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The following represents the views of the blogger only, and may not represent the views of the United Nations Millennium Campaign.
By Tiziana Cauli
When in mid-2008 I started focusing mainly on development topics as a reporter, I didn't think I would write much about my home country. Back then, Italy was about to cut its foreign aid budget by over 55 per cent, reaching a 20 year low in its development and cooperation funding.
Italy was and still is behind its equally industrialized counterparts within Europe when it comes to aid and it was even labeled as "uniquely stingy" by Bill Gates earlier this year.
On the same occasion, the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said something else I can now agree on: he still believed that the Italian public would want to be as generous as people in other countries.
Over the past two years, I have spoken to several Italian NGO officials and development workers who struggle to see their projects running due to the overwhelming financial obstacles they have to face. Every time I talked to them I would ask the same questions about us, Italians, not being really familiar with a culture of generosity and cooperation which seems to be more and better developed in other European countries.
I thought I had even found some sort of scientific support for this theory when Maurizio Carbone - an Italian academic who taught politics at the University of Glasgow and specialized in EU foreign aid and development policies - told me in an interview that aid is the safest thing for governments to cut in times of crisis. In other words, when governments reduce their efforts in international cooperation, voters tend not to get as angry as they do when cuts affect sectors such as health and education.
This is why, Carbone said, Italy also cut foreign aid in the early Nineties, when an economic effort was needed for the country to meet the Maastricht parameters and enter the Euro zone.
I expected professionals in the development sector to have terrible things to say about raising funds in Italy, but, to my surprise - whilst their criticism against the government was sharp - they all praised Italian people's generosity.
Teresa Sarti, president of the medical non-governmental group Emergency – which works in conflict zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan - said Italians remained very generous, although scandals over corruption and waste had often let them down. "If you tell them they can help and show them you work well, they will support you," Sarti said.
I had to reconsider my position on Italians' generosity towards the developing world and thought this was just another example of how the country leadership can sometimes afford to ignore a great part of the population's political will.
http://media.panorama.it/media/foto/2008/10/30/4909a38bafb50_normal.jpg
In the coming days, the same government will be facing a crucial test as the March 28 - 29 regional elections threaten to further destabilize political balances and alliances. Whatever the outcome of the elections will be, cooperation and development are probably not the main arena in which candidates from both sides are fighting their battle.
This time, though, Italians' generosity when it comes to foreign aid may - for a change - be taken into consideration by Italy's soon-to-be-elected regional political leaders, as they accepted to publicly answer questions on how their programs will address cooperation and development.
The Italian Coordination of International Networks (CINI) - gathering the national representatives of non-profits such as ActionAid, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, World Vision, WWF, the International Volunteer Service (VIS) and AMREF - published answers by 18 candidates running for the presidency of ten Italian regions.
While only nine of the candidates said international development and cooperation were directly included in their programs, all of them said they would promote international solidarity and the fight against poverty. They would all support the Millennium Development Goals and push for a reform of Italy's legislation on development and cooperation . Eleven candidates even committed to assigning at least 0.7 per cent of their region's budget to international development and cooperation.
While whatever is said or promised by candidates before the elections traditionally tends to be forgotten and ignored in Italy, at least this time foreign aid made it to the political campaign, only days before the elections -- and not even national ones.
Italians probably have stingy leaders who do not think twice before cutting funds to development and cooperation. Generosity, though, may soon enter Italy's political debate.
More info: http://thinkaboutit.eu
By Tiziana Cauli
When in mid-2008 I started focusing mainly on development topics as a reporter, I didn't think I would write much about my home country. Back then, Italy was about to cut its foreign aid budget by over 55 per cent, reaching a 20 year low in its development and cooperation funding.
Italy was and still is behind its equally industrialized counterparts within Europe when it comes to aid and it was even labeled as "uniquely stingy" by Bill Gates earlier this year.
On the same occasion, the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said something else I can now agree on: he still believed that the Italian public would want to be as generous as people in other countries.
Over the past two years, I have spoken to several Italian NGO officials and development workers who struggle to see their projects running due to the overwhelming financial obstacles they have to face. Every time I talked to them I would ask the same questions about us, Italians, not being really familiar with a culture of generosity and cooperation which seems to be more and better developed in other European countries.
I thought I had even found some sort of scientific support for this theory when Maurizio Carbone - an Italian academic who taught politics at the University of Glasgow and specialized in EU foreign aid and development policies - told me in an interview that aid is the safest thing for governments to cut in times of crisis. In other words, when governments reduce their efforts in international cooperation, voters tend not to get as angry as they do when cuts affect sectors such as health and education.
This is why, Carbone said, Italy also cut foreign aid in the early Nineties, when an economic effort was needed for the country to meet the Maastricht parameters and enter the Euro zone.
I expected professionals in the development sector to have terrible things to say about raising funds in Italy, but, to my surprise - whilst their criticism against the government was sharp - they all praised Italian people's generosity.
Teresa Sarti, president of the medical non-governmental group Emergency – which works in conflict zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan - said Italians remained very generous, although scandals over corruption and waste had often let them down. "If you tell them they can help and show them you work well, they will support you," Sarti said.
I had to reconsider my position on Italians' generosity towards the developing world and thought this was just another example of how the country leadership can sometimes afford to ignore a great part of the population's political will.
http://media.panorama.it/media/foto/2008/10/30/4909a38bafb50_normal.jpg
In the coming days, the same government will be facing a crucial test as the March 28 - 29 regional elections threaten to further destabilize political balances and alliances. Whatever the outcome of the elections will be, cooperation and development are probably not the main arena in which candidates from both sides are fighting their battle.
This time, though, Italians' generosity when it comes to foreign aid may - for a change - be taken into consideration by Italy's soon-to-be-elected regional political leaders, as they accepted to publicly answer questions on how their programs will address cooperation and development.
The Italian Coordination of International Networks (CINI) - gathering the national representatives of non-profits such as ActionAid, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, World Vision, WWF, the International Volunteer Service (VIS) and AMREF - published answers by 18 candidates running for the presidency of ten Italian regions.
While only nine of the candidates said international development and cooperation were directly included in their programs, all of them said they would promote international solidarity and the fight against poverty. They would all support the Millennium Development Goals and push for a reform of Italy's legislation on development and cooperation . Eleven candidates even committed to assigning at least 0.7 per cent of their region's budget to international development and cooperation.
While whatever is said or promised by candidates before the elections traditionally tends to be forgotten and ignored in Italy, at least this time foreign aid made it to the political campaign, only days before the elections -- and not even national ones.
Italians probably have stingy leaders who do not think twice before cutting funds to development and cooperation. Generosity, though, may soon enter Italy's political debate.
More info: http://thinkaboutit.eu
