Policy Updates

On June 20, 2024, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani attended a conference, titled Protecting Our Future—The Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation, and announced a contribution of US$150 million to AVMA.

The conference was organized by France in partnership with Gavi and the Africa Center for Disease Control.

AVMA aims to enable the purchase of over 800 million doses of locally produced vaccines, with the ambitious goal of producing at least 60% of the vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040.

In his speech, Tajani reaffirmed appreciation and strong Italian support for Gavi. He invited Gavi chair José Emanuel Barroso to the G7 Ministers of Development Summit in on October 24 and 25, 2024, in Pescara, Italy.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.

On May 14-15, 2024, the C7 summit was held at the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, organized by the Italian Civil Society Coalition that led, coordinated, and moderated the C7 2024 process.

Approximately 400 global representatives took part in the event, as well as international decision-makers, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, Italian G7 sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, Cardinal, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope’s envoy for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti.

The official C7 communiqué that listed the international civil society recommendation to the G7’s Leaders around seven key issues was released at the event, which included:

• Economic justice and transformation;
• Climate, energy transformation, and environmental justice;
• Global health;
• Principled humanitarian assistance;
• Peace, common security, and nuclear disarmament;
• Human mobility and migration; and
• Food justice and food systems transformation.

On April 30, 2024, it was announced that, as a part of the G7 Finance Track, the Italian MEF and ISTAT will host the seventh edition of the OECD World Forum on Wellbeing, entitled Strengthening Wellbeing Approaches for a Changing World, in Rome from November 4-6, 2024.

The event is part of the G7 Finance Track promoted by the Italian government. The Forum will be structured into five round tables that will discuss topics, including:

• The development of policy frameworks oriented towards equitable and sustainable well-being;
• The measurement and statistical methodology, as well as the analysis of well-being indicators;
• Climate change;
• Technological innovation and the use of artificial intelligence; and
• The next steps in the well-being agenda.

Other topics to be addressed include gender inequalities, inequalities and poverty, physical and mental health, and the aging population.

On April 17-19, 2024, the G7's Ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Capri, Italy, and released a communiqué summarizing the intents and goals of Italy's G7 presidency.

A new meeting is planned in Fiuggi in autumn 2024. The G7 Minister of Development's meeting in Pescara is scheduled for the end of October. The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs is committed to continually working on some of the most urgent international crises.

The G7 Ministers expressed concern about rising food insecurity and malnutrition stemming from the combined impact of climate change, loss, and degradation of ecosystems, the growing number of conflicts, inflationary pressures, and the reduced fiscal space in many developing economies.

The ministers also emphasized the importance of strengthening PPR and global health, as well as supporting LGBTQI+ rights and SRHR. The communiqué also reaffirmed the need for strengthened international financial institutions and underscore the role of MDBs in achieving the SDGs, including in crisis-affected contexts.

On April 14, 2024, the C7 published a statement ahead of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Capri from April 17-19, 2024, where the group called on the foreign ministers to take concrete action to promote human rights as well as the common interests of humanity and the planet.

The C7 advocated that the G7 ministers reaffirm their commitment to developing long-term peace-building strategies that address persistent structural challenges at the basis of conflicts, ensure food security even in fragile settings, and address a profound transformation of food systems. The group also called upon their governmental counterparts to ensure safe and regular migration channels and commit to protecting migrant rights.

On April 12, 2024, preliminary data from the OECD revealed that Italy's ODA, which stood at US$7 billion in 2022, decreased by 15.5% to US$6 billion in 2023, primarily due to a lower disbursement of bilateral ODA.

Oxfam Italy representative and Francesco Petrelli and spokeperson from the 070 CampaignIvana Borsotto criticized the lack of coherence of the Italian government that has simultaneously seemingly committed to putting Africa at the center of the Italian international agenda while decreasing ODA.

On March 12, 2024, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani announced that Italy would launch the initiative Food for Gaza, a humanitarian initiative in partnership with FAO, the WFP, and the IFRC, to facilitate the delivery of food assistance and ensure food security in the Gaza Strip.

The initiative is slated to focus on streamlining access to food and WASH assistance by collaborating with relevant organizations. Italy also announced that, as the current G7 president, it would bring the initiative to the EU and G7 to lay the groundwork for Gaza's reconstruction.

This initiative has built upon Italy's ongoing assistance to Gaza beginning in October 2023, which includes EUR20 million (US$22 million) in assistance.

On February 26, 2024, AICS and the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security entered a Collaboration Agreement, totaling EUR982 million (US$1 billion), to finance pathways of transformative promotion and awareness-raising for sustainable development and global citizenship through 2027.

The funding is intended to support the experimentation of collaborative modalities among different institutional, research, and non-state actors.

The partnership was described as pivotal to fully implementing Italy's National Strategy for Sustainable Development and the Strategy for Education for Global Citizenship.

On February 12, 2024, AICS, in partnership with MAECI, launched a US$196 million (EUR180 million) call for proposals for projects led by CSOs and local Italian authorities.

US$130 million (EUR120 million) is slated for projects led by CSOs. US$66 million (EUR60 million) is slated for initiatives from Italy's regional and local authorities.

The new grant is the highest-value call for development cooperation in this sector in recent years, and the first operational follow-up to Italy's Mattei Plan for Africa.

85% of the resources will be allocated to Africa. 15% is slated for other countries, including Ukraine.