ABSTRACT
By custom, Italian bilateral aid has been spread very broadly, depending on geographical priorities. The abused rhetorical flourishes about the country’s ‘natural Mediterranean vocation’ have never been supported with hard data. Up until 1995 there was a proliferation of standalone projects in all continents. Thus, it was important that the ‘New Cooperation Policy Guidelines’ (approved in 1995), clearly affirmed that Italian ODA was to be directed mainly to four geographical areas:
the Middle East;
Western Mediterranean and Albania; former Yugoslavia;
Horn of Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
