Italy’s policy of cooperation for development: a “natural vocation” for rhetoric?

Abstract

After the second world war. the Italian economy was in poor conditions. During the 1950s, Italy received not only the Marshall Plan aid but also conspicuous loans from the World Bank. This situation and the scant attention paid by the public regarding issues of Third World development made the transition very difficult from the condition of recipient to that of a donor country. Moreover, Italy’s attitude was influenced by the self-perception that Italian colonialism had provided many benefits to the colonies. It wasn´t until the 1960s, to enhance her image, Italy approved a number of measures about technical assistance and better conditions for credit on exports, following the UN resolution on the “decade of development” and international pressures, particularly from the USA. In 1970 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs created an office to coordinate the work of co-operators, while funds allotted to the Third World remained well below the target of 1% of GNP indicated by UNCTAD in 1964. Public aid for development was concentrated in the Mediterranean basin and in Africa, and to a lesser extent to Latin America. In the period 1965-65, 93% of funds went to 10 countries (Yugoslavia, United Arab Republic, Somalia, Greece, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Brazil, Panama and Mexico). Somalia, a former colony, was a special case. The years 1979-1990 saw a tremendous increase in the amount of funds for cooperation (165%) and a change in their composition.This change resulted in more public funds and less private ones, more loans at favourable conditions and less technical assistance. This phase ended when judiciary inquiries on corruption in the public administration involved also the cooperation sector, which was discredited. By the end of the 1990s, after a drastic reduction of funds, Italian policy of cooperation was broadly in line with international parameters, both in objectives and methods.