MAE - Italian Development Cooperation

Italian Development Cooperation (DGC)

Development Cooperation is based on two priorities. The first is the need for solidarity to safeguard the life and human dignity of all the planet's inhabitants. The second is to employ cooperation to establish, improve and consolidate global economic interdependence, which will distribute economic growth to all people through market expansion and improved circulation of production. Italy's development cooperation policy intends to pursue these objectives with its economic, cultural and security diplomacy, consolidating our country's role and image worldwide.

Historically in Italy, development cooperation stemmed out of a series of technical and economic assistance initiatives implemented from time to time from the 1950s and 60s onward in some newly independent countries that had previously been Italian colonies or, as in the case of Somalia, thanks to a UN trust territory mandate. In the course of their evolution, Italian cooperation efforts were first regulated by Law 38, passed in 1979. During the 1980s, a rise in quality and quantity of development aid initiatives in various geographic areas led to global reorganisation with the approval of Law 49 of 1987. This system is still in force. The measures to reduce public expenditure passed in the 1990s, with a resultant decrease in general volume of intervention led Italian cooperation to reassess its bilateral and multilateral priorities. The emergence of new needs that arose in areas that were not previously priorities, for example in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, have assigned development cooperation a new role that has become an absolute priority of Italian foreign policy.

Cooperation with developing countries (DC) allows Italy to contribute to efforts coordinated by the UN to alleviate world poverty and help development countries to reinforce their institutions through good governance, respect for human rights and democratic participation in economic development of all members of society, without discrimination.

Italian Cooperation initiatives are carried out in harmony with other sectors of our foreign policy. The most important of these are peacekeeping initiatives and the coordinated management of migration.

The emergence of new priorities in the Balkans and Asia has not led Italy to disregard its traditional commitments in Africa. Along with other G8 countries and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Italy welcomed in particular the NePAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) initiative started by African countries, aimed at extending democracy in the continent as an important factor of development

Approximately 40% of Italian aid is distributed to the 49 countries that the UN classifies as Least Developed Countries. OECD-DAC gives a more detailed classification of developing countries.

Activities and Duties of the Directorate General

Activities and Duties of the Directorate General

The Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGCS) is the department responsible for implementing development policy, in accordance with Law 49/87.

The DGCS is divided into 13 offices, heading up the Central Technical Units (UTC) and the 20 local technical units located in countries that are priorities for Italian development cooperation.

The Directorate General for the development cooperation programme draws up and applies the policies for cooperation in sectors such as healthcare, environment and development of local business. It implements initiatives and projects in developing countries, carries out emergency intervention and supplies food aid. It manages financial cooperation and support to private business and the balance of payments of developing countries. The Directorate General also oversees relations with international organisations operating in the sector and the EU. It collaborates with the latter for realisation of special programmes. Finally, it looks after relations with non-governmental volunteer organisations. It promotes and carries out university cooperation, partly through training and scholarships for citizens of developing countries.

The Directorate General for development cooperation is divided into thirty offices in addition to the Central Technical Unit (which gives technical support to the activity of the Directorate General during the phases of identifying, studying, formulating, managing and check/audit in the development cooperation sector) and the Assessment Unit (which assesses cooperation projects during and after implementation, and collects feedback on the results).

Also operating in the context of the Directorate General are three coordinations in matters of the environment, decentralised cooperation and multilateral/emergency

The International Context of Italian Cooperation

The main goals of Italian Development Cooperation are laid down in bilateral and multilateral (United Nations, World Bank, OECD) and EU regulations. The Millennium Declaration, approved by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, is a fundamental point of reference. The international community is committed to pursuing its principles and achieving its objectives by 2015. The eight principles, divided in turn into 18 objectives, are as follows:

• eradication of hunger and poverty by halving (taking the period 1990-2015 as reference) the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger;
• universal basic education, ensuring that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling;
• elimination of gender inequality, ensuring that girls and boys will have equal access to primary and secondary school by 2005 and to all levels of education by 2015;
• a two-thirds reduction of infant mortality by 2015;
• improvement of maternal health and reduction of death in childbirth by three-quarters by 2015;
• combat AIDS and other infectious illnesses, reducing their occurrence by 2015;
• ensure environmental protection by integrating the principles of sustainable development into national policy; halving, by 2015, the number of people without access to clean water; improving the living conditions of 100 million poverty-stricken people living in urban environments by supporting the initiatives Cities Alliance for Cities without Slums, launched by Nelson Mandela and administered by the World Bank and the international organisation Habitat;
• develop global partnerships for development

The final document of the March 2000 International Conference on Financing for Development of Monterrey - the so-called Monterrey Consensus - listed the sources for financing needed to achieve the Millennium objectives:

• developing countries' domestic financial resources;
• direct foreign investments and other private sources;
• international trade;
• development assistance;
• debt relief;
• innovative sources of financing, above all the "de-tax" which Italy has incorporated in its legislation.

This approach was subsequently inserted into the G8 agenda. Likewise, the March 2002 Barcelona European Council approved a challenging plan for increasing European ODA (Official Development Assistance) which should reach an average of 0.39% of the GDP by 2006. To that end, each EU member state, including Italy, is committed to increasing its ODA/GDP ratio to at least 0.33% and to adopting suitable measures for increasing aid to developing countries and improving quality and effectiveness.

MIREES students awarded with MAE scholarship

MAE provides students in the MIREES program with a valuable scholarship form for supporting our students coming from developing countries, consisting of a monthly payment amounting to ¤ 878 per month for both years of the master's program.

A.Y. 2006-2008

1. Kostadinov Aleksandar (Macedonian)
2. Kreceva Katarina (Macedonian)
3. Velkova Ljupka (Macedonian)
4. Warner Tatjana (Macedonian)
5. Zurnic Marija (Serbian and Montenegrin)

A.Y. 2005-2007

1. Angelovska Elena
2. Atanasovska Evdokija
3. Becirbasic Nermin
4. Kovacic Tanja
5. Lekaj Pal
6. Nikolic Marko
7. Sarengaca Dragana
8. Vlaco Nemanja

A.Y. 2004-2006

1. Dragisic Aleksandar
2. Gjerdji Artan
3. Gjoreska Aleksandra
4. Jano Dorian
5. Kosic Mirjana
6. Radenovic Jelena