-Saharan Africa show that, between 2005 and 2008, there was anoverall reduction, though with a remarkable increase between 2007 and 2008 (24%).

The second table shows how the overall ODA decrease is mainly due to the drop in debtrelief, which peaked in 2006. Hence, it is worth remarking that grants have passed from 125,78million USD of 2005 to 218,46 in 2008, with a 74% increase.

North Africa

Overall Italian Cooperation ODA flows to the region have decreased with respect to 2005,as shown in the tables below. This is mainly due to the reimbursement of credits occurred inrecent years; on the other hand, the level of grants has remained rather stable.

In addition, the table below shows total ODA flows for African regional programmes.



North and Central America

In this area, the total amount of ODA has decreased over the last few years. This is mainlydue to a decrease in debt relief and soft loans. However, as shown in the second table, IC hassubstantially increased the amount of grants allocated.

South America

ODA flows to South America have slightly increased over the last few years, as shown inthe table below.

In particular, the rise in overall ODA flows (32% with respect to 2005) is mainly due togrants, increased by more than 200% with respect to 2005.

The following data are referred to ODA flows for Americas Regional programmes.



Far East Asia

Overall, ODA flows have decreased over the last few years, as shown in the tables below.This has been due to both the repayments of credits by borrowing countries and to a loweramount of grants allocated for activities in the area.

Middle East Asia

The tables below show that ODA flows to the area have slightly increased (3,7%). More indetails, the rise in the amount of grants has been more remarkable, as it increased by more than300% with respect to 2005.



South Central Asia

Italian Cooperation allocated an overall higher amount of ODA throughout the years 2005-2008: tables below show that both total ODA flows and grants increased by around 120%.

The following table provides data also on Regional ODA flows.

Europe

The Italian Cooperation’s Official Development Assistance to European partner countrieshas more than doubled with respect to 2005. The peak of 2006 is a consequence of the debtrelief occurred in that year.

Oceania



Recommendation

Italy should define a national vision for developmentcooperation which is derived from a more inclusive andbroad-reaching dialogue with Italian peers in development.

Italy needs greater clarity in stating its aid policies, includingthat for poverty reduction.Such policies should be made accessible to all and describedmore operationally. Italy needs an operational strategy onhow it will contribute to the achievement of the MDGs inview of the 2015 deadline.

Italy needs a legislative reform and, in the short term,continued action within the present framework.

The Italian government needs a designated focal point fordevelopment cooperation at the political level, for example adeputy minister for development.

The DGCS should continue to develop a better-definedstrategy to raise public awareness of development issues,including a stronger alliance with other official and non-governmental actors.

Progress achieved

The DGCS, after proceeding with a consultation with otherMinistries and Institutional bodies dealing with DevelopmentCooperation, elaborated the “2009-2011 ProgrammingGuidelines and Directions”, in order to plan the developmentaid activities for the next three years. This document identifiesgeographical and sector priorities considered fundamental inthe implementation of aid policies.Moreover, the DGCS recently set up a Working Group on AidEffectiveness, in charge of implementing the Paris Declarationand the Accra Agenda for Action, and whose aim is toelaborate a shared action plan, updating sector guidelines andrenewing the evaluation and monitoring system.

The “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”established Italian aid policies for the coming years. As statedin the document, the Italian action will continue to pursue theachievement of those MDGs directly linked to, in particular,poverty reduction, health and sustainable development issues.Such a document is available to the general public on theOfficial Italian Development Cooperation website.Recently, IC has been updating a number of thematicguidelines which provide policy orientations and operationalstrategies for the implementation of cooperation activities,through a consultation process with other Ministries,Institutions and civil society.

Several development cooperation draft bills were underdiscussion in Parliament during the XV Legislature (2006 -May 2008) including a draft bill presented by the government.However, due to major differences of opinion within theParliament over the creation of a separate Agency fordevelopment cooperation, the approval process has so far notbeen completed. Under the present Legislature (XVI), in hisfirst hearing to the Parliament, the Minister of Foreign Affairsfocused on the need to reform Law 49/87 with a broadparliamentary majority and to re-launch bilateral cooperation.

During the XV Legislature (2006 - May 2008) the Italiangovernment appointed a Deputy Minister for developmentcooperation. Under the present Legislature (XVI), the Ministerfor Foreign Affairs is directly responsible for developmentcooperation.

In 2007, the DGCS created the Italian Development CooperationOfficial Website. The weekly bulletin “DIPCO” is beingredesigned so as to make it a more modern instrument forinforming public opinion and civil society about the strategiesand activities implemented by the Italian Cooperation system.Moreover, the DGCS promoted the organization of “ItalianDevelopment Cooperation Days” with the involvement ofLocal Authorities, NGOs, UN entities, universities and researchcentres as well the media (TV and press).A specific initiative will be associated with the 100th editionof the “Giro d’Italia”, the major Italian bike event, scheduledfor May 2009: each of the 21 stages of the race will beassociated to a specific Italian Cooperation “story”, to whichnationwide coverage will be assured thanks to daily reportsby the national broadcasting channel (RAI) and by one of themajor Italian newspapers.

Annex 2: Progress against 2004 OECD/DAC Peer ReviewRecommendations

Progress against 2004 DAC Peer Review Recommendations

General framework and current directions

Aid volume and distribution

Recommendation

Italy should set out an explicit growth path for 2005 and 2006to fulfil its ODA commitments announced at Barcelona asan important part of the global Monterrey undertaking.

Italy should emphasise more strategic and performance-based budgeting by prioritising its funding allocations. Thisrelates to identification of priority countries or sectors and toallocations between bilateral and multilateral channels.

Recommendation

Policy coherence should be an explicit goal of the Italiangovernment. This should include a specific public statementon coherence for development, including reference to themesof special interest such as foreign direct investment (FDI) oruntying.

Italy should mobilise expertise and analytical capacitiesboth within and outside government to identify policy areasincoherent with its development cooperation objectives. Thiscould include special resources or a unit of government thatis dedicated to this task alone. Consultation with civil societyand the research community would strengthen these actions.

Recommendation

The DGCS should initiate a broad-based discussion onstructural and process impediments in its current systemof management. Together with field UTLs, ambassadors andthe Ragioneria Centrale, it should promote an in-depthreview of development administration from a greater “team”perspective. This could build upon current DGCS efforts topromote administrative streamlining, while simultaneouslyaddressing the parallel need for a clear implementationstrategy on harmonisation.

Progress achieved

Although Italy renews its commitment to progressivelyincrease ODA volume towards the final objective of 2015, asagreed in Monterrey, the quantitative development of its aidflows will be inevitably affected by the Italy’s seriousbudgetary constraints. More in detail, ODA passed from 2.461million USD in 2004 to 4,44 billion in 2008, with an 81%increase, in absolute terms. The ODA/GNI ratio alsoincreased, passing from 0,15 of 2004 to 0,20 of 2008.

Coherently with the need to prioritize funding allocation topriority countries, the ten largest recipients of Italian bilateralaid received, alone, 83% (in 2005), 86% (in 2006), 75% (in2007) and 73% (in 2008) of Italian ODA.The “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines and Directions”identify sector priorities and, for the first time, countries aredivided into Priority 1 and Priority 2.During the last few years, a new balance, more orientedtowards the bilateral channel, has been pursued, though Italywill continue recognizing a specific added value to IIOO. IChas defined five criteria upon which funding decisions toIIOO are taken. The DGCS recently elaborated the “GeneralGuidelines for interventions through the multilateral channel”,which defines Italian orientations and criteria for prioritizingfunding allocations to IIOO. Finally, IC is taking intoconsideration the opportunity to develop, in the near future,ad hoc strategic guidelines for those IIOO with whom Italyhas the most solid and financially relevant collaboration.

Progress achieved

Though not an explicit goal, some progress has beenachieved in the last five years towards the implementation ofthe Policy Coherence for Development. Italy has renewed itsengagement towards PCD by signing, in June 2008, the“OECD Ministerial Declaration on Policy Coherence forDevelopment”. Moreover, in the EU context, as well as in thedomain of the OECD/DAC, Italy is increasingly payingattention to PCD, as emerged also among the priorities of theG8 2009 Italian Presidency.

On an informal basis, the “Strategic Planning and Budget”Office, together with the EU Affairs Unit, in the DGCS, hastaken the lead in the coordination of the PCD becoming, defacto, a focal point for the matter. Its role consists in givingimpulse to fostering the reflection on the development ofPCD. In this task, the Unit is also supported by arepresentative of the Italian CSOs.

Progress achieved

The DGCS and the Ragioneria Centrale have worked in closecollaboration and kept each other updated more frequently, inan attempt to smoothen the project approval processes; at thesame time, they have identified critical points and streamlinedprocedures and formats. New sets of guidelines have beendefined or are under way while new procedures onprocurement, technical assistance, soft loans and monitoringand evaluation are being developed. New procedures for theapproval of NGO programmes which speed up payments andallow more flexibility have been defined.

Policy coherence for development

Aid management and implementation



Italy should make use of multi-year funding commitmentsso as to reinforce the predictability of its support and to bringit more in line with the programming needs of recipientcountries. Opportunities to introduce a degree of financialautonomy in DGCS budgeting procedures should beexplored.

Italy urgently needs to reform its system of personnelmanagement for development cooperation, with specialemphasis on personnel planning, placing individual abilitymore in line with responsibility, and use a performance-basedapproach that is properly accompanied by rewards andincentives. The DGCS should expedite recruitment of 60development experts. At the field level, DGCS is also urged topay greater attention up-stream to staffing needs, to avoidgaps in presence, and to consider ways to flexibly contractadditional staff, as needed.

DGCS management should consider strongerdecentralisation of decision-making to the field and theparallel adjustments in resources and systems necessary toaccommodate these changes, such as an improved localanalytical capacity and better communications between Romeand the field.

Italy must establish a regular system of monitoring andevaluation, consistent with DAC principles onevaluation. To the extent possible, programme decisions(including specific allocations of funds) should be made onthe basis of the results generated by this performancefeedback system.

The 2009 Financial Law approved by the Parliamentintroduced a multi-year planning (2009-2011) system. For thisreason, the “2009-2011 Programming Guidelines andDirections” provide indications on the funding allocations fordevelopment cooperation activities for the next three years,with indications of the percentage of bilateral aid that will beallocated to each of the 4 geographic areas of intervention.

The MFA is, at present, working on a new recruitmentprocedure which will increase human resources specificallydedicated to development cooperation.At field level, UTLs have been given more flexibility andresources to contract additional staff and services. In somecases, UTLs can dispose of special funds in order to financedevelopment projects identified and implemented by partnercountries’ CSOs.

A process of decentralization of duties and responsibilities toUTLs is currently underway; through this, the field offices’mandates and responsibilities have increased in terms ofpriority setting, planning and programming, formulation,monitoring and evaluation of initiatives.

Italy is committed to strengthening the Inspection, monitoringand initiatives assessment Unit, increasing its resources andprogressively harmonizing the evaluation and the relatedfeedback procedures to the best practices of the internationalcommunity. To date, the Unit is finalising new evaluationguidelines and a three-year evaluation programme to besubmitted to the Steering Committee for its approval.

Documents

Memorandum dac peer review