Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Marina Sereni, chaired the seventh plenary meeting of the National Council for Development Cooperation (CNCS), a body established pursuant to article 16 of Law 125/2014, which brings together over 54 of the main public and private players, both profit and non-profit, operating in the world of cooperation. The CNCS is the main “instrument of participation, consultation and proposal” introduced by the law passed to reform the Italian development cooperation system and meets at least once a year to express non-binding opinions on matters relating to development cooperation.
During the meeting, the CNCS expressed its legal opinion on the three-year programming and policy document for development cooperation policy. The three-year document is the reference framework for the entire system of Italian development cooperation. Pursuant to Article 12 of Law 125/2014, it indicates “the strategic vision, the objectives of action and the criteria for intervention, the choice of priorities for geographical areas and individual countries”, as well as the “political and strategic guidelines relating to Italian participation in European and international bodies and multilateral financial institutions”.
The document, which had been approved by the Interministerial Committee for Development Cooperation (CICS) and had already received the favourable opinion of the Unified Conference and the competent parliamentary Committees, will now be forwarded to the Council of Ministers for final approval, in order to provide the Italian development cooperation system with the essential reference framework for its action over the 2021-2023 three-year period.
The CNCS also set up a new Working Group on Territorial Partnership, adopted the recommendations for access to public funding in cooperation by the private for-profit sector, presented by the Working Group on the Private Sector, and discussed the second National Public Conference on Development Cooperation to be convened soon. The Council also received briefings from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti on their activities in the G20 development sector.
The meeting reaffirmed once again the vitality of the Italian development cooperation system, which finds an important strength in the multi-actor approach, as attested by the OECD itself during the last Peer Review of our system in 2019. With this in mind, Vice Minister Sereni proposed that the CNCS begin preparatory work for the convening of the second National Public Conference on Cooperation (Coopera).
The meeting was also attended by the Hon. Maria Edera Spadoni, Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and Chair of the Standing Committee on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Hon. Piero Fassino, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Sen. Stefania Craxi, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate and Sen. Tatjana Rojc of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
