2007 GAO report on Italian ODA

This week, the General Accounting Office released the 2007 report for Italian ODA, the first official qualitative and quantitative assessment of Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed cooperation for last year. In 2007, the MFA cooperation budget disbursed 1.3 million euros, thanks to extra-budget allocation, to fund its 13 sectoral priorities. Bilateral debt cancellations amounted to 510 million while debt conversions peaked at 140 million euros, including Perù (38 million Euro), Egypt (100 million), and Macedonia (1,8 million). The MFA allocated 53 million euros to humanitarian interventions and channelled 365 million to multilateral organizations - doubling the highest level (165 million) reached in 2003. As for geographical allocations, sub-Saharan, Africa received 39% of total allocations from 25% in 2006 - 135 million from 106 million in 2006. The GAO report concludes by listing two concerning trends: un-committed resources to 291 million euros from 234 million in 2006, with a 11% loss in administrative staff for monitoring. Ironically speaking with the GAO report wished an ODA budget increase to enable Italian to meet its EU ODA targets, the Government cut development cooperation 2009 budget, with accepting to assess Parliamentary the recommendation for an ODA increase from September 2008.