POLITICS-ITALY: Development Rises as Election Issue

By Sabina Zaccaro Reprint | | Print |

Sabina Zaccaro

ROME, Feb 17 2006 (IPS) - The elections due in April have raised an Italian paradox of a high number of people committed to international development that combines with particularly low development aid.

The left of centre opposition group that has come together as The Union party is promising to raise Italian commitment to development aid from its present 0.13 percent of the gross national income (GNI) towards the 0.7 percent target.

Over its five-year term, the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has steadily reduced development aid budget to its present level, the lowest among the developed countries.

The development budget was set to 0.20 percent of GNI when he came to power and has been then progressively downsized. Berlusconi is now seeking re-election at the head of the centre-right Freedom House coalition, built around the Forza Italia party.

The Union is being led by former prime minister and former president of the European Commission Romano Prodi. He had beaten Berlusconi in the 1996 elections and left government leadership before term on a vote of no confidence in the parliament.

The Union will have strong public backing for higher spending on development aid, going by a survey commissioned by a group of non-governmental organisations.

The survey indicates that nine out of ten Italians want higher spending on development aid, and that given a choice between assigning an extra euro to the health service or development, seven out of ten would spend it on development.

Nine out of ten would want the extra euro spent on development rather than defence. And 55 percent said they would be positively influenced by a candidate committed to fighting poverty.

“Italian history in fighting poverty is a story of missed promises,” Raffaele Salinari, leader of the Italian Coordination of International NGO Networks (CINI) told IPS. “Now it’s time for a right angle turn in the straightforward direction of international justice.”

The will of the people must now be reflected in the budget, Eveline Herfkens, United Nations executive coordinator of the Millennium Campaign told IPS. “Italy has now to translate the will of its citizens, paying attention not only to the quantity of aid, but also to its quality.”

The new research points to the “strong electoral weight of the development cooperation issue,” Herfkens said. “If the candidates want to win votes, and not to lose them, they must set these matters on top of their political agenda. When called to choose their government, the electorate will keep this in great consideration.”

It is not clear how much voters will consider this issue when they vote Apr. 9. Centre-right leaders are saying they would reorganise the government bodies for development cooperation to align Italy with European countries rather than promising an increase of development budget.

Civil society pressure has forced the government to act before. The Jubilee 2000 campaign led to the adoption of an innovative law on bilateral debt cancellation in 2000. The aim was to cancel 6 billion dollars of debt, but only 2.5 billion dollars of that has actually been cancelled.

Development groups now want increased commitment to aid with some push from the Millennium Campaign. The Millennium Campaign seeks to keep governments on track towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed at the UN millennium summit. The goals include specific targets on improving health and education and reducing poverty by the year 2015.