In an increasingly interconnected world dominated by serious humanitarian, economic and environmental crises, international cooperation remains the only answer to ensure that everyone can enjoy peace and prosperity. Yet Italy is moving in the opposite direction: according to OECD data, in 2023 Italy's contribution to development cooperation fell by 17 per cent.

Armed conflicts, the climate crisis, increasingly widespread violations of human rights — these are just some of the crises currently affecting the world, yet tension is running high across the entire planet. We are living in an era in which prosperity and peace no longer seem like such foregone conclusions as we Europeans perhaps believed until not so long ago. A plunge into a reality that seems ever more fragile.

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Mentre l’instabilità mondiale cresce, il 2023 ha segnato un momento di relativa stagnazione nella cooperazione internazionale

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♥ 7 31 mag 2024 · Apri su X →

What we are experiencing is in fact a picture dominated by multidimensional fragility, which exposes every region of the world to greater risk and, consequently, to the insufficient capacity of states, systems or communities to manage, absorb and mitigate those risks. To describe this situation, an English-language term has come into use over the past year: "polycrisis".

The term, which in Italian translates as "crisi multipla" (multiple crisis), is used to describe the current global scenario, characterised by a series of serious interconnected crises, including economic, climate and political ones. Its use has become increasingly common in newspapers, albeit not without criticism. It can also be found in the studies of political scientists, who included it among the keywords of last year. Prominent economists have adopted it, and at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos it was one of the most debated topics.

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In a polycrisis, we must tackle a range of crises simultaneously. @climateworks’ @HMountford4 shares how climate philanthropy can help. #MeetTheLeader
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♥ 14 27 set 2023 · Apri su X →

In Italy, the term "policrisi" has met with more moderate success, but is nonetheless gaining ground. Its history is an interesting one: coined in the 1990s, it was revived a few years ago by former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Its true fame, however, came with its adoption by one of the best-known economic historians in the world, the British scholar Adam Tooze. Tooze used the term to interpret the complex state of the global economy, compounded by the climate crisis, war and a host of other challenges.

Despite the criticism, the term polycrisis aptly captures the complexity and interconnectedness of the challenges the world faces today. Its widespread use reflects a growing awareness of the need for a global and holistic approach to tackling these crises — exactly the approach taken by the 2030 Agenda: an action plan for people, the planet and prosperity through cooperative partnership. The goals set for sustainable development in the 2030 Agenda are global in scope, concerning and involving all countries and all sectors of society, from private businesses to the public sector, from civil society to those working in information and culture. The 17 goals address a set of important issues that give balanced consideration to the three dimensions of sustainable development — economic, social and ecological — and aim to end poverty, fight inequality, tackle climate change, and build peaceful societies that respect human rights.

In a world where the effects of natural disasters, violence, the aftermath of the pandemic, poverty, migratory flows and geopolitical realignments are all intertwined, international cooperation plays a primary and irreplaceable role.

The coronavirus pandemic, with its tragic death toll and lockdowns, acted as a detonator for the severe crisis that struck global economies. Added to this is Russia's invasion of Ukraine under Vladimir Putin, which further exacerbated inflation-related problems and contributed to trade disruptions. Layered over this already complex scenario is the climate crisis, with its host of complications and challenges, and more recently the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The list could go on and on.

In one edition of his newsletter, Tooze developed a diagram of the polycrisis according to his own vision, which helps us understand the extreme interconnectedness and confusion reigning among the various crises.

Tooze acknowledges that the world has always been intrinsically complex and that it is certainly not the first time that multiple crises have amplified one another. However, in his view, "what makes the crises of the last 15 years so disorienting is that it no longer seems possible to identify a single cause and, as a result, a single solution." Even in the 1980s, Tooze argues, it was possible to imagine that "the market" would resolve economic crises, or to blame "neoliberalism" for all the world's ills, depending on one's political convictions. Today that is no longer the case: crises have no single origin and, as a result, no single solution appears to exist.

Faced with this polycrisis, international cooperation becomes the only effective response for building a safer and more prosperous future for all. History teaches us that international cooperation is the key to peace and progress. The United Nations, founded after the Second World War, are a clear example of how collaboration between nations can prevent conflicts and promote sustainable development and the protection of human rights. Thanks to international cooperation, significant progress has been made in the fight against poverty, hunger and disease; international agreements have been signed to protect the environment and combat climate change; and not least, cooperation has made it possible to tackle global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an increasingly interconnected world, the fate of every nation is tied to that of others, even if this approach does not appear to be shared by Italian policymakers.

Italy's role

The OECD's preliminary data for 2023 paint an unpromising picture of Italy's contribution to development cooperation. After two years of relative improvement, Italy's official development assistance — that is, the initiatives supporting education, health, essential goods such as clean water and energy, economic growth, and the environment, in the least developed countries — is experiencing a decline equivalent to -17 per cent.

The ratio to gross national income (GNI) has fallen, dropping below 0.30 per cent and thus marking a further retreat from the internationally agreed target of reaching an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.70 per cent by 2030. Bilateral aid — that is, aid specifically between Italy and individual impoverished countries — has even fallen by 45 per cent. The data also show that resources have continued to stagnate for years. Indeed, Italian governments have kept resources at between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent for decades, without any significant or progressive increases towards the 0.7 per cent target.

To raise awareness among citizens and policymakers about the need to fund international cooperation projects around the world and to increase our country's contribution, the Progetto generazione cooperazione was created by 24 bodies comprising national civil society organisations and networks, including Focsiv as lead organisation and funded by Aics, and it works alongside the Campagna 070.

The project aims to cultivate a widespread awareness of development cooperation issues and, at the same time, to spur the political class to achieve the 0.70 per cent of gross national income target for official development assistance, as established and promised more than fifty years ago. In particular, Progetto generazione cooperazione, through workshops for students and training activities for teachers and headteachers, strengthens their knowledge and skills in the area of international cooperation for sustainable development and encourages civic action in local communities, seeking to mobilise political representatives so that the 0.7 per cent target is enshrined in the budget law. This glocal approach responds to the achievement of the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. The ultimate objective of the project is to promote cultural change by adopting collective and institutional behaviours in support of international cooperation for sustainable development, peace and justice.

But how many resources does development cooperation actually need?

To measure a country's commitment to development cooperation, the internationally recognised indicator is the ratio of funds allocated to official development assistance (ODA) to gross national income (GNI). This ratio should be at least 0.7 per cent. But reality has not moved in that direction, and for this reason, in 2015 the UN included this target in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development under goal 17.2, thereby defining the commitment of donor countries to reach 0.7 per cent of GNI for ODA by 2030.

In this regard, the Campagna 070, promoted by Focsiv, Aoi, Cini and Link 2007, has launched an appeal for a concrete and verifiable commitment in order to ensure that our country meets the target of allocating 0.7 per cent of its income to official development assistance.

Progetto Generazione Cooperazione @genercoop

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Solo 5 paesi su 30 hanno raggiunto l'obiettivo di destinare lo 0,70% del proprio reddito nazionale lordo all’ APS.
L’Italia, al 18° posto con lo 0,32%.
Leggi qui bit.ly/41QfN7w
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♥ 9 19 mag 2023 · Apri su X →

"The campaign calls on Italy to make a genuinely concrete commitment. The major global crises — from the pandemic to climate change, from growing inequalities to conflicts and migration — make it abundantly clear that we are all bound together on a single planet and remind us that international cooperation is not a luxury: cooperation is a strategic investment to secure a sustainable future for ourselves. If we do not join forces and if we are unable to honour the commitments Italy made at the UN when the 2030 Agenda was adopted, we will not be able to meet the challenges of the future," explains Focsiv president Ivana Borsotto.

More specifically, Campagna 070, supported by the Generazione Cooperazione project, aims to call on the Italian government to begin a gradual process of increasing resources for development cooperation until it reaches 0.7 per cent of gross national income by 2030, as provided for by Law 125/14. This law states that cooperation is "an integral and defining part of Italy's foreign policy", in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. In this sense, it is important that Italy makes adequate resources available for cooperation, starting with the immediate fulfilment of the commitment made by our country 50 years ago to dedicate 0.7 per cent of its national wealth to official development assistance (ODA). This currently stands at just 6 billion dollars against the 13 billion envisaged.