A NEW APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

This is a crucial moment for the fight against world poverty. Given how far we still are from success, it is essential that we make a critical and honest assessment of the strategies and lines of action we have used thus far, writes Patrizia Sentinelli, Italy\'s vice-minister for foreign affairs. In this article the author writes that while the international climate is not favourable to this endeavour, we have seen an evolution of global public awareness of the importance of intensifying the fight against poverty. These indications of a new sensibility should be, especially for donor countries, the departure point for building a more ambitious mode of international co-operation that transcends the sectorial logic that has limited it thus far, places it alongside the major public policies, and fully integrates it into foreign policy. Only in this way can international co-operation work to make dialogue a method not only of resolving disputes but also of preventing conflicts. Co-operation must provide support for pacifist activism, the protection of common goods, and the participation of civil society of the North and the South.