The mission of AICS director Marco Riccardo Rusconi, which began on February 9th in Lebanon and Syria, confirmed Italy’s commitment to building peace and stability in the region.
The AICS Director went to Damascus for a visit to the initiatives of the Italian Cooperation where he announced the opening of a secondary accreditation office of the AICS. Marco Riccardo Rusconi met with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, with the Secretary General of the Syrian Red Crescent and the representatives of the Italian CSOs and the UN.
All the interlocutors underlined the need to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance and respond to the protection needs of the civilian population. At the same time, the need to improve access to livelihood opportunities and basic services appears to be a priority, through actions that favor the recovery of the economy and the restoration of essential infrastructures, also with a view to encouraging a potential voluntary return, safety and dignity of the Syrians who have left their country since the beginning of the crisis.
In Lebanon, Director Rusconi was able to meet some of the main institutional interlocutors involved in the implementation of Italian Cooperation interventions in the country and now historic partners of AICS Beirut.
A week of dialogue and confrontation which allowed to better understand the critical issues of cooperation initiatives as well as to have keys to understanding two countries that are experiencing protracted crises.
Director Rusconi concluded his intense journey by reiterating that in both countries “an effort must be made to combine interventions in the humanitarian sector and those in the field of development and resilience in order to encourage virtuous growth paths that allow countries to be able to involve all development actors and progressively disengage from external aid. The private sector certainly plays an important role in this, which our Cooperation intends to support through all the tools of law 125/14. Another fundamental element is, with particular reference to Lebanon, the support and technical assistance to the institutions so that they fully carry out their mandate in a transparent, effective manner and in line with the global commitments of the 2030 Agenda“.
