Founded in Rome in 1983, today CISP (The International Committee for the Development of Peoples) is active in over 30 countries worldwide in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The head office is located in Rome, with regional offices throughout Italy and worldwide. In the last 24 years we have carried out over 600 projects in 38 different countries, reaching millions of people.

Poverty eradication, improving the necessary conditions for development, building paths towards rehabilitation, and providing help in emergency situations are our core objectives. We believe that cooperation is based on a close collaboration with local partners and on improvements to the resources of developing countries. It is for this reason that our stand on cooperation and, in particular, our idea of sustainable projects, are based on factors such as working directly with local populations, strengthening organizations in the developing world, and improving local human resources.

CISP's priorities in the field of cooperation are the fight against poverty, rural development, food security (agriculture, fishery, aquaculture and small scale breeding), rural and urban health, education and training, management of natural resources, environmental protection, sustaining peace initiatives, and micro-credit and support of commercial enterprise. Furthermore, in the field of emergency and humanitarian aid, CISP's activities aim at focusing attention on refugee communities, returnees and displaced people, promoting health services, and defining and implementing disaster preparedness plans.

 

INTERNATIONAL WORK

 

Humanitarian Aid and Emergencies

In regards to emergency and humanitarian aid activities dealing with natural or man-made disasters, our main sectors of intervention are the following:

-Food aid;

-Support for refugees, returnees and displaced communities;

-Basic health care and education services;

-Disaster preparedness;

-Rebuilding and rehabilitation of the economy after natural disasters or conflicts

In these cases, CISP's methodological approach is based on two criteria. On the one side we work toward supplying aid efficiently and concretely so that it can meet the needs of the emergency situations it deals with.

At the same time, we carefully avoid to create financial, social and psychological dependence on external aid. Therefore, for instance, we only supply food aid when other realistic alternatives are not possible. Meanwhile, in order not to discourage or demean local markets, CISP adopts the local purchasing strategy, in other words, it purchases from local markets the goods those local communities and families are unable to buy.

 

Rehabilitation

Within the framework of its statutory aims and on the base of the goals described both in the Code of Conduct for the international cooperation programs and in the Declaration of Intentions, CISP carries out activities and programs related to different operational sectors across the world. 

CISP gives particular importance to supporting rehabilitation as a way of avoiding dependency syndrome, i.e. dependence on external aid by those communities affected by humanitarian crises. CISP's support for rehabilitation processes involves:

-Promotion of technical and operational re-organization of social services (schools, casualty wards, hospitals);

-Promotion of the rehabilitation of production processes, including supplying tools for production to families and communities when these have been destroyed in emergency situations;

-Support for the rebuilding of the civil infrastructures, such as aqueducts and roads, necessary for re-establishing a dignified and safe life

 

Development

According to our understanding, development projects are those aimed at improving standards of living in local communities starting from the promotion of resources (human, natural, social and economic) present in different contexts. Our projects therefore intend to support ongoing processes, keeping in mind that the real protagonists of development can only be local individuals, institutions, associations and communities which represent the social, cultural and economic aspects of the societies in which the projects are carried out.

A further consideration regards the question of genre as the main focus to all development projects promoted by CISP. This entails the understanding that societies in poor countries can not be seen as a uniform entity, but as ones in which social roles, privileges and denied rights still exist. Therefore, the role of external aid is not only to improve standards of living for all, but also to contribute in removing any kind of social inequality.

 

Environment and Climate Change

CISP supports the efforts of rural communities in poor countries in two ways: to protect and valorise natural environmental resources and to contrast the impact of climate change on local economies. This is particularly relevant in the contest of economic systems dominated by rain fed agriculture.