“I am very happy today to chair the National Development Cooperation Council, which I would define as the ‘cooperation consultative assembly’, a vital forum of debate between the State, Regions, Local Administrations, Universities, NGOs, Chambers of Commerce and the world of profit and non-profit organisations,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, on opening the third meeting of the National Development Cooperation Council (CNCS).
He went on: “The Cooperation System is the noblest component of foreign policy, the most authentically motivated by the will to be open in trying to understand others and to finding more significant global responses together. Holding strong to this conviction, in the past few years the Government has made a strategic investment on the resources allocated to Public Development Aid. We consider having increased these resources since 2015 to be a point of departure because our goal is to achieve 0.7% of our Gross National Income as envisaged in the 2030 Agenda.”
“I have wanted to convene the National Council in the first semester of the year. I did this driven by the sincere conviction and wish to promote a frank, open and enlightening debate for the future in this important forum on the implementation of reforms to the cooperation system,” concluded Minister Alfano.
Today the CNCS passed a favourable opinion on the 2016-2018 Three-year Planning and Orientation Document that outlines 22 priority Countries in different geographical areas, also taking into consideration the latest challenges posed by migration, with a special focus on the Africa Fund.
The Council also approved the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. Council participants then went on to discuss the remaining points on the agenda: calling the first national conference; giving an update on development cooperation issues within the EU; summarising the activities of the 4 working groups of the CNCS; the possibility of developing a global citizenship education strategy.
Today’s meeting was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mario Giro, the president of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Pierferdinando Casini, Hon. Lia Quartapelle, the Director General of Development Cooperation, Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani, the director of AICS, Laura Frigenti, the head of Business Development of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Bernardo Bini Smaghi, and the representatives of public and private international development cooperation organisations, both profit and non-profit.
