Developing countries should be seen as partners in development: Italian Minister

Developing countries should not be viewed just as beneficiaries but as partners in development.  International development cooperation is a very crucial part of Italy’s foreign policy, said Emanuela Claudia Del Re, Italian Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation

“International development cooperation is most important operational arm of the foreign policy for Italy.  Italy is a champion in International development cooperation since very past many decades,” Emanuela Claudia Del Re told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview.  

She was in Qatar last week to deliver a lecture on ‘International Development Cooperation’ and Italy’s approach in this regard. She stressed that developing countries should be seen as partners in development.
“Most European countries are sensitive to this issue and they have started to change their mentality.  Italy in particular is able to transmit these values very strongly because we are concretely acting in this sense,” said Emanuela Claudia Del Re. 

“We have a system by which we have a multi stake holder approach in which we involve every part of the society. We are not only talking about government donating money to another government, not at all,” she said.

She delivered lecture on ‘Development Cooperation: The Italian Approach’ hosted by Education Above All Foundation (EAA) and Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) and organised in cooperation with the Italian Embassy in Doha.

“We have a system in which the government through its agency for international cooperation finances projects that are carried out by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Not only this, we also involve diasporas which are fundamental part of our societies because migration has contributed greatly to the development of European societies,” the minister added. 
She called for a greater involvement of the private sector in development cooperation strategies and programmes, praising the leverage of the private sector for social and economic inclusion. 
“We also involve private sector which is very important because it can bring in different strategy and money and in this way we have a holistic approach that really tackles the problems and allows us to work on equal basis with our partner countries for the benefit of the world,” she said.  She said that Italy is very much involved in human rights and working actively on the issue related to women.
“We are also very much involved in women empowerment and also in economics in developing new schemes of agro business or other manufacturing opportunities and vocational training.  “But the most important thing is we want to transmit a message to the world that the third (world) countries which were once perceived only as beneficiaries are in fact partners, because they have all the skills, capabilities, the human capital to be partners in the process of development,” she said. 
“And this is why I usually talk about shared development saying that we cannot have real development, we cannot really help other countries unless we sit down together and share views, respond to the demands that come out of the countries themselves,” she added.
She added that Italy is a strong contributor in International Development Cooperation at global level. 
“Italy is strong contributor in International Development Cooperation at global level, very strong not only at multi lateral level financing a lot of international organisations but also at bilateral level with many countries,” she added.