ACTIVITIES
The policy of Italian cooperation with South Africa has a pre-eminently “social” outlook, geared towards supporting the government’s efforts to redress the deep inequalities that have been inherited from the previous Apartheid regime and this ideally links-up with the policy that has been in place since 1985 regarding the European Community’s positive measures for South Africa.
During the period between 1985-2004, South Africa received approximately 34 million Euro in donations from Italy.
The Declaration of Intent that was signed in June 2004, which mostly goes over what was already agreed to in a Memorandum finalised in 2000, identifies the sectors having priority as being the following:
· the Health sector,
· Education,
· the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises and
· Social interventions in general.
In these fields, the Italian Cooperation activities have been mainly concentrated to supporting SME’s, local institutions and especially the Health sector. From a geographical perspective, the Italian Public Aid towards Development is concentrated in a number of Provinces, identified together with the local government: Mpumalanga, Free State and KwaZulu Natal.