After a 3 month long fruitless discussion within an ad-hoc Committee in the Senate to find wide consensus on the institutional setting for the new Italian aid architecture, the Government broke the stalemate during the debate on the Financial bill in the Lower House of Parliament.
The ad-committee was not able to find any bi-partisan agreement on the establishment of the implementing Agency for Development Cooperation and the creation of a pooled-fund for half of ODA financial resources within the budget. Both were opposed by the opposition.
The Government included both bodies and provision for further untying within an amendment to the Financial Bill. If the Governments keeps this provision, by early next year the Italian instutions for development cooperation will be completely different. It is important to note that by this amendment, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will enhance its planning role, while the Minister of Finance will keep its share in the financial institutions. The Minister of Finance will provide contribution to, for instance, regional development banks, while agreeing its policy position with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Moreover the pooled fund, to be exclusively managed by the Agency, will not include loans or multilateral transfers.
However the current ODA Law will be maintained to discipline over other non-management related issues, such as the aims of ODA and the actors for development cooperation. The Parliament will still be called on innovating the ODA architecture on other institutional features, such as the appointment of a Deputy minister for development cooperation, institutional arrangements for policy coherence, provisions for Parliament and civil society meaningful engagement, possibility for Southern CSOs to get access to Italian resources.
The ad-committee was not able to find any bi-partisan agreement on the establishment of the implementing Agency for Development Cooperation and the creation of a pooled-fund for half of ODA financial resources within the budget. Both were opposed by the opposition.
The Government included both bodies and provision for further untying within an amendment to the Financial Bill. If the Governments keeps this provision, by early next year the Italian instutions for development cooperation will be completely different. It is important to note that by this amendment, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will enhance its planning role, while the Minister of Finance will keep its share in the financial institutions. The Minister of Finance will provide contribution to, for instance, regional development banks, while agreeing its policy position with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Moreover the pooled fund, to be exclusively managed by the Agency, will not include loans or multilateral transfers.
However the current ODA Law will be maintained to discipline over other non-management related issues, such as the aims of ODA and the actors for development cooperation. The Parliament will still be called on innovating the ODA architecture on other institutional features, such as the appointment of a Deputy minister for development cooperation, institutional arrangements for policy coherence, provisions for Parliament and civil society meaningful engagement, possibility for Southern CSOs to get access to Italian resources.
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1 comment:
Interesting to know.
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