If there was a good time for Italians to focus on East Africa, and Kenya in particular, not only as individual tourists, but as a ‘system’ including entrepreneurs, professionals, conglomerates and institutions, this could be it.
The freezing of aid from the United States and Great Britain's reflection on the same subject, with Beijing perched waiting for developments, could see us as the third party that doesn't argue with anyone and enjoys the situation.
Italy, which started with the Mattei Plan for Africa last year, in unsuspecting times, therefore before the new course on aid dictated by Donald Trump, has already put on the table its policy regarding collaboration (and not aid tout-court) with African countries, of which Kenya is considered by Rome to be one of the cornerstones.
In fact, with all the necessary adjustments made and to be made, our government must be given credit for having had the right intuition for the future, for a new approach with this young and developing continent. An approach that Trump himself is also reflecting on (with his impulsiveness and the satellite impulses of his main advisor).
The United States, as we wrote a few days ago, has frozen aid to Africa that was being organised and sent through the USAID agency. Formally, this is a 3-month suspension of all aid and subsidies, during which time a bicameral commission will have to evaluate which are relevant, which are necessary and which are just a waste of funds. An almost impossible task, if you consider how many projects are in progress and how many organisations are involved worldwide.
Certainly many aid programmes and various partnerships will not be resumed, and American aid policy in general will be revised. The Italian example could therefore lead to new, more aware, targeted and intelligent developments in cooperation, even if the Americans are more accustomed to the Marshall Plan than the Piani Mattei.
Meanwhile, Africa, accustomed to support from Washington, among those who have improved the living conditions of its inhabitants in various sectors, including those of vital importance, is now crying poverty and raising concerns that have shifted from healthcare (especially AIDS and malaria) to security, with fears that Trump's cuts will also affect military security and encourage terrorists to take advantage of them.
Meanwhile, the US earthquake in Africa (anything but We are the world...) is gaining converts. The British government, through public opinion and a good number of parliamentary questions, has also been called upon to review its subsidies to Kenya and other former colonies. These are aids that many Britons consider to be ‘waste’, and with the economic crisis of recent years, they can no longer afford to provide them without the certainty that they are actually useful, especially in stopping migration.
After the USA and the UK, Europe will certainly also take action, but in the meantime Italy is establishing itself as an important partner, to fill some gaps which obviously don't mean non-repayable donations and welfarism, but a new way of understanding aid for the growth of Kenya in particular, looking at each project individually and following the progress of the economy and the evolution of its key sectors. Kenya is waiting for proposals and realises that if the main interlocutors are missing, it is useful to listen to the others too. Above all, before the yellow vulture arrives and makes its ‘irrefutable’ proposals.