The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) is the operative platform of the Italian cooperation system, and it is called to perform activities associated with the elaboration, development, financing, management and control of international cooperation initiatives.
The Italian Development Cooperation has a significant presence in Ethiopia since 1976. With 140 million Euros funds made available for the period 2023- 2025 through the current three-year Ethio-Italian Cooperation Framework, Ethiopia confirms to be one of the priority countries of the Italian Cooperation.
Besides Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa Office of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation is also responsible for initiatives financed in South Sudan and Djbouti.
In South Sudan, this Agency has primarily focused on responding to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the 2013 internal conflict. The priority sectors of intervention are the provision of basic services and the protection of the most vulnerable part of the population, with a focus on the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the urban and peri-urban areas of Juba and the former Lakes State. Actions are also carried out in the resilience and protection sectors.
In Djibouti, the work of this Agency aims at improving public health with a focus on strengthening the skills and capacities of the institutions and health workers, and at raising the awareness among the community of women’s health, with a special focus on reproductive and maternal-child health, and on the complications stemming from the different types of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
These initiatives are carried out through bilateral, multi-bilateral agreements with implementing agencies, by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) or by local authorities, through grants or loan.