Management of a Data Centre, Archive and Library on current world events in IPALMO's areas of interest;

Publication of the bi-monthly Journal "Politica Internazionale";

Organisation of conferences and meetings at the national and international level;

Publication and dissemination of research findings.

IPALMO held the following recent initiatives in conjunction with: the Directorate General for Development Co-operation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Office of the Prime Minister; the European Commission; the World Bank; the Global Development Network (GDN); the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU); both lower and upper Houses of the Italian Parliament (Chamber of Deputies and Senate); the Milan Chamber of Commerce PROMOS agency on internationalization; the Italian National Association of Electrotechnical and Electronic Businesses (INTEL/ANIE);the CNA (National Confederation for the Craft sector and small and medium enterprise in Italy); a number of Italian Regions (most recently Lombardy, Latium, Tuscany, Campania, Apulia); several Italian and international universities and organisations, the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA), the Eastern University Institute of Naples (IUO); the University of the Mediterranean (UNIMED); the Interdepartmental Centre of Law and Economics; the Federico Caffé Centre; the University of Roskilde, Denmark.

RESEARCH

Research is one of the Institute's main activities. Between 1971 and the early 1980s, IPALMO focused on decolonization issues, the fight for democracy in Latin America, and narrowing the economic gap between industrialised and non-industrialised countries. Over the last decade, IPALMO has turned its attention to international development co-operation and progress, following a series of Italian co-operation reforms.
The Institute has recently begun to expand its sphere of activities, strengthening its ties with the European Union, regional institutes and the business world. IPALMO believes that networking is vital to international Cupertino policy, and that only by full participation and knowledge-sharing may a more incisive policy be promoted.

Current focus areas for IPALMO are: political and economic regional integration processes in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia; the evolution of these areas' relations with the European Union; analysis of European Union action and policies; poverty strategies and of socio-economic and political vulnerability; food security and sustainable development; hunger and the world distribution of food; water resources and desertification; environment and sustainable development; Italian development Co-operation policy in the world; the internationalization of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SME) in industrialised and emerging countries and more intensified knowledge-sharing.

LIBRARY

The IPALMO Library features over 20,000 titles of a political and economic nature on the countries of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. In recent years specific funds for Asia and Eastern European countries have also been created. The library receives the reports of the major international organisations (the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the European Union). The IPALMO library also features 500 journals from various countries. The library is open to the public, and is mainly used by students and researchers. It provides specific material on request on questions of international politics and economics, on geographical areas and individual countries. For the past several years, IPALMO has been working in close collaboration with the libraries of other Italian institutes, the aim being to promote exchanges of information and to maximise respective archive material.

JOURNAL "Politica Internazionale"

The bi-monthly Journal, "Politica Internazionale", features articles and essays by leading researchers and analysts of development Co-operation policy and international relations. It is a valued source of information and provides a literary forum for reflection and debate for policy-makers, researchers and experts. It is distributed to a large number of bookstores and to national and international research centres and universities. Its major topics are international relations and development Co-operation strategies. Its balanced analysis of current affairs in these fields is also a source of reference for IPALMO's members. IPALMO has been publishing "Politica Internazionale" for nearly 30 years and has recently begun to produce periodical English Editions on specific international themes. "Politica Internazionale" Dossiers have focused on such areas as the system of international relations, globalization, democracy and transition, and human rights.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

IPALMO organises national and international conferences, workshops and seminars. It has provided organisational services for the FAO, the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (Parliamentarians' Day), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Region of Latium, the European Union, the Lombardy Regional Authority and the Milan Chamber of Commerce/ Promos and with the Eastern University Institute of Naples.

Recent IPALMO events have included: the G8 Non-Governmental Initiative in Florence on behalf of the Office of the Prime Minister; a parallel session at the Global Development Network's third annual international conference; an international conference in Tunis on Social Security in the Mediterranean; an international conference on the Balkans held in Milan; a training course and a seminar for journalists from the southern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain and France in collaboration with the European Commission and the Eastern University Institute of Naples; a seminar on globalization governance held in Bergamo; and, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Milan Chamber of Commerce/Promos and the Lombardy Regional Authority, a conference on business community networking in the world. For the year 2002, the following events are scheduled: the organisation of Parliamentarians' Day and the World Food Summit "Five Years Later" Conference on behalf of the FAO/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Parliament/Inter-parliamentarian Union.

To promote greater participation, IPALMO holds a monthly round-table known as "The Tritone Meetings". These meetings are informal discussions on international political and economic issues. Participants include MPs, experts and researchers, and representatives of institutions and civil society. IPALMO also actively organises specific working groups composed of students, researchers and interns.