Labour committed to ensuring Irish Aid is the most effective aid program in the world.

14 April 2012

by Cllr Joe Costello

Irish Aid is the program of assistance that Ireland provides from taxpayers' money to help the poorest people in the world and to help those who are most at risk.

Emergency Aid

On Wednesday of this week, when the earthquake struck in Indonesia, my Department went immediately on high alert in case of a tsunami. In such circumstances, the United Nations would have requested emergency assistance from the global community. Irish supplies from a humanitarian hub would be quickly released and dispatched to the scene of the emergency. An Irish Rapid Response Corps consisting of expert personnel would be made available if required. Ireland's NGOs such Trocaire, Goal and Concern would direct their specialised personnel and resources to the scene. The Irish people would be asked to contribute voluntarily. Indeed, in disasters such as tsunamis, floods, earthquakes and famine, we are the highest percentage contributors in the world.

But ODA is not just about emergencies. It is about dealing with endemic poverty, hunger, poor nutrition, illiteracy, infant mortality and climate change. Ireland's program countries are the poorest of the poor -- Vietnam, East Timor and sub-Saharan Africa.

Everything Ireland does through Irish Aid is underpinned by human rights principles and everywhere we go we articulate these principles whether at street level or top governmental level.

Our ODA budget has reduced by 30% since 2008, when the economy began to shrink. The new Government halted the decline last year and stabilized the ODA budget at 0.5% of GDP. However, we have had to maintain our Aid programs with a lot less money. Therefore, our programs must be smart and effective.

An Irish Aid Program

Let me give you one example of a quality Irish program that I witnessed last month in Malawi, a country of 15 million people, most of whom live on €1 a day. Irish Aid supported the design of a ceramic stove for cooking. It is made locally from local clay with local labour. It cooks better and uses only a fraction of the wood used in traditional cooking. It saves women hours of work previously spent collecting wood for traditional cooking. It reduces deforestation and, thereby, reduces climate change. Those travel brochure pictures of African women gracefully carrying bundles of wood on their heads in reality represent hours of daily drudgery collecting scarce wood and degrading a fragile environment.

The 32,000 households in which the ceramic stove was piloted are now earning 3-4 euro per month each through an Irish company set up to trade carbon credits on the international market. Next year, the program will be extended to 100,000 households. This is a quality project that can be replicated throughout the country and elsewhere in Africa. It can produce enormous benefits for the local people and the local environment. It can also produce a small cash income. It can help to move vulnerable people from fragile subsistence to a sustainable livelihood and on towards self-sufficiency, which is the ultimate objective of Irish Aid. It is programs like this that have resulted in the OECD describing Irish Aid as the most effective Aid program in the world.

ODA and White Paper

The Program for Government states that "We are committed to the 0.7% of GNP target for Overseas Development Aid. We will seek to achieve this by 2015." We are in severe economic difficulties at present, but despite these difficulties, we are anxious to meet our targets.

The Program for Government also commits us to review the 2006 White Paper on Irish Aid. I am engaged in a countrywide consultation at present, and I will be in Sligo next Monday evening. I intend to publish the new Irish Aid policy in the autumn of this year. I would welcome submissions or suggestions from you our members and delegates, and of course, the general public, as to how we can make our Aid programs even more effective.