Three Projects of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received awards at the PA Forum

The F.I.C.O Project (Itinerant Officer Honorary Consul)

As part of the digitization processes of consular services, the General Directorate for Italians Abroad, in collaboration with the Directorate General for Administration, Information Technology and Communications and the State Printing Works and Mint, has launched the technical infrastructure that allows honorary Consuls, who are widely present abroad, to collect the biometric data required for issuing electronic passports and forward them electronically to the relevant Consulate for personalizing the microchips and for the subsequent printing of passports. The honorary consuls have a mobile workstation at their disposal that allows them, in full security, to transmit the data to the higher-level office. The project involves 195 offices abroad (embassies, consulates and consular agencies) and 116 honorary consuls, charged with the gathering and telematic transmission of biometric data. Since the start of the project, in less than one year, data was collected for processing almost 10,000 passports. In countries with large consular districts, putting this technology at the disposal of the honorary consuls has allowed thousands of Italian citizens residing abroad to avoid long and time-consuming journeys to the first-level consular offices.

The BIKE BIKE TO WORK project

It is some time now that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has been supporting actions that encourage staff to use integrated, innovative and environmentally sustainable systems for traveling to the workplace. In this context, the Directorate General for Administration, Information Technology and Communications, jointly with the Directorate General for Resources and Innovation, has organized the Farnesina Sustainable Mobility Day. On Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 11.00 a.m. a new bicycle parking lot, financed by the Municipality of Rome and located close to the entrance of the Farnesina, will be inaugurated, together with a locker room, located inside the Ministry, where the employees who travel to work by bicycle can change their clothes before going into their offices. At the same time, bicycle parking racks will be made available free of charge for the Ministry’s staff near the Lepanto / Ottaviano Metro Station. On the same morning employees who are interested can test drive the electric cars made available by a car sharing manager who has concluded a special agreement with the Ministry. This project has been carried out jointly with the Presidency of the 15^th Municipality of Roma Capitale and in collaboration with the Guglielmo Marconi University in a framework of cooperation between public and private bodies.

The “PLASTIC FREE” FARNESINA project

In order to reduce the consumption of plastic bottles by the roughly 2,000 employees and visitors who are present at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs every day, the Directorate General for Administration, Information Technology and Communications has installed drinking water dispensers on all the floors of the Palazzo della Farnesina. In addition, thanks to a partnership with CiAl (Aluminum Packaging Consortium) the Social Affairs office has distributed free recycled aluminum water bottles to the staff, thus abolishing the use of disposable plastic cups.
The initiative is part of the “Farnesina Verde” (Green Farnesina), the commitment of MAECI and the diplomatic-consular network for environmental sustainability. Thanks to the sustainable practices already introduced by the Social Affairs Office at the ministerial canteen, in 2018 almost 2 tons of plastic and over half a ton of aluminum were saved. This has avoided the consumption of 10,890 liters of water and 1,473 kilograms of CO2 that would have been required to produce the plastic, and saved aluminum for an environmental gain equal to 19,618 liters of water and 5,681 kilograms of CO2. With the installation of drinking water dispensers and with the distribution of water bottles to the staff, the goal is to double these figures in 2019.