A new era of development assistance: Key takeaways from the G7 summit

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October 2022, following an election campaign rife with politically divisive and extreme rhetoric from her far-right conservative party, the Brothers of Italy. However, in the year and a half following her appointment, the fears of the development community that a far-right leader would lead to correspondingly severe ODA cuts and decisions have not materialized as expected. Rather, Meloni and Italy have placed a development emphasis on investments in Africa and human capital both domestically and as the leader of the G7 presidency, which it assumed in January 2024.

Six months into G7 leadership, the Italian government has hosted and announced several events bolstering these priorities. This included the 50^thG7 Summit, held from June 13-15, 2024, in Fasano, Italy. In attendance were, G7 leaders, heads of state from the EU, the leaders of Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Turkey, and UAE. Pope Francis was also in attendance, which marked the first time a pontiff has participated in the G7 Summit.

This Donor Tracker commentary provides an overview of the recent G7 Summit and how it links to Italian development assistance trends, along with a snapshot of future G7 events and opportunities for development advocates in 2024.

The Italian G7

A new era of Italian development assistance?

Between 2021 and 2022, Italy’s relative and absolute prioritization of development rose from 0.29% (US$6.1 billion) to 0.33% (US$7.2 billion) following years of steady decline from 2018-2020. The jump is largely attributable to rising IDRCs and COVID-19-related pledges. Preliminary OECD data show that, with the expiration of these pledges, Italy will fall to an ODA/GNI of 0.27% in 2023 for a total ODA spend of US$6 billion, however, ODA is projected to rebound back to 0.33% in 2024 with total expenditures equivalent to 2022 levels, if not more.

At COP28 in 2023, the Italian government pledged to reach the OECD DAC 0.7% ODA/GNI target by 2030.

Read More: Donor Profile - Italy

Despite a mixed outlook on Italian ODA emerging from the high allocations to COVID-19 and IDRCs, Italy’s international cooperation strategy under Meloni has been more moderate or even positive than expected upon her election, without severe cuts to key programs or notable drops in overall spending. Meloni has also expressed a commitment to ODA as part of Italian foreign policy and relations, and development forms an integral part of Italy’s new strategic developments.

The Mattei Plan

At the center of Meloni’s development strategy is the Mattei Plan for Africa, launched in January 2024 with an initial pledge of EUR5.5 billion (US$5.9 billion) in grants, credits, or guarantees to nine priority countries. EUR2.5 billion (US$2.7 billion) will come from the development cooperation budget; controversially, EUR3 billion (US$3.2 billion) will be diverted from the Italian Climate Fund, equaling 70% of the fund’s total budget and heavily criticized by the Green Party and the Left. The Mattei Plan aims to build a new form of partnership with African countries, where key goals and targets are co-designed with partner countries and harmonized with existing European initiatives and with NGOs operating in Africa.

In February 2024, Italy launched a US$196 million call for proposals as the first operational follow-up to the Mattei Plan. Critically, the Mattei Plan has generated interest with African leaders who welcomed the approach of equal partnership between multilaterals, MDBs, and partner countries to better respond to regional demands and needs.

Summit run-up

Meloni foregrounded Italy’s G7 presidency by announcing five key priorities:

• Support for Ukraine;
• Economic security;
• Energy security and climate change;
• Migration; and
• Relations with Africa.

The priorities intertwined closely with Italy’s evolving development priorities and strategies, as well as with the Mattei Plan.

The C7 released a communiqué on civil society's recommendations for the G7 in May 2024, following an event with more than 400 representatives from international organizations, government, and CSOs.

Ministerial meetings

From April 17-19, 2024, the G7's first ministerial meeting took place. The G7 Ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Capri, Italy, and released a communiqué summarizing the intents and goals of Italy's G7 presidency. Priorities included 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 reduced fiscal space in many low-income economies.

From May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where they supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA through an ambitious policy and financing package. They also voiced support for refinancing processes of several global health institutions.

The ministers did not, however, give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank for the upcoming IDA replenishment will be crossed, nor did they give any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders to combat climate change. Similarly, the ministers recognized debt challenges faced by many low—and middle-income countries and the need to improve the Common Framework but did not verbalize the necessity for adopting a different approach or developing a comprehensive debt restructuring package, which was criticized by the C7.

Outcomes and implications

Major outcomes

Meloni built on domestic goals and preceding ministerial events at the G7 Summit. The present leaders addressed a range of pressing global issues in the G7 Leaders’ Communiqué, including Africa, Russia's frozen assets, climate change, Ukraine, the Middle East, migration, and AI.

The G7 leaders also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and a credible pathway toward peace that leads to a two-state solution. They also advocated for a significant and sustained increase in humanitarian assistance.

Ukraine

One of the most notable outcomes of the summit was that the G7 made approximately US$50 billion available to Ukraine as a loan, leveraging the extraordinary revenues of frozen Russian sovereign assets and sending a signal of unwavering support to Ukraine. Meloni declared that the G7 and its allies were stepping up collective efforts to disarm and defund Russia’s military-industrial complex.

MDBs, lending, and climate

G7 leaders committed to boost World Bank lending by US$70 billion in the following decade. They called on the international community to address debt burdens to enable countries to invest in their future and achieve the SDGs, recognizing that reducing poverty and tackling global challenges go hand in hand. The leaders focused on equitable partnership with African nations and commitment to aligning efforts with the AU's Agenda 2063 and African countries' needs and priorities. Key investment areas mentioned were sustainable infrastructure and energy, including clean energy. The summit saw the launch of the Energy for Growth in Africa initiative, with Ethiopia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Nigeria, the DRC, and South Africa.

In alignment with pledges to clean energy, the leaders called for concrete steps to address the triple crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, including submitting 1.5 °C aligned NDCs. The G7 is slated to spearhead global efforts to preserve forests and oceans and to end plastic pollution.

Food security and nutrition

The G7 launched the Apulia Food Systems Initiative to intensify the efforts to overcome structural barriers to food security and nutrition, build resilient, sustainable, and productive agriculture and food systems, and ensure that all people have access to adequate food. Goals of the initiative include enhancing the sustainability and productivity of local, regional, and global supply chains as well as addressing discriminatory rules and norms that affect gender equality. It is slated to leverage multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance ambitious programs on the ground and harness the full potential of food systems.

The G7 leaders tasked Development Ministers to further articulate the AFSI commitments and actions ahead of their meeting in October 2024 in synergy with the Ministers of Finance, Agriculture, and Environment. They emphasized in particular progress with the Initiative on Strengthening Seed Certification Capacity in Africa and the Africampus program to bridge educational gaps for African farmers and entrepreneurs, under joint development by the Ministers of Agriculture and international partners.

The G7 leaders also emphasized support of the 2025 Paris Nutrition for Growth Summit.

The ministers committed to securing nutrition and food security globally, with a special attention to implementing and aligning efforts with African continental plans. They supported multi-stakeholder programs developed with the AU and other global partners, including:

• The Technical Cooperation Collaborative to implement the COP28 UAE Declaration on sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, and climate action and enhance access to quality technical cooperation for the integration of food systems and climate plans in low-income and climate vulnerable countries;
• The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils for the restoration and maintenance of healthy soils and the further development and climate resilience of traditional and indigenous crops in Africa, recalling the importance of Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit 2024;
• A G7 private-public initiative on coffee aimed to further advance policy, sustained investments, research and innovation, partnerships, and blended finance to boost the resilience, environmental sustainability, value addition, and circularity of the coffee value chains worldwide and to support smallholders and family farmers in producing countries.

Gender equality and SRHR

The G7 leaders reiterated their commitment to increase G7 ODA for gender equality collectively at the nexus of climate change and gender, particularly in Africa. They committed to investing at least US$20 billion over three years to boost women’s empowerment, as well as to supporting the World Bank Invest in Childcare Initiative.

The gender equality paragraph was accompanied by controversy at the summit. Despite efforts primarily from France and Canada, the reference to the protection of abortion rights that was previously included in the Hiroshima Communiqué was removed. Support for universal access to adequate and quality health services for women, including comprehensive SRHR for all, was reiterated from the Hiroshima Communiqué. The reference to the rights of the LGBTQI+ community also remained, though some experts perceived it as less decisive than previous commitments.

Global health

Global health did not feature as a priority, however, the G7 leaders supported increased contributions to the Pandemic Fund to at least US$2 billion and equivalent or greater co-financing. The communiqué also mentioned UHC, PPR, and addressing the effects of climate change in conjunction with infectious diseases. The leaders promoted the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust and the Impact Investment Initiative for Global Health.

Migration

A coalition to prevent and counter the smuggling of migrants was launched at the summit. The leaders promoted a three-pronged approach focusing on the root causes of irregular migration, border management, and safe and regular pathways for migration.

Artificial intelligence

Pope Francis participated in a session on AI and its potential use for international development and cooperation. At the session, Francis noted that politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric so that critical decisions are made by humans, not machines.

Implications for Italian ODA

The credibility and potential impact of Meloni's Mattei Plan was included and endorsed in the final declaration of the summit. The plan’s approach sparked discussions among multilateral entities, including MDBs, and different countries within the EU, on how to better respond to partner country demands and needs. The official G7 endorsement underscored international recognition and support for the plan.

Meloni expressed deep satisfaction with the summit's outcomes and that the final communiqué closely reflected Italy’s domestic and international agenda. At a press conference, Meloni stated her pride in the fact that G7 has embraced Italy’s approach to the relationship with Africa through the Mattei Plan. She emphasized her involvement in a side event involved Italy’s and the US' private sector and banks to promote private sector investments in Africa. Meloni also met with the World Bank and AfDB to identify new instruments to attract FDI, leveraging the Mattei Plan. 

Civil society reactions

The C7 issued a press release in reaction to the G7 Leaders’ Communiqué, expressing concerns about the lack of financial commitments for development and for the muscular approach to addressing global challenges, the new investment in gas infrastructure, and the approach to migration.

Most importantly, C7 called on G7 leaders to make more ambitious commitments towards UHC, fully fund global health institutions, particularly Gavi and the Global Fund, and meaningfully engage with and acknowledge the role of civil society, key populations, and communities.

The future of the Italian G7

The Italian G7 has a number of events planned for the remaining half of 2024, including several topics directly pertaining to international development.

Upcoming events

In June and July 2024, the G7 Education and Science and Technology Ministers will meet, with outcomes from these meetings expected to bring enhanced commitments to international developments relevant to these topics.

In October 2024, the G7 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment ministers will gather at a ministerial meeting to discuss furthering the commitments made at the summit. Experts believe the meeting will be closely watched by development advocates, given the controversy surrounding the gender equality paragraph at the summit. The G7 Health Ministers will also meet in October to discuss concrete targets addressing healthcare and AMR. Following these two meetings, the ministerial meetings on development and urban sustainable development will take place at the end of October and beginning of November, respectively, both of which will be closely watched by development advocates for the emergence of new pledges and commitments.

The Italian MEFand ISTAT will host the 7^th edition of the OECD World Forum on Wellbeing, entitled Strengthening Wellbeing Approaches for a Changing World, in Rome from November 4-6, 2024, as part of the G7 Finance Track. Topics to be addressed include gender inequalities, inequalities and poverty, physical and mental health, and the aging population.