30-01-2024 | di COOPI

Italy-Africa: keeping promises

Yesterday, the opening session of the Italy-Africa Conference, represented the launch of the Mattei Plan for Africa, desired by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The Plan is an opportunity to build a new season in our Country's relations with the African continent Countries, creating a model of "partnership beneficial to all parties, far from paternalistic or predatory logics".

In this regard, as members of Link2007 and promoters of Campaign070 we make our own the wish expressed on this occasion by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, when he states that it is necessary to establish even more robust and structured relations with those Countries.

President Meloni confirmed her personal commitment to the success of the Mattei Plan, marking a novelty precisely because of the clarity of one of the key messages of her speech, when she stressed that the Italian future inevitably depends on the African future. In the face of  this acknowledgement, the commitment to put the Mattei Plan into practice through forms of equal cooperation takes on even greater value.

In the hall of the Senate of the Republic, the interest in seeking common benefit for Italy and Europe and the African Countries resounded several times. We share this perspective, being aware of the scenario in which Italy is moving, among other global players seeking new agreements with those Countries.

In this context, we welcome the recognition that the challenge of migration is not to be met with repressive policies. Instead, we need to cooperate to enable everyone to fully exercise their mobility and migration rights in a regular and safe manner, within the framework of the UN Global Compact. This can be the viaticum to radically innovate the policies implemented so far with a new "co-development" approach.

We hope that additional resources will be allocated to the Mattei Plan for international cooperation, compared to those provided by previous governments. So it will be possible to invest adequately and reach the 0.70%  target of national income dedicated to public development aid, as per the international commitments to which Italy has committed itself countless times.

President Mattarella wanted to recall the African proverb 'if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together with other people'. We hope, therefore, that the Mattei Plan will be open to all actors in the field, such as civil society organisations in Africa and Italy, including diasporas. Diasporas could in fact share the experience and skills they have acquired over decades of partnership work, dialoguing and working with local institutions and communities, civil society, associations and families. The areas of collaboration are varied, such as the field of vocational training and education, the promotion of small artisan and peasant businesses, access to medicine and health services, the redevelopment of urban suburbs, last-mile water, electricity and digital infrastructures, care for the environment and the sustainable exploitation of natural resources and green transition programmes.

The Mattei Plan can thus also be a fundamental test-bed for the young people, women and men of development cooperation.

 

Download here the official press release (Italian version).

Foto: ANSA