Vol. 705 No. 4
74 Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of personnel, including those from the Rapid Response Corps, that he has sent to assist with the relief effort in Haiti; the areas of expertise of these personnel; the length of time they will be available to continue with the relief effort; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13248/10]
The Government's response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti on 12 January has been multi-faceted and effective, involving the airlifting of emergency supplies, funding for the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies, and the deployment of personnel both from Irish Aid, within the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Irish Aid-managed rapid response corps.
In the days immediately following the earthquake, my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development, Deputy Peter Power and I despatched a technical team of four personnel to Haiti to undertake an analysis of priority needs and to make recommendations for action by Irish Aid in the medium and longer term. The team, which comprised three officials from Irish Aid and an engineer from the Defence Forces, spent five days on the ground. Their recommendations are informing our decisions on the role Ireland should play in the relief and recovery effort in Haiti.
In addition to the Irish Aid team, the Government has deployed seven members of the rapid response corps to Haiti — the largest number deployed to a single emergency since the initiative was established following the 2004 Asian tsunami. Corps members are highly-specialised volunteers who travel to crisis situations at the request of our UN and other humanitarian partners.
Four corps members — a civil engineer, an electrical engineer, a telecommunications technician and an IT expert — have been assigned to the World Food Programme, while two logisticians have been deployed to work with Concern and Goal respectively. A seventh member, a retired army officer, is working as civil-military co-ordinator with the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA. An eighth will deploy next week to work with OCHA as a protection officer, dealing with the complex issue of sexual abuse and exploitation among the disaster-affected population. These deployments are for up to six months.
Other Corps members remain on standby and we expect further deployments in the weeks and months ahead.
Perhaps I could broaden the question. The Minister will be aware that many people, due in no small part to the number who have lost their jobs over the past two years, have become a great deal more interested in volunteering abroad in our programme countries for groups and organisations such as the rapid response corps and NGOs that are involved in volunteer activities in Africa and elsewhere, where we have and do not have a large presence. How successful is the Department's interaction with these groups? Should the Department become more involved with these volunteer groups? Has there been an increase in the interaction between these groups and the Department?
There are two sides to this, as I discovered since I have been involved in the aid programme. In some cases it can be a very expensive proposition to put somebody in the field. If the person has not been given the proper training, it can use up valuable resources when they arrive. I have been informed that the biggest problem in the programme countries is that it is desperately expensive to put somebody in a specialised position, be that helping a government to deal with its health programme or otherwise. We are dealing with a different issue here but a number of different groups have emerged in recent years which deal with volunteerism in our programme countries and elsewhere. Is a relationship with them evolving within the Department?
It is. To be clear, this is a different matter from the issue of the rapid response corps. The lesson learned from the tsunami was that the last thing one needs in a disaster is hordes of volunteers, inappropriately skilled, landing at the scene. They can be as much a hindrance as a help. I do not mean that in an intolerant way but inappropriate volunteers and inappropriate equipment and supplies are the last things one needs. The rapid response corps is about developing specialists and people who can be of use when the needs assessment has been carried out. It is also about offering complementarity and co-ordination to the other donors. I am quite taken by the French proposal that better co-ordination at European Union level is required, with perhaps a Europe-wide inventory of what specific skills each country can bring to the table so we are not all copying each other and can more effectively and speedily bring the required disciplines to bear.
In terms of the broader issue of volunteerism, the Department and Irish Aid have refined and provided for a more sophisticated approach to volunteering through the establishment of the volunteer centre and particularly through the code of practice for volunteers. This puts strong emphasis on training and places obligations on existing and new NGOs to accord with the code of practice, to be registered properly and so forth. We need to keep a constant watch on this situation to ensure that people who volunteer are treated well and have maximum security and protection, that their experience is an enriching one and that they do not become disillusioned quickly. I have been to the volunteering centre, met many NGOs and have spoken at many events and this is something that exercises Irish Aid and the Department very much.
This country is fortunate to have many people who wish to volunteer. The most exciting aspect I have witnessed in recent times is the degree to which second level schools in Ireland have become more engaged with the Irish Aid programme, the Third World and the plight of people living in the Third World. Schools are now sending students on structured programmes to visit these countries on a relatively regular basis. A number of schools are involved in the WorldWise programme. It is important that schools become involved in that programme because it guides the teachers and provides materials for them. The importance of that programme for future society is that we will create a significant community of people in Ireland who are positively oriented towards intervening effectively and on a sustainable basis in the Third World. It is one of the better things I have seen in recent times.
I support Deputy Deasy's suggestions regarding volunteering. However, it should not be left to each NGO to structure the experience of volunteers. There is great space for an agency to identify the essential features of a volunteering experience. We might not say it, but we know the NGOs differ with regard to the experience they offer volunteers. It should not be left a casual matter.
There are areas in which we could be far more involved. In Haiti, for example, elections are due to take place. We have a very antiquated roster structure for observing elections. I am on the roster and I am regularly asked, at just a week's or two weeks' notice, to go to some country such as a Spanish speaking country. In the places I have been sent I noticed ex-county managers, ex-county secretaries, a large number of former gardaí and so forth. This community is no doubt gifted and has rich experience but they are not inclusive of all the experience that is available in our society. This could be an area of expertise. There are elections taking place somewhere on the planet every day. Observing them is a skill in which people could be trained. Canada's human rights centre produces a handbook on election monitoring for long-term and short-term observers.
We will not send our bankers there.
Well, there are places I could suggest.
We should examine this issue. The Minister mentioned Europe, which prompted me to ask this question. Getting on to the European roster is governed by one's presence on the Irish roster. Different member countries have different places hence one encounters somebody from the European Parliament who heads a delegation, as was the case when I was in Cambodia. There are skills everywhere but this is an area of expertise in which we are very welcome. We could train people to be regularly available, and we should not confine it to the professions I mentioned and for which we all have such a high regard.
That is a very good suggestion. The Institute of Public Administration, IPA, might be in a position to be of assistance in terms of the training and education aspects and developing modules that could be of use.
Yes, it could.
Even if one is a very effective county manager in managing a multi-seat election in Ireland, that is a unique experience but it might not lend itself to some of the new post-electoral situations that emerge in conflict societies. It is a very good suggestion. We must also examine civil governance capacity. One of the big problems in Haiti is that almost the entire government and its administration were wiped out by the earthquake. Hence, basic administrative and governance capacity was in short supply. Perhaps that is an area in which we and other countries could have been stronger in terms of supplying either former civil servants or seconding people to help administer the situation.
75 Deputy Tom Sheahan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs how the implementation of the recommendations of the hunger task force report will be affected by the reduction of 16% in spending on global hunger initiatives in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13251/10]
The Government is committed to giving effect to the recommendations of the report of the hunger task force which we commissioned and which was launched by the Taoiseach at the UN in New York in September 2008 in the presence of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In particular, we continue to work on the three priority areas identified, namely, increasing smallholder agricultural productivity in Africa; targeting under-nutrition, especially maternal and infant; and promoting governance and leadership action on tackling global hunger.
Combating hunger is one of the cornerstones of our development programme and our foreign policy. We are making good progress in implementing the recommendations of the hunger task force report across the overseas development assistance programme funded and delivered through my Department. Ireland's special envoy on hunger, Kevin Farrell, will report on delivery against our objectives later this year. We have undertaken to direct approximately 20% of my Department's Irish Aid budget at hunger and hunger-related actions by 2012. We are firmly on track to meet this target notwithstanding the current difficult economic circumstances.
Irish Aid funding for global hunger initiatives, including pro-poor agricultural research, is expected to reach €9.7 million this year. Global hunger initiatives are just one area of the overall response to hunger. Additional resources are now being focused on hunger reduction initiatives in our programme countries, particularly Malawi and Tanzania.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
These and many other interventions in the food security and hunger areas, funded by Ireland, are clear demonstrations of our leadership on the hunger issue. This leadership has been recognised internationally, including by the United Nations and other key hunger donors such as the United States.
I have said many times that it is unacceptable that 1 billion people go to bed each evening without proper nourishment. We established the hunger task force before food and hunger was put back firmly on the international agenda by the food crisis. Our hunger task force report has played a role in keeping hunger in the public eye internationally. We are doing our utmost to influence the hunger agenda internationally. Next September we will co-host with the US a major hunger event in the margins of the UN summit on the millennium development goals. This is a practical example of Ireland shaping and influencing the international response to the scandal of world hunger.
Hunger, in all its manifestations and complexity, will not be easily eliminated. We have a clear international target to halve the number of hungry people by 2015. This will be real progress if achieved. To make this happen will necessitate the commitment and will of the international community, combined with an equal determination by the governments of the developing world. The Government will ensure that Ireland will play its role in all efforts to eradicate the scourge of hunger.
Will the Minister elucidate where the specific cuts outlined in the budget for the hunger task force will be made in the context of the implementation of the three key measures he has just spelled out?
The main point is that we are on target to reach the target of 20% of our overall budget being spent on hunger. The other point is that it is not just in that programme that the money on hunger is spent. In Malawi, for example, the entire programme is now focused on hunger, while in Tanzania, we have been asked by all the other donors to become the lead donor on agriculture. Notwithstanding the broader reductions, hunger has been identified and prioritised as the key issue for our programme. We have a clear international target to achieve that result and we are well on the way to achieving the 20% target.
There is broad agreement within Fine Gael as to the direction. The Minister referred to Tanzania, which is a very good example in that we are becoming the head donor in the area of agriculture. It makes good sense for the public as well because they see it as a natural area for Ireland to lead and show direction.
What concerns me are the cuts in regard to implementation in the three areas specifically outlined by the Minister. How will we reach those targets if that kind of cut is implemented?
Those three targeted areas covered the programme country budgets as well. As I said, we have prioritised the hunger aspect. There may be other aspects of the programme apart from hunger that will not do as well as the area of hunger, given the focus on it, but increasing smallholder agricultural productivity will not suffer, for example.
In addition to the three priority areas the Minister outlined, is much consideration being given to the role of GM foods in regard to tackling global hunger? I ask this because we are all conscious of the reality that there is a shortage in food production, so it is not simply a question of investment and funding but also a question of production. Has the Minister a view on this issue?
The Governments of each region and country have to make their decisions in regard to the issue of GM food, as does the European Union. In many underdeveloped parts of the world, by any observation, GM could very well provide part of the solution. However, our assistance concerns the more conventional form of crop production, improved agricultural techniques and improving the lot of the smallholder agricultural groupings, which are made up largely of women in smallholdings across Africa. GM is a great distance from that reality. It is a wider issue that is dealt with at global level and by Governments, and each Government will take its own position on it. It is not a part of this agenda.
I will outline a Labour Party difference on this matter. Given that the impact of GM provision in regard to Africa is usually construed in terms of its adding to the volume of food that might be available rather than the production of food, given the available evidence in regard to the climate changes between, for example, the major rains and the short rains and given the fact most communities save the end part of their seed for the future crop, it would disastrous for many African countries if they were in possession of blind seed. It would, in fact, be a recipe for starvation.
Given the increase in food productivity in West Africa, does the Minister agree that 80% of the increase is being brought about by women who actually practice in the fields but who do not own anything? I believe the Minister will agree it is a matter for each country to be able to respect the integrity of its producing population by not having blind seed or committing themselves to patents to purchase seed, the patents of which are owned by multinationals abroad.
I agree. On this issue, I refer Deputy Creighton to the hunger task force report. In our recent discussions with the US Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton, the focus was on how we can enhance agricultural crop production techniques for smallholders, the vast majority of whom are women. In an earlier portfolio, I commissioned the Chief Scientific Adviser to prepare a paper on GM. It is good reading.
What about the small farmers of this country?
The small farmers of west Cork produce a robust and resilient crop.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
