“I am very pleased with the overall budget of the first joint committee of 2018, which approved 42 projects for a total of about 265 million euros, with 95 earmarked for aid credit and 150 as voluntary funding to international organisations”. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, used these words to describe today’s meeting of the Joint Committee for Development Cooperation. This was the first meeting attended by the new Director General of Development Cooperation of the Farnesina, Giorgio Marrapodi. The Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), Laura Frigenti, also took part, along with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Environment and the President of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, ANCI.
“I am especially proud since we managed to allocate about 150 million euros for the voluntary funding programme for international organisations in this first Joint Committee Meeting of 2018. We also decided on how the individual funding should be allocated for almost all the grant money available,” said Alfano. He then said that “financial support to international bodies is also how we have traditionally expressed our foreign policy in the Development Cooperation area”.
“I am very pleased at the 1.5 million euros earmarked for a UNICEF project to promote a legal environment in Libya that encourages governance based on rights, equality, democracy and inclusiveness, with special regard to the rights of children and to ensuring a state based on justice and integrity. In Libya, having saved hundreds of thousands of human lives, we will now focus on human rights, starting with the rights of children,” said the Minister.
He concluded by saying “we have also approved 4 official development assistance lines for over 90 million euros for Afghanistan, Vietnam and Jordan, which will be added to a funding package for South America and the Middle East. There are also two African projects funded with the Fund for Africa.
The Italian cooperation system now works at full capacity with the Agency and full involvement of the National Association of Italian Municipalities and the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti”.