Italy's government has backed a major aid package worth a total 531 million euros. Africa is the main beneficiary but the package also contains schemes to help Ukraine, Moldova, central and south America and the Middle East, a foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday.
Italy's Joint Committee for Development Cooperation chaired by deputy foreign minister Edmondo Cirielli adopted health and education programmes in the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and the Republic of Congo, and health, education, food security, cultural heritage, employment and job creation schemes for Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Niger and Senegal, the statement said.
Initiatives were also adopted in Ukraine and Moldova (energy security); in Iraq, Jordan Bosnia and Herzegovina (safeguarding cultural heritage); and in Albania, in the ASEAN countries, in El Salvador, Palestine and Syria, the statement noted.
The Joint Committee also okayed a financing proposal by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to help Brazilian bank Banco do Brasil support sustainable development projects, said the statement
Contributions to international organizations include Bari's CIHEAM Mediterranean Agronomic Institute – to strengthen agri-food ecosystems in Senegal; to the OECD for the Virtual Platform on Investment in Africa; and to Bioversity International for strengthening food systems in Eastern and Southern Africa, said the statement.
During the committee meeting appointed the heads of seven of Italy's cooperation development agency AICS's offices in Africa: in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dakar (Senegal), Cairo (Egypt), Kampala (Uganda), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Tunis (Tunisia).
