International cooperation is the key to peace and progress, yet Italy's aid is declining. Back in June, sector associations raised the alarm over what was happening in our country regarding the funding of development cooperation activities. Since that June, global conflicts and challenges have multiplied while Italy's commitment has grown ever fainter.

To reach the targets Italy set at the United Nations, it would be necessary to more than double funding over the next five years. A need that vanishes into the void of a political class that seems to have forgotten its own aspirations, preferring to confine itself to modest symbolic gestures that do not inconvenience those in charge. It is the hallmark of a nation that has lost its bearings and takes refuge in an inaction disguised as prudence — and the new budget law is the manifesto of this political inaction.

Although the Censis report has noted that the majority of public opinion wants peace and investment in health, education and social welfare, national and European politics seems to be ignoring growing inequalities and the negative environmental and social consequences of climate change, choosing instead to invest in weapons — as President Sergio Mattarella also recalled in his year-end address. Deterrence comes before diplomacy, dialogue, and the relentless, tenacious pursuit of peaceful and more just solutions.

Less money for development, more money for weapons

And precisely when more cooperation is needed, the world seems to be pulling back and fragmenting. In Italy, the budget law debate has led to a reduction in funding for development cooperation while investment in weapons has increased. As a result, the sustainable development goal enshrined in the 2030 Agenda — investing 0.7 per cent of gross national income in official development assistance — is drifting ever further away. We hover around 0.2–0.3 per cent, less than half of what is required, as flagged by the Campagna 070.

More than 3,000 students and 200 teachers across Italy have studied and worked on the theme of cooperation through the Generazione cooperazione project, created by 24 bodies — national and local civil society organisations and networks, including Focsiv — and funded by Aics. The project aims to plant a certain sensitivity towards development cooperation issues and, at the same time, to spur the political class to achieve the 0.70 per cent of gross national income committed to cooperation, as agreed and promised more than 50 years ago.

In 2025 the Generazione cooperazione project comes to an end, but its activities will be relaunched through the Jubilee with the campaign "cambiare la rotta" (change course), ahead of the UN conference on financing for development. Across the world, and in Italy too, schools and young activists will mobilise to raise politicians' awareness of the need to support development cooperation more vigorously and decisively, in order to reduce the drivers of conflict and war and to support the ecological transition.

Meanwhile, realpolitik tells us in black and white that little is being invested in cooperation, despite the government having launched the so-called Piano Mattei to create non-predatory partnerships with African countries. A plan with scant resources and a certain degree of ambiguity, owing to projects that appear to reproduce dynamics of exploitation of African natural resources — from gas to food production — for our own interests.

The allocation of financial resources in the budget law paints a picture of stark disparity: the Ministry of Economy and Finance claims a substantial share of the funds, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation suffers a cut of 115 million euros. At the same time, the Agenzia italiana per la cooperazione allo sviluppo (Aics), the operational engine of international development cooperation, is stripped of 32 million euros — a cut that reduces Italy to a marginal role on the international stage, more observer than protagonist.

Cooperation in budget laws between 2022 and 2027

The figures speak for themselves: in 2023 Italy achieved a disappointing 0.27 per cent in the ODA/GNI ratio — that is, in the share of gross national income channelled into official development assistance — a figure that represents a step backwards from any aspiration of progress and condemns cooperation to a state of perpetual marginality. Every cut, every amendment, translates into a renunciation that weighs on international credibility and reveals the emptiness of a politics that prefers a low-profile approach. A portion of the resources listed as "cooperation" is earmarked for the reception of migrants in Italy, effectively turning development cooperation into a cover for domestic expenditure.

To reach the targets that have been set, it would be essential to more than double funding over the next five years, as the young people of the Generazione cooperazione project have emphasised:

"We need to give greater voice and space to development cooperation policy — the best tool for creating conditions of peace and justice."

In particular, the young people of Generazione cooperazione are disseminating the Manifesto for Cooperation (il Manifesto dei giovani – ECG Project): "We are young people who struggle with daily hardships and who want a different reality. We are inheriting a world torn apart by conflicts, inequality and climate crisis. We repudiate indifference and firmly believe that alternatives can be built — alternatives that would lead humanity to live in unity and harmony. All our lives we have been told that the future belongs to the young, but we want to act now, in the present, to ensure that tomorrow there is a future for everyone: a future founded on dialogue, sustainability and social and environmental justice. We strongly believe in participation, which is why we want to be part of a change that can improve the social fabric in which we live."