(Adnkronos) – Italy’s foreign ministry on Friday said it approved a 15 million euros of emergency funds for war-ravaged southern Lebanon including civil society projects to help communities, especially the most vulnerable, people forced to flee their homes, and agricultural recovery in cooperation with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The Joint Committee for Development Cooperation chaired by foreign minister Antonio Tajani gave the green light for the new Lebaon aid package and okayed grants and soft loans this year totalling 1.7 billion euros for humanitarian crisis zones including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Sudan, said a foreign ministry statement.
“Overseas aid is an integral part of our country’s foreign policy and is a key instrument for advancing the ideals of peace and development which are are its cornerstones and are reflected in the Mattei Plan,” Tajani said.
Italy’s 5.5 billion Mattei Plan to propel Africa’s economic development aims to build long-term partnerships in energy, agriculture and infrastructure, as well as in the health, water, education and training sectors.
A development package worth over 250 million euros will go to schemes in Ukraine and Latin America and includes contributions to the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, according to the foreign ministry statement.
The package will also give funding to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) global partnership to speed up the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats, the statement said.
