(from the interview with Marco Sergi, president of MEDInaTERRANEA)
You might think that, in order to enforce a co-development project, the intervention of profit entities, and at most of the institutions is more than enough: after all co-development is about economic investment of immigrant and Italian entrepreneurs in the country of origin, in our case Morocco. There is, however, a role that is fundamental in every co-development project, that of non-governmental organizations. NGOs are indeed bearers of knowledge and relations with countries in the global South and they are the guarantee that trade between the countries involved can go to the direction of a sustainable, responsible and green business. In co-development, therefore, every actor involved has its own specific role: the profit sector has the technical expertise, institutions outline policies and allocate funds, the non-profit aims at building networks and bringing together human, social and economic resources in compliance with corporate social responsibility.
First, we need to start with a common interest: people who want to return to their country of origin by investing in a business, Italian or other countries entrepreneurs attracted by the possibility of discovering a new market and internationalize their business, and institutions willing to implement certain neighborhood policies. A second key factor is the coordination between non-profit and business, which is often problematic due to mutual distrust, even if in this time of crisis some interesting relationships are taking form. The donor coordination is sometimes lacking, there are in fact projects of development, other of co-development, but rarely policies and funds go in the same direction. It is therefore necessary to work among civil society, institutions, and entrepreneurs in order to understand how to coordinate and allocate funds that go to a specific area and certain categories of people.
The co-development project that we have started between Lombardy and the Moroccan region of Tadla Azilal tries to create this productive coordination between the actors involved. In Milan, we have a favorable situation, not only there are institutions interested in the relations between Lombardy and specific regions of Morocco, but we also have people, within the institutions, who are highly motivated and have the desire to create a unique example in relations of this type. The project is also linked to the themes of Expo 2015, a major stimulus to push the co-development interventions and the launch of enterprises by returning migrants towards an idea of green and sustainable businesses. The two shores of the Mediterranean are almost equal regarding technical skills, ideas and policies related to environment and energy, therefore Expo has the potential to become a laboratory, a moment of exchange of good practices between North and South.