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Project Background
Currently, development cooperation policies are ostensibly geared towards reducing poverty in developing countries and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, the links between these goals and international migration are yet to be sufficiently explored. Neither the reports published by the Millennium Project Taskforce nor the United Nations Road Map explore the issue. They restrict themselves to pointing out possible connections which are positive (to be encouraged) or negative (to be monitored and avoided).
 Whilst empirical evidence does not show any linear relationship between migration and the attainment of the MDGs, there are nevertheless some crucial links which need to be addressed urgently, owing also to the increasing human mobility today within Africa and particularly from that continent towards Europe. In recent years, African migratory flows - resulting from conflicts, state disintegration, environmental and health crises and development divides - has contributed to a rapid development in trafficking networks of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa across the Mediterranean and thus towards Europe. Through this (transport and migrant "services") market, human flows from Africa have found a potential outlet towards the developed world.
The Italian and European response to the issue has thus far been of an essentially repressive nature, manifesting itself - through the reinforcement of physical border checks and, forced repatriation at a national level, and intensification of investigative and judicial activity against the criminal networks that run the trafficking, etc at an international level. The latter has hinged on the establishment of new forms of cooperation with the transit countries situated on the southern shores of the Mediterranean (Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia to name just the countries with which more significant progress has been made), based on the conclusion of agreements and the transfer of resources and expertise aimed at regulating migration.
So What is this About?
The year-long CeSPI-SID work programme is geared to formulating a strategic plan for development cooperation to contribute to the management of migratory flows from Africa. This Italian initiative is intended as a contribution to European migration policies and, for this reason, its implementation envisages close coordination with the European Commission and certain interested Member States, such as France and Spain.
This project has been made possible by the support of the Directorate-General for Cooperation (DGCS) of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE)
More detailed information on this project is available by downloading the Project Background Document. [English] [Italiano] [Français] [Español]
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