International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
	[ Workshop home page] [ Index of papers]

Marcello Balbo (IUAV. Italy)

"Bilateral Cooperation policy in the Urban Sectior: Italy"

based on an interview with Anna Maria CECI, Development Co-operation Directorate General

1. Is there a particular feature of your government co-operation policy with DCs in the urban sector, emphasis being put on urban management issues?

In the past years the Italian co-operation policy has been practically put to a halt following a general revision of its objectives, organisation and management. In this period the government has financed almost exclusively multilateral aid, while closing or reducing most of the projects carried out with the direct support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Development Co-operation General Directorate (DGCS)
However, in the midst of this rather problematic situation, a few projects having to do with urban development issues were carried out, namely: the Alvorada project for the upgrading of the favelas in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by the Italian ngo AVSI; the Settlement Upgrading Programme, managed by UNCHS (Habitat) a capacity building project concerning seven cities in different countries and involving various Italian universities (only the project first phase has been completed); the "Gestion urbana en ciudades intermedias de Am‚rica Latina", managed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) involving various Municipalities of different countries.
Notwithstanding it is rather problematic to define an Italian co-operation strategy, in general and in particular with reference to the urban sector: these were individual programmes coming under no co-ordinating action. In fact they have had no impact whatsoever on the government action. In the last years, but the situation has not changed yet, the chances for a project to be financed by the government depend largely on the personal ability and willingness of the DGCS officers to carry it through the maze of red-tape. Whether the financing goes to a project in the urban sector, in agriculture, health or education does not rest upon a clearly stated policy or even any explicit orientation, rather on case by case conditions and more or less unforeseeable circumstances.
More recently, following the Habitat II Conference, greater attention has been reserved to urban social issues, with specific attention to the issue of urban poverty and job creation. A few projects were initiated in Africa, apparently in a more co-ordinated way, dealing specifically with this aspect of urban policy.
A two-days workshop was organised in November 1998, by the Co-operation General Directorate in Rome on urban development policies, with the aim of defining some guidelines on the issue. Though the workshop's impact is difficult to assess, to many participants it seems it had more to do with the Directorate internal conflicts than with the future of the co-operation policy. The document produced at the end of the workshop is very general and it does not provide for any implementation procedure or guideline, less so for any constraining framework of action.

2. Does this policy differ (i) from that of other international institutions and aid agencies (the W.B. and UN agencies) and (ii) from that of other Goverments in Europe ?

With the small number of projects being carried out in the field and their fragmented nature, it is impossible to speak of an Italian co-operation approach, hence of whether and how it differs from that of the international organisations. Differences may or may not exist within the individual projects: the Settlement Upgrading Project was explicitly looking at the World Bank upgrading policy, as well as the Belo Horizonte project. On the other hand the ECLAC programme was based on a more innovative approach, providing for a direct involvement and greater participation of local governments: as a matter of fact their explicit political as well as financial commitment to the project was one of the main selection criterion.
Again, the recent financing of the urban poverty oriented projects seems to indicate that the Italian co-operation intends to work within a more strongly defined framework aiming at greater co-ordination. It also seems to imply the search for a more "autonomous" strategy based on a more precise definition of urban poverty and a clearer identification of its features and trends. It should be stressed, however, that these projects are only at their initial stage and, most of all, they are carried out in strict co-operation with the World Bank.

3. Do you anticipate - either in the medium or long terms - the emergence of a particular/original European co-operation policy with DCs in the urban sector?

The answer is affirmative and is based on the existence of the European experts group who meets twice a year to discuss co-operation-related issues as well as on the fact that OCDE put an end to their group on urban and environmental issues. However there is no specific indication on what the contents of a possible _European approach", the experts group apparently being not particularly interested in the building (and dissemination) of such an approach. One should note however that the drafting of a European policy on the issue may well be seen as a clear trend towards the definition of a European strategy.