Italian

General aim: build confidence in international development cooperation policies, improve their quality and increase the number of cooperation interventions.

Specific target: promote a new and strongest international cooperation, able to mobilize human resources and to pave new ways to solidarity.

The project “Cooperazione? Sì, grazie!” was carried out by COCIS with 13 NGOs members of the federation: CESTAS and Nexus Emilia Romagna (Emilia Romagna); COSPE and Sviluppo2000 (Toscana); ICEI and CRIC (Lombardia); CIES and RC (Lazio); CISS (Sicilia); N:EA (Campania); RETE, DISVI and MAIS (Piemonte), ACS (Veneto). Further, the project was developed with the collaboration of CESPI (Centro Studi Politica Internazionale).

The activities were planned focussing on two main directions:

• - training activities (training courses, elaboration of papers and documents…)

• - awareness and spreading activities (information campaign, lobbying activities, websites and cultural and music initiatives)

The activities of this project enabled COCIS and each NGO to enhance their links, giving them visibility at a national level, and enabled the NGOs to specialize more in their area of competence.

Thanks to this project it was possible to increase the level of knowledge of different categories of people (young people, professors, information operators, businessmen and business associations, politicians and officials engaged in cooperation environment) about the importance of a high quality cooperation, achieving public opinion support and making politicians and decision makers always more responsible for cooperation themes.

What has already been done

• - research aimed to the drafting of the essay “Gli Italiani e l’aiuto allo sviluppo” (“Italians and their help in development”) (with the collaboration of CESPI, Roberto Mazzali)

• - training courses “Le città per la cooperazione” (“cities for cooperation”) in each involved region: Campania, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Lombardia, Piemonte, Toscana, Sicilia, Veneto. In each course was developed a main theme: NGOs and international cooperation; The links between trade, finance and development; International summits and States’ commitments; Decentralized cooperation and local authorities; Development policies

• - production of informative booklet

• - meeting with media workers

• - creation inside the official COCIS website of the page “Il filo diretto con il sud del mondo” (“Direct line with the South of the world”), in order to launch an original space for information and exchange of ideas about cooperation

• - lobbying strategy on politicians and postcard sending to inform about the importance of cooperation strategies to political forces and Italian parliament. Members of the parliament were involved, inviting them to participate to the seminars, sending them systematically data, updating and news, contacting them before important decision points (parliamentary debates, finance law…)

• - street activities with the production of gadgets (brooches, T-shirts, bookmarks…), used to spread the message of solidarity and international collaboration and dispensed during public initiatives or concerts

• - organization of 5 meetings MusicAperta

• - final seminar “Consolidare la svolta nella cooperazione italiana: confronto sulla nuova legge” (“consolidating the turning point in italian cooperation: an exchange of idea about the new law”) in Palermo

Future steps

Ended project

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