Donatella Massai: Amnesty International Italy

Donatella Massai is the new Director General Amnesty Italy. She is 39 years old, has 2 children and has built her career step by step on the field working in ten countries on four continents including a Masters thesis on Guantanamo. Her views on the third sector? “It lacks a common vision”.

You have worked everywhere, from Kenya to Great Britain through to Brussels. What advantages are there to working in so many countries?

It helps to understand that there are different ways of “doing” activism. In Great Britain, for example, environmental and human rights NGOs are starting to build new alliances – in the past they used to compete, now they have begun to see that they are actually fighting for a common goal.

Is this happening in Italy too?

No. My impression is that organisations still work separately and that, other than a couple of casual alliances for certain campaigns, third sector organisations see each other as competitors rather than allies. Many NGOs are still confused about the roles that volunteers and professionals have to play and what is more, Italy lacks a modern legislative structure that could help the non profit sector to progress.

How did you first start working for the non profit sector?

On the field with Doctors Without Borders. I worked for them in 4 continents, dealing with health issues, where I developed project management skills first and then country-mission management skills. I have also worked in Brussels for five years with the same NGO as head of projects in Latin America. I then decided to put my skills to the test by working for a different NGO, Greenpeace gave me the fantastic opportunity to be director of the Italian headquarters. My role here was mainly that of reorganising the organisation’s finances and balance, making internal management more efficient and reactivating contacts between the headquarters and the NGO’s support base, that is to say the real protagonists of its campaigns, its activists and volunteers.

Is this the approach that will characterise your work at Amnesty International?

Yes. I will endeavour to open the organisation to the outside, to favour the direct participation of activists and use internet for communication and to increase the organisation’s transparency.

US President Elect Barack Obama has announced that he will close Guantanamo prison, an appeal that Amnesty has been making for some time…

I wrote my Masters thesis in international politics on Guantanamo and would be more than happy to finally put it on a shelf to collect dust!

Translation by: Cristina Barbetta