Non-governmental organizations in Italy are facing an existential crisis marked by a lack of resources and out-of-date laws. These are the words of Francesco Petrelli, who was elected in March to lead the country’s NGO lobby into an uncertain future.

Petrelli serves as president of the Association of Italian NGOs, which represents approximately 250 groups, as well as head of the NGO Ucodep.

It is hard to predict how Italy’s ongoing cuts in official development assistance will impact the country’s aid projects and jobs. But NGOs are scrambling to find ways to mitigate public funding reductions though lobbying, new marketing and communication strategies, and strong partnerships with private donors in Italy and beyond.

Devex spoke with Petrelli about the future of Italian development assistance.

Italy is cutting development assistance. Is this a question of limited resources? What is the impact on NGOs?

I believe that is the crux of the matter: It is a cultural issue more than a political one. The Italian government’s policies don’t regard international cooperation as a fundamental element of Italy’s international policies. According to official data [by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee], Italy reduced [official development assistance] – in percentage of [gross domestic product] – by 31 percent; it is now 0.16 percent. Italy is a big European country, one of the founders of the EU, but there is an abyss between it and the other big ones. The 0.16 mark means resource cuts throughout Italy’s entire cooperation system, except for binding contributions such as the 800 million euros toward the EU’s development policies.

The cut affected national cooperation, [including] the amount of resources managed by the Directorate General for Development Cooperation, a department of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. DGCS also lacks human resources.

This means that this year, for NGOs, there are 18 million euros available for new projects. We have shifted from a political and practical recognition of NGOs under the previous government, when NGOs had more than 100 million euros for new projects, to a situation that is even below the early 2000s, when funding for new projects was at about 50 or 60 million euros per year. This represents a significant damage to Italian cooperation as a whole, and to NGO. What is left for bilateral actions is very little, Italian cooperation is on the brink of setting to zero.

With 18 million euros, about 30 or 40 new projects will be funded. In practice, this means a deep crisis for Italian Cooperation that risks being irreversible. Surely, it will have implications on NGO staffing in the years to come. At the moment, I can’t quantify this impact.

Italy is not respecting some of its international obligations, either. For example, in 2001, at the G-8, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, [Malaria and Tuberculosis] was launched. Despite its promises, Italy has not paid its 2009 and the 2010 share. This news doesn’t reach the press and it isn’t highlighted enough.

In your opinion, are these few resources allocated and managed effectively? Is there any waste? Could more be done to improve management? Is transparency ensured both at the DGCS and NGO levels?

There is an Italian cooperation that works and that led to significant results in the last years. From the side of NGOs, excellent things have been done, also working with local authorities, Italian and foreign. The government’s cooperation does important things, too, such as the Middle East, Lebanon and other areas. Obviously, all that clashes with this [deepening funding] crisis.

There is a problem of quantity [of resources], but also of quality and effectiveness.

We are working together with the DGCS. There are [regular meetings] on aid effectiveness. [With regard to the management of funds,] we are still weak. More has to be done in the evaluation of projects. In the evaluation ex-post, too.

Accountability is a priority for NGOs. It means not only transparency, but also explaining our achievements. We must avoid what happened in the past: Scandals and corruption. In the 1990s, I was at the beginning of my career and I remember when the DCGS’s work was stopped [during] Tangentopoli [Bribesville, a large-scale corruption scheme involving political parties and private enterprises].

We have exported the Italian system of corruption in some countries with our companies and with the corruption of governments. To safeguard our work and our capacity of persuading taxpayers that it is right and important to do cooperation, we must avoid this. A system that guarantees absolute correctness is logic. Transparency is a requirement, but also an effective system of evaluation is necessary, not only administrative, but substantial. Evaluation should be beefed up and improved .

The [regular meetings] could give, and are giving, [shared] advice on improving monitoring and evaluation. The question is whether this advice will be put into practice. That’s [the rub]. Of course we want controls on NGOs and it is right. But we asked also for the end of tied aid because it [reduces] aid effectiveness.

Fewer resources, more competition

What strategies should NGOs pursue to increase their chances of seeing a project approved? The funds are available to foreign NGOs? Are there different ways to access public funds?

Besides the current economic situation, there is a problem: Italy designs a three-year action plan defining priority sectors and areas. Proposals should take into account these priorities. Usually we don’t have to follow them strictly, but [it is probably best to do so] in times of lacking funds. But we claim also the right of initiative for NGOs. In normal circumstances, there is always [a give and take] between DGCS priorities and NGO initiatives: Without NGOs’ microcredit projects, [for instance,] microcredit wouldn’t have become so important in the fight against poverty.

It is quite complex to write proposals and to win funds. On the one hand, DGCS has few persons working on projects and on the other hand there is excessive bureaucracy….

With regard to access to funds, the ¹⁹⁸⁷ law is very old. Parliament didn’t succeed in passing a reform of cooperation and we now don’t have a modern law. The current law provides for two different types of projects and two different procedures for NGOs. There are the projects NGOs must propose to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [to the DGCS] that the ministry can or cannot approve.

But there is another provision that hasn’t been put in practice in years: It is the so-called “assigned project.” When a government of a foreign country signs an agreement with Italy to carry out a project, e.g. for agriculture development, the two governments can decide to assign its implementation to an NGO they consider very expert in that sector.

There are international NGOs that opened an office here: They have hired personnel and invested heavily in fundraising. But to win funds, the NGOs must have a registered office in Italy. Besides, this old law forbids employing foreign personnel in development projects. This is allowed in EU-funded ones. And the worst is that we can’t hire local workers in positions like head of project. In Europe, it is enough that the candidate has a resume showcasing the required skills.

Marketing strategies

How does one fundraise in this economic slump?

There is a traditional way: NGOs that are expression of big associations, like ARCI [Association of Social Promotion], or the NGOs of trade unions, raise funds from their members, which are [often in the] millions.

But we are also using mailing lists and interactive solutions. The web is working for fundraising [regardless the Italian digital gap].

Some NGOs bought their offices, but we are very limited by the Italian law with regard to business. In the U.K., charities can do business investing profits in their social mission. Here, NGOs can’t carry out business activities, even though that would be very useful. Besides, we pay [value-added tax] on many things…

Public aid is being cut. There was a debate on possible laws boosting donations. Have steps been taken, perhaps in adjusting the tax code? Are NGOs strengthening partnerships with companies and private donors?

Many announcements, few actions. The issue of incentives through tax relief is a missed opportunity. Something could be done, as in other countries. But in our opinion, public-private partnerships means not only having funds from private sources, but also to be able to involve enterprises. We are doing this with some NGOs. For example, some of Italy’s largest banks implemented an initiative called For Africa in partnership with NGOs. Non-governmental organizations know some countries and have such strong contacts there that they are interesting also for organizations that want to develop economic relations.

We are also pushing the issue of social responsibility with the private sector. As NGOs, we can suggest specific campaigns to companies. In this regard, some NGOs are carrying our a significant initiative called Valore Sociale, which aims to define standards enterprises must comply with to receive a kind of certification of social responsibility, like the ISO 9000 for quality.

Are Italian NGOs developing new marketing and communication strategies?

In my opinion we are still too weak. We didn’t communicate adequately the importance of our work and even the characteristics and the nature of NGOs. People mix us up with volunteers very often. We try to work together to send effective and clear messages about what we are, that value our work with people living in the [developing] countries and with civil society adds, that we want to be accountable to public opinion and to taxpayers because we use public funds.

Of course, we aren’t doing this [solely] because of [financial constraints], but also because we work in a country where knowledge of international questions is very confined. Data on how much attention Italian media pays to international issues are disheartening: In the other European countries, they give them more space, go deeper into subject matter. There is also a problem of culture of Italian leaders, not only politicians but also businessmen and intellectuals.

In recent years, the use of the web for marketing and communication grew a lot – social networking, for example. Of course, a website is like a business card. Sites have to be rich and interactive. Some NGOs have to do more, others are carrying out interesting and innovative strategies using new technologies for fundraising and communication. But we need to work more on the potential of information technology.

Networking and education

How do you enhance networking among Italian and foreign organizations or with other stakeholders?

At European level, there is Concord (http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4), the European NGO Confederation For Relief and Development.

The members of our association are 14 groups representing about 250 NGOs: There are national NGOs, federations, associations that do other things but that have NGOs, like ARCI with its 1 million members. We work through regional departments, working groups and platforms on specific topics, like the Middle East or development education where we talk about the campaigns and the work we do in Italy to make people aware of development issues. We are also implementing a new one to address our relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affair.

We try to network and to coordinate our work to be more effective and hard-hitting. We work together to request [reform], but also to carry out initiatives. We are considering establishing groups of Italian NGOs operating in the same country [abroad]. We try to work in a coordinated way – to not do the same project, but to work in synergy. In Palestine there is already a group.

During the past years many universities in Italy designed courses and master’s programs in cooperation and development. What is the level of Italian higher education in development? Are there courses that could be interesting also for foreign students?

In the past, master’s and postgraduate courses flourished in Italian universities, following a reform [that] meant more public funds the more courses were offered. Many of them have been a flop, they weren’t too serious. Now there is a strong contraction. This has been a negative phenomenon on the whole. If 15 years ago you had to go to England for graduate studies, the risk it that now you have to do the same.

There are some quality courses, the ones that survived. A few universities have master’s programs, some are good, like Pavia University’s master’s program, which is the oldest; the master’s in peacekeeping and security at La Sapienza in Rome; or the one of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa. There are also the courses of the ISPI that are very good.