Ireland makes a large number of payments to a broad variety of organizations under our multilateral assistance programme. These are of two types: mandatory payments, notably to the EU, the World Bank Group, the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and UN agricultural and food agencies; voluntary contributions to UN funds and programmes such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF and UN High Commission for Refugees.
A full list of our multilateral contributions, from the Irish Aid Annual Report for 1998, follows.
Our voluntary contributions to the UN system for development-related activities have been steadily increasing over recent years, from £2.5 million in 1993 to £8.4 million this year. The number of UN programmes receiving such funding has also substantially increased, although the three major recipients – the UN Development Programme, UN High Commission for Refugees and UNICEF between them receive about 60 per cent of available funds.
While Irish aid will aim to increase its funding of multilateral development agencies in the future, this will not necessarily mean an increase in the number of organizations receiving such assistance. Instead, we will aim to direct increased funds at those bodies which have shown a commitment to reform and efficiency in the delivery of aid and in particular those whose activities accord best with the core aim of our bilateral aid programme, i.e. poverty alleviation.
ANNEXES
Annex 1
Ireland's Official Development Assistance (ODA)