On the occasion of Coopera, the national conference on development cooperation promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, currently taking place in Rome, Corriere della Sera publishes an article by Giampaolo Silvestri, Secretary General of AVSI. In the article, Silvestri revisits several key themes for AVSI, above all the need to dismantle outdated boundaries and promote integrated collaboration among different actors, with a view to a more equitable development for all.
A Shared Step Forward
With every crisis that hits us, almost as a defense mechanism, we invoke a “paradigm shift” that might come to save us. We did so in 2008, then again during Covid, once more with the shutdown of USAID, and now amid asymmetric wars that paralyze economies and trigger global alarm.
In the field of cooperation too, we keep calling for this change of pace, as though it could come from somewhere else, while in fact we ourselves are the ones capable of making it happen: we as individuals, starting from our specific responsibilities, and we as a “country system”. A system invited these days to Rome for Coopera: the National Conference on International Development Cooperation, organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as required by law, as a moment to share field experiences and report back to everyone on what Italy invests in terms of financial resources, human capital, innovation and relationships in what is a strategic asset of our foreign policy.
Different worlds converge at Coopera to document what is increasingly becoming a common effort with high impact, and to show an audience made up of young students, entrepreneurs, technical experts and sector operators how taxpayers’ money is being used — in other words, what Italy is carrying out in developing countries or in emergencies that do not always make the news, although they deeply affect our own future as well.
The much-invoked new paradigm therefore begins with two fundamental elements: a new awareness of the effectiveness of acting together, as a system, and the breaking down of the barriers that still separate worlds which should instead integrate ideas and resources — namely civil society organizations, the private sector, institutions, academia and philanthropic foundations.
The time of exclusive forums, dedicated either to business or to the so-called “social sector,” has long been buried by history, because the reality of development is so pressing in its complexity that it must be addressed together, allowing different forms of knowledge and perspectives to interact.
A clear example of this is the Lobito Corridor, to mention just one among the many corridors worth investing in. This railway and logistics network, aimed at connecting the mining region of Central Africa (Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo) to the Atlantic Ocean through Angola, is part of the EU Global Gateway strategy and the Mattei Plan. For it to become a reality — that is, to generate fair development — it requires an integrated approach between the companies laying the tracks and the organizations working to protect the needs and rights of the communities affected by the infrastructure, first and foremost in education, healthcare and social cohesion.
Could even a major corporation alone guarantee such development? No. Could civil society organizations alone promote the rights of vulnerable communities? No.
We see this clearly on the ground: from the very moment a development programme begins to take shape, it is necessary to design and plan together. A company cannot do good business in a context where children have no opportunity to attend school or receive healthcare. Nor can it successfully build a railway network without assessing its impact on the environment and on the lives of the
communities living in those territories. It would ultimately bear the enormous costs generated by instability, conflict or environmental disaster.
Because these communities are made up of people whose dignity remains inalienable and must be promoted as an absolute priority.
Development belongs to everyone or to no one at all — we still struggle to understand this, yet reality keeps proving it to us. This is why development calls for that new step forward, which can already be glimpsed at Coopera and must now be taken without hesitation.