Development cooperation represents an important component of the Italian presence in Palestine. Since 1985, Italy disbursed around 450 millions of EURO for development and humanitarian programmes and projects in favor of Palestinian people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Providing a constant activity among the international donors in the AID coordination, benefitting of institutional partnerships built during the years and supported by a large group of Italian Civil Society Organizations and Local Authorities working on the field, the Italian cooperation is in a central position in the International AID Map to Palestine.
The Italian intervention is integrated into the European Union and the EU member states’ commitment to Palestine. Through the joint programming exercise, according with the European Joint Strategy 2021– 2024 officially launched on the 12th of July 2018, Italy is lead donor for Health Care and Gender sectors and is also active donor in the Economic Development sector. The joint strategy aims at harmonize the different member states interventions in order to reduce duplication of projects, to enable a dialogue between different approaches and to identify challenges and opportunities in the different development programmes.
A second key document of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Jerusalem is the Palestinian National Policy Agenda 2017-22, that confirms and relaunches Palestinian Authority’s priorities to achieve a political and economical independence, a Governance reform and a sustainable development. Among these goals, that Italy as international donor aims at supporting through its development action, it is worthy to mention also the State Reform for an effective governmental action, the enhancement of the social justice system and a better laws application, the improvement of educational and health systems in Palestine, along with the resilience ability of the most vulnerable communities in Area C.
