Bernard J. Durkan
Question:176 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his priorities for the future under the multilateral aid programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10264/03]
Written Answers. - Overseas Development Aid.
The Government's priorities for Ireland Aid flow essentially from the millennium development goals and include education, health, agriculture and food security, water and sanitation, the construction of rural roads, and good governance, including democracy-building and human rights. These priorities are for all of our aid programmes, both bilateral and multilateral. Our support to the multilateral aid agencies has been increasing in line with the increase in our overall aid budget and will continue to reflect the overall growth trend. This year our budget for voluntary contributions to UN and other international development agencies is €38 million, which is an almost fourfold increase in the level of our contribution in 1999.
Whereas in the past our contributions to these agencies were given as evidence of our support for the multilateral role of the UN in promoting economic and social development, now, with the increase in the size of our contributions, multilateral aid is seen as another mechanism by which Ireland Aid can achieve our overall development objectives. We are now taking a much more focused approach to funding these agencies, as recommended by the recent Ireland Aid review and by the last peer review carried out by the development aid committee of the OECD. We are concentrating our aid across a smaller number of agencies selected on the basis of objective criteria that will ensure that these are the agencies with the closest fit to Ireland Aid's objectives. These criteria include focus on poverty, management strength and commitment to reform. The largest share of our multilateral budget goes to the three main agencies involved in development and relief work: the United Nations Development Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR.
It has now been made very clear to all of these agencies that our commitment to continue funding them is dependent on our satisfaction with their work. In this regard, a systematic framework for evaluating the work of these agencies has been put in place to ensure that we have regular and reliable feedback on their performance from our own development offices in the field, from Irish NGOs who are working with these agencies and through our permanent missions to the UN in New York, Geneva and Vienna. In addition, Ireland Aid has now undertaken our own detailed evaluations and reviews of our main UN partners, including of their financial reporting and auditing systems. These reviews, which are in general positive, are currently being followed up. We will also continue to monitor the performance of the agencies through active participation at board meetings. Ireland is currently a member of the UNICEF executive board.
Ireland will continue to support the multilateral programmes of the UN specialised agencies because of their knowledge and international experience, the neutral and untied nature of their aid and the impartial position of the UN and its consequent political outreach. Of particular importance for Ireland Aid is the fact that the UN agencies are active in almost all developing countries and therefore our funding through the UN can balance our focused bilateral programmes. We will also continue to track and monitor closely the work of these agencies to ensure that they are working in an effective and efficient manner that is complementary to our own priorities and strategies.
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:177 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his priorities in regard to bilateral aid for the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10265/03]
The central objectives of the Ireland Aid programme continue to be the reduction of poverty and the achievement of sustainable development with a particular focus on basic needs, capacity building and local ownership of the development process.
The report of the Ireland Aid review committee in 2002, whose findings and recommendations were accepted in full by the Government, endorsed this approach and declared that the fight against poverty should remain at the heart of all Ireland Aid policies and activities. The policy priorities for the bilateral programme are largely determined by our commitment to work along with other donors and partners towards the achievement of the millennium development goals, a series of key development targets agreed at a number of international summit meetings. The targets call for sustained measurable progress on a range of fronts by 2015. These include halving of the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, the achievement of universal primary education, the elimination of gender disparity at all levels of education provision, a reduction by two thirds in under-five mortality rates, a reduction by three quarters in maternal mortality and halting and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS as well as measures to ensure environmental sustainability.
In order to contribute towards the achievements of these targets we will keep a sharp focus in our bilateral aid programme on education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture and rural access. Key cross-cutting issues such as gender, environmental sustainability and HIV and AIDS will continue to be incorporated into all Ireland Aid activities, both in the bilateral programme and elsewhere. Responding to the crippling effects of AIDS will be a leading priority of the programme as a whole. There will also be a new policy focus on governance, democracy and human rights.
Questions Nos. 178 to 181, inclusive, answered with Question No. 52.