By IPS Correspondents
ROME, May 10 2000 (IPS)

The chief political focus of Italy’s aid to the developing South this year is contributing to the stability of the countries whose domestic situation has the most direct influence on Italy’s internal security.

That aim is particularly clear with respect to development aid to countries in the Balkan region and the Mediterranean basin, as well as activities in the Horn of Africa and southern Africa.

The initiatives of the development aid office of Italy’s foreign ministry are also focusing on environmental conservation, improving the conditions of women and children, and supporting drug enforcement efforts, questions of pressing concern to the international community at large.

According to a new foreign ministry report on this year’s development aid activities, economic objectives are also important, such as backing the economic and institutional reforms implemented by countries of the South to revitalise their economies.

But the overarching focus of Italy’s development aid is the fight against poverty, the top priority set by the United Nations and the World Bank, and shared by all donor countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD – the ‘club of the rich’ nations).

Italy also takes part in humanitarian initiatives organised by the international community to address emergencies caused by civil wars and ethnic conflicts, as well as natural disasters.

Since 1999, Italian development aid has been playing a role in Central America’s reconstruction efforts in the wake of hurricane Mitch; in Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia during and after the war in Kosovo; in the Great Lakes region and Angola in Africa; and more recently in Turkey and East Timor.

For the past three years, Italy’s foreign ministry has been placing priority on some 20 nations in a strategy entailing the geographic concentration of aid.

The lion’s share – 80 percent – of the development aid approved will be concentrated in the Balkan region, the Middle East (the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), north Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco), the Horn of Africa, China and India.

The remaining 20 percent will be earmarked for Latin America, west Africa and Asian countries not marked as priorities.

This year’s budget law, approved by parliament, assigned the foreign ministry 360 million dollars a year over the next three years to go towards development aid donations, with an additional 200 million dollars this year, bringing the year 2000 total to 560 million dollars.

The budget also earmarked 25 million dollars in dues and contributions owed to a number of international and national entities working in development aid.

A 1.1 billion dollar fund was also made available for new credits to developing countries.

The foreign ministry will earmark around 65 percent of those credits to least-developed countries, 25 percent to low-middle- income countries, and no more than five percent to initiatives in high-middle income countries.

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