The frame for the Italian development policy for Nicaragua is defined by the struggle against poverty through sustainable development projects and plans for equitable economic growth. The vocation of the Office for Italian Cooperation in Nicaragua is to facilitate a kind of endogenous development, with specific attention to the human and physical, social, and economic setting of the country in question. It thereby seeks to strengthen projects with a territorial approach that put value on the local actors and to make foreign cooperation a temporary response to the problems of Nicaragua and its citizens that is increasingly invisible.

The strategy for planning and carrying out these objectives is developed through the following channels, which make up the vital core of Italian Cooperation in Nicaragua: the governmental sector, the non-governmental sector, and of no less importance, the implementation of programmes with multilateral agencies of the UN and the EU.

The goal that stands out most is to create a dialogue and a constant confrontation between these different and varied sectors and institutions, expressions of the State, of the cooperation agencies, and of civil society; in order to align resources and have the projects be more effective and pertinent. And so the principal operation is the harmonisation of interventions around common achievements and above all, concrete actions.

Under the governmental profile, what should be underlined among what is currently being developed is the effort in two distinct macro sectors: the project for rural and economic development of the dairy sector in the livestock region of the Departments of Chontales and the Río San Juan and the RAAS; and the other for the system of urban infrastructure for garbage collection in the City of Managua, work that is being done together with the local government of the city. Foreseen in these two technical and infrastructure projects is the incorporation of a socioeconomic component around which some Italian and Nicaraguan NGOs selected through a bidding process shall work.

In the non-governmental sector, of the 16 Italian NGOs working in Nicaragua, nine now have projects that are financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The sectors of intervention for these projects are social housing, health, the campesino population and rural development, handicrafts, education, commercialisation of products, and job creation.

For the next projects, the proposal is to re-launch the association and consortium between NGOs so that they can ask for more conspicuous amounts and carry out more effective actions, above all for economic development.

Lastly, the UN and EU agencies with which we collaborate are UNICEF, the UNDP, and UNIFEM; the latter two through the regional programme WINNER (Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement); an important measure for women entrepreneurs that are acting in the networks for local economic development and carrying out local systems of governance.

On top of all this, is the strengthening of coordination of crosscutting themes, as well as the general priorities for support in situations of emergency and in terms of creating the long-term sustainable and autonomous capacity of Nicaragua to deal with poverty.