ITALY

VITAL STATISTICS
1996 population size	57.2 million
Total Official Development Assistance (ODA), 1996	$2,416 million
ODA as a percentage of GNP, 1996	0.20%
Total population assistance, 1996	$3.6 million
Population assistance as percentage of ODA, 1996	0.15%
Population assistance per $US million GNP, 1996	$3

POPULATION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ASSISTANCE
OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Italy is an important overall donor to developing countries, but an extremely low contributor to population and reproductive health programs. In 1996, Italy gave less than one percent of overall development aid to population assistance programs.

The greatest potential for increasing funding for effective population programs lies in Italian contributions to multilateral organizations. However, Italy’s contribution to UNFPA is negligible, and actually fell between 1996 and 1997. The dearth of reproductive health staff in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs represents a major constraint to increasing Italy’s bilateral population assistance.

Advocacy groups in Italy face a formidable task in lobbying for changes in governmental policy on international population assistance. The relatively new collaboration of Italian NGOs to promote reproductive health issues and pressure their government to allocate additional resources in this area is a positive development. However, it will be a challenge to shift long-standing sectoral priorities in the Italian aid program, which has neglected family planning and reproductive health.

1 Development Assistance: Policy and Funding

Italy emerged as a bilateral donor in the 1980s, and since then has had a variable record on overseas development assistance volume and policy. Ranked last among the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries in the late 1970s, Italy increased its aid levels to reach and surpass the DAC average of 0.4 percent of GNP for development assistance by 1986. Unfortunately, Italy has reversed this trend; in 1997, Italy’s aid cuts resulted in an aid to GNP ratio of just 0.11 percent–down from 0.2 percent the previous year.

Italian NGOs concerned about the development cooperation program attribute the drop in foreign assistance levels to the government’s efforts to meet the entry criteria for the European monetary union. These organizations have been advocates for Italy’s role as a donor nation and have launched a campaign to support foreign aid. In mid-1998, their activities coincided with the development of a draft law on development cooperation–the result both of government initiatives and proposals from various political parties.

In 1996, just over 50 percent of Italian development aid flowed through multilateral institutions–more if Italian multi-bilateral agreements with several institutions, such as the United Nations Development Program, are included. Italy is also a supporter of European Commission aid activities, particularly through the European Development Fund.

Italy’s bilateral aid program is targeted at relief, rehabilitation and peacekeeping activities, and concentrated among its former colonies in the Horn of Africa. The top two recipients of Italian bilateral aid in 1995-96 were Mozambique and Ethiopia, which together accounted for over $200 million of Italy’s approximately $811 million bilateral aid program.

A much needed 1997 reorganization of the aid program has sought to rationalize development assistance through more emphasis on project planning and country strategy development. More recently, the government has proposed to establish a new agency to administer foreign aid. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which currently implements Italian development assistance, would continue to define the political goals of the aid program. However, the new agency would likely have autonomy in implementing foreign aid programs, with parliamentary oversight.

2 The Policy Environment for International Population Assistance

The Italian government has embraced the very broadest definition of population programs emerging from the ICPD. According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy includes in "population" a broad range of sectors which impact on population growth, encompassing education, training, women’s empowerment, general health and reproductive health.

Whatever the definition, population assistance has not been a political or programmatic priority. Moreover, in the recent environment of shrinking development assistance resources, there has been little impetus for increases in Italian population assistance. Many Italian NGOs see population assistance as only one component of a larger approach to development, rather than a cross-cutting constraint to overall development.

However, a few NGOs are engaged in advocacy for population and reproductive health assistance. These include AIDOS (the Italian Association for Women in Development) and the Italian Family Planning Association (UICEMP), which have recently organized an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Reproductive Health, Population and Development. These groups are also attempting to influence upcoming legislation on development assistance to include a reference to family planning and reproductive health.

3 Trends in Funding for Population Assistance

Overall Funding Levels:

Overall population assistance has risen slowly, from just over $2 million in 1987 to $3.6 million in 1996. In 1993, Italy reported an anomalous $17 million in population expenditures, which included a small percentage allocated to the bilateral channel. Previously, the totality of Italy’s modest population assistance expenditures had been channeled through multilateral organizations.

The small size of Italy’s population assistance allocation is particularly noteworthy given its large volume of overall development assistance and the size of its economy. In 1996, Italy was among a handful of donors that allocated less than one-quarter of a percent of overall development aid to population assistance. Another indicator of its capacity to increase aid levels is the ratio of population aid to GNP. In 1996, Italy ranked second from last on this indicator, giving just $3 for each million dollars of GNP. Only Portugal, which has a very small aid program and the lowest GNP per capita in Europe, gave less than Italy relative to GNP.

Multilateral and NGO Funding:

Italy is not a major supporter of the international organizations working in the population field. In 1997, Italy ranked last out of the fourteen major donors to UNFPA. Since 1993, Italy has contributed between $1.2 and $1.9 million annually to this major multilateral organization involved in population activities. In 1996, this represented one-tenth of one percent of the total $1.6 billion Italy contributed to multilateral organizations. In 1997, Italy also contributed $1.7 million to UNFPA for a multi-bilateral project serving women in Honduras and El Salvador. To date, the Italian government has not provided any funding to IPPF.

Bilateral Funding and Geographic Priorities:

Italian bilateral population assistance is limited and concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1996, Italy spent less than $2 million through bilateral and NGO channels on reproductive health more narrowly defined, focusing on reproductive health and basic research in Africa. Italy’s limited initiatives in reproductive health were implemented in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Niger.

The Italian development administration appears to have difficulty reporting annual population-related expenditures. One reason for this difficulty is that actual disbursements for projects lag far behind allocations. Furthermore, since most of Italy’s population-related expenditures are integrated into maternal and child health projects, emergency/relief programs and NGO activities, it is difficult to disaggregate funding for population activities

4 Program Priorities

Areas of Program Emphasis:

Since the Italian government defines population very broadly, it views a wide range of bilateral projects as population-related. Based on its broad definition, which includes education, micro-credit and general health activities, Italy reports funding population projects in Central America, Latin America, Africa and the Palestinian Authority. An Italian consulting organization, SOTECNO, has recently completed implementation of a reproductive health project in Colombia with adolescents and women heads of household as beneficiaries.

5 Technical Capacity

Staffing and Technical Expertise of Collaborating Institutions:

External observers perceive little technical depth in reproductive health and population within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Government officials, however, report that Ministry staff include physicians, demographers and gender specialists with the capacity to provide technical assistance in this area.

Outside the Ministry, there are several NGOs working in the domestic reproductive health field, but these groups do not generally collaborate with the Ministry on development cooperation projects. These include the Associazione Italiana Contraccettivie Sessualitá, (AIECS), Associazione Italiana Educazione Demografica (AIED), UICEMP–the IPPF associate in Italy, and several other NGOs.

Development NGOs are another category of Italian organizations that could potentially become involved in population and reproductive health programs. The few NGOs working in this area tend to employ medical personnel (gynecologists, midwives, nurses) on their projects on a consulting basis. However, AIDOS is working collaboratively with UICEMP and AIED on advocacy and other activities in population and reproductive health.