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Interview with Roberto Sensi – Policy Advisor on Global Inequality at ActionAid Italy

International migration is a constantly evolving issue, as are the policies that attempt to control and harmonise it. There is currently an IOM programme called ‘Multi-sectorial support for vulnerable mobile population and communities in Lybia‘, also financed by Italy with 16 million euros, for the development – among other initiatives – of host communities, technical assistance to local authorities (Libyan coast guard) and assisted voluntary repatriation. In such complex programmes, the function of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the activities is crucial: what happens, concretely, in case of irregularities, delays, errors? In other words, what is the chain of control of the effectiveness of these activities?

This is one of the many projects that Italy finances as part of its policy to externalise borders. In response to the critical issues of transparency and respect for human rights of this funding, ActionAid has created an observatory, ‘The big wall’(https://www.thebigwall.org) with the aim of monitoring external migration spending and its accountability. The logic guiding this expenditure is securitarian, deterrence, which aims to contain migratory flows. The losers are migrants who suffer systematic human rights violations that have been widely documented even by major UN agencies. The governance of these funds is opaque, due diligence on human rights practically non-existent, and Parliament fails to play an effective steering and control role.

Much has been said about the Mattei Plan for Africa. From your point of view, will Italy – characterised by an entrepreneurial backbone made up of SMEs and micro enterprises – be able to include ‘anything else’ in a plan of this magnitude with respect to merely energy issues?

I have not followed the Mattei Plan theme much but I remember the period of subsidies given to companies to make renewable energy as foreign direct investment in Africa (with obvious cases of land grabbing). There, in that context, although they were SMEs – the logic was predatory and the economic initiatives failed. This is to say that the size of companies does not define the topics of work, nor does it guarantee particular policy effectiveness.

Increasingly, there is talk of ‘multidimensional poverty’, which would require integrated solutions capable of approaching the problem of deprivation from different points of view, in addition to the economic one. On the other hand, institutions have a vertical mandate (also to better control their work), so how can one – therefore – develop integrated policies for complex problems?

This is a good question, which I answer from the topic of food poverty: an interesting example of complexity linked to the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon as of poverty in general. One should approach these problems by starting to conceptualise policies in a systemic way, and not in silos, and then – secondarily – by developing responses capable of addressing the multidimensionality of both causes and consequences, going beyond a merely economic logic of the response to need and embracing the ‘lens of rights’. In addition to the issue of resources, governance models, contexts and approaches are crucial in the fight against poverty. For example, as far as food poverty is concerned, even more important than increasing aid is to overcome a supply chain approach, both distributive and redistributive of food, that permeates the logic of responses to this problem. Instead, taking a system approach that succeeds in making the most of the territory’s resources, not only economic, by placing them within a multifactorial governance system capable of including institutions, civil society, the non-profit sector and businesses. innovation in response approaches is also fundamental. Again with reference to food poverty, its multidimensional nature requires an ability to address not only material aspects. Such as sufficient quantity and quality of donated food, but also ‘immaterial’ aspects that refer to the social and relational dimension, emotional wellbeing and stigma.

Narrative allows us to reify reality. From your point of view, does it still make sense to say that there is no slavery in Italy, when there are – for example – the phenomena of ‘caporalato’ in the tomato chain? Or, does it make sense to say that the country is democratic when out-of-town citizens cannot vote unless they bear the cost of the journey back to their city of residence? Does it still make sense to say that we are a dynamic country when we have the highest percentage of NEETs in Europe? In other words, what is the limit between the narrative symbolism typical of politics and the denial of glaring inequalities? What is the role played by the language used to tell (or not tell) such social discriminations?

I very much agree with this question. The same ambivalent narrative occurs in the case of migration, represented as a problem. In reality, the numbers say otherwise: there is no invasion. Ditto with poverty: the citizenship income has been portrayed as a measure in favour of freeloaders, instead – and the data prove it – it has prevented the post-pandemic social inequality index from collapsing. The political narrative has always been guilty of oversimplification and high rhetoric. On this basis it is difficult to make serious strategies. The responsibility of the narrative is the thing that politics that wants to make decisions must rediscover.

Widening your gaze and assuming you have no budget’s limits, what would be the three national policies you would activate in the immediate future to reduce inequality in Italy?

I would start immediately with environmental, gender and labour policies. We really need them.

Do you have a book, or a movie, to recommend to update/inform/reflect on the issue of inequality at a global (or Italian) level?

I recommend reading ‘The Lords of Food’, by Stefano Liberti. An interesting journey through the global food supply chains, a useful tool to grasp the structural inequalities that globalisation has produced in the industrialised supply chains of the food that arrives on our tables. On the other hand, on the subject of migrations, a recent work, not yet translated in Italy but I hope they will soon do so, by the sociologist of migrations Hein de Haas, “How Migration Really Works: A Factful Guide to the Most Divisive Issue in Politics” a fundamental book to get another idea of migratory phenomena and understand how much the complexity and richness of these phenomena have been completely distorted by public and political debate.

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