Are the minutes of the last meeting agreed? Agreed. I advise witnesses about privilege. Mr. Andrews knows all about it. He and Mr. Noel Wardick are very welcome. Perhaps Mr. Andrews could summarise the three areas, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Irish Red Cross: Presentation.
Mr. David Andrews
: There are three maps at the back of the statement which will give a view of where we were and what we were doing. I and Noel Wardick, the head of development in the Irish Red Cross, travelled to Kenya and then Mr. Wardick continued the journey to Ethiopia and Somalia. I presume that the whole statement will be placed on the record, on the basis that I will summarise it in less than ten minutes.
We travelled to Kenya with an executive member of the board, Mr. Wardick and an Irish Independent journalist, Ms Cathy Donoghue. We were accompanied by the representatives of the American and Danish Red Cross societies, more particularly in Kenya. I did not travel to Ethiopia, where Noel Wardick represented the Irish Red Cross on a five-day visit.
To give an overview of Kenya, it has a population of 34.3 million people, of whom 60.7% are rural-based. We visited Marsabit, Mandera, Turbei and El Wak in north-eastern Kenya. The committee will be aware that Marsabit was the place where there was a very serious plane crash some months ago in which some Ministers and MPs were killed. Coming into that airport ourselves was a very unpleasant experience, to say the least. We also visited Machakos, a suburb south of Nairobi. We saw the desperation brought on by a long drought which has caused the death of between 40% and 70% of livestock. Some farmers who some weeks before had had 100 head of cattle had suffered a reduction to only three head of cattle. That was the sort of devastation we witnessed. We also witnessed the devastation caused by the incursion of raiding bands from Somalia and Ethiopia to north-eastern Kenya to attack villages, murder many people and steal as many cattle as were left.
I thank the Irish Government for its generous and critical support of €500,000 euro to the International Federation of the Red Cross throughout the region. We met senior International Federation officials, who were very good to us.
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front regime has governed Ethiopia since 1991 and the current Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has been in power in 1995. Ethiopia has a population of 77.4 million, some 84.3% of whom are rural-based. With the percentage of adults between 15 and 49 years of age who are HIV-positive estimated at 4.4%, Ethiopia has the third-highest number of HIV-positive people in the world after South Africa and India. In 2005 Transparency International ranked Ethiopia the ninth most corrupt country in the world out of 145 countries. In 2004 Ethiopia was ranked the 31st most corrupt country.
In Ethiopia the Red Cross travelled by road and various areas were visted which had been devastated by drought and severe livestock losses and destroyed livelihoods. The perception that these communities have been very much ignored by successive Ethiopian governments was very strong. That is the critical point in the overview.
Deputy Higgins and I were in Somalia at critical times in the early 1990s. When I was Minister for Foreign Affairs I went there on my own and saw a horror story. Some months later the President of Ireland decided that she would go and as a result it was highlighted internationally. The Americans came in subsequently and we had literally "Black Hawk Down". We do not need to go into that now. Somalia is effectively a non-country and Mogadishu is like a city devastated by an atom bomb. It is simply a pile of rubble. Some half-hearted efforts are being made to form a government, which is not really acceptable, either to the Americans or generally.
The harsh drought which has affected the East and Horn of Africa over a sustained period of nearly two years has devastated livelihoods in the region. The rains have started again. In order for the areas most affected to begin any real recovery, sustained and continued funding and investment in the region are required by the respective governments of Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as by the international community. In Somalia balanced and equitable support to all relevant stakeholders is essential if peace and stability are to come to that much-troubled land. I always felt, and I think Deputy Higgins would agree, that we got on with the warlords in Somalia when we were there and that if it had been left to Ireland, Somalia would be a better place today. Unfortunately it was not seen in that light, the Americans came in, and we know what happened subsequently.
I would strongly encourage and request that the Irish Government maintain its historical interest in and commitment to the East and Horn of Africa. This can best be demonstrated by ensuring a continual and increasing flow of funding and resources to organisations and agencies, such as the Red Cross, involved in both emergency, post-emergency and recovery responses in the region. Failure to invest now will ultimately lead to much more costly and expensive emergency responses in the future. Investment is not just required because of our moral obligation to asist our fellow human beings but because poverty has become so deep and entrenched in certain parts of East and the Horn of Africa that the region's future polical stability is effectively at stake. That is an encapsulation of the report. I know the committee is constrained regarding time and I have of course supplied copies of the complete report.
It is a great pleasure to welcome David Andrews and to congratulate him and his colleague on their work on behalf of the Red Cross both nationally and internationally.
I visited the same area in 1991 and travelled in northern Kenya to the major refugee camp in Mandera. I was taking part in a Trócaire documentary about the famine in Somalia. From the refugee camp in Mandera I travelled to Baidoa, where I spent most of the time. Deaths there from famine were about 130 a day. I recall meeting the then Minister, David Andrews, in Mogadishu on his return visit with President Mary Robinson. It was very clear on the journey from Mandera through Baidoa to Mogadishu that the old clan system in Somalia offered the best opportunity of creating an indigenous civil structure. The international concentration was very much on Mogadishu and on the conflict between the two warlords. Two things happened that were quite disastrous. There was a distrastrous invasion in the afternoon in the name of protecting emergency food supplies. Then there was the dismissal of Mr. Senou, one of the most distinguished members of the United Nations staff, who was used as a scapegoat.
The international community has an enormous responsibility because it effectively walked away from Somalia and allowed it to become a failed state, with a prohibition that was general rather than specific on external funds from Somalian migrants and so forth. We are at a worse stage now, with increasing tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia and the possibility emerging in the past week of an inter-state conflict.
As David Andrews stressed at the beginning, there are things we could do which might require a revision of the aid relationship, such as replacing the stock of people who have lost their animals. This is happening in several countries in Africa. The value of the Red Cross report is in relation to the impact of drought, the death of cattle and so on. It would be of immense value to make a recommendation, which I will propose, to ask the aid agencies here and in Europe to consider stock replacement as quickly as possible. Another characteristic which is shared by these countries is that there is a quiet elimination of the people who travel with there flocks. They are most at risk. I suggest that we give that matter priority. In Ireland it is not part of our thinking to draw boundaries between these countries, but we have inherited them as a kind of colonial nightmare. I suggest that our approach should be structured regionally. I warmly welcome the continuing interest of the former Minister, David Andrews.
I welcome David Andrews and congratulate him on his work with the Red Cross. I also welcome Mr. Wardick. During the course of the Interparliamentary Union Assembly in Nairobi in May I was brought by UNICEF to Gorissa in the northern part of Kenya. The visit by the Irish Red Cross and its keen interest in the problems there were very much appreciated by the people in that region. The former Minister has enormous experience in this field and nobody is in a better position to evaluate it.
It is evident that food aid is getting through to the northern part of Kenya. Work to improve the quality of water supplies is effective. Deputy Higgins referred to the structural position. Before the drought there was an economic structure where the government bought up the cattle and had them slaughtered and so on. Replacing the stock is fine, but there has to be an outlet for that stock. I am sure the Red Cross has within its organisation people who are experts on the agricultural structure of northern Kenya.
My observations confirm that the funds being channelled through the Red Cross, UNICEF and other organisations are being very well spent. However, there is a great shortage of medicines in the bush areas. The lady who was trying to dispense medicines for various ailments was distraught. Surplus medicines around the world could easily be sent there. The general hospital in Gorissa was overwhelmed by the number of malnourished children. Some countries become involved in building extensions to hospitals and this is a valuable link to people in the region. The American government has stamped all its food aid deliveries, "From the People of the United States of America to the People of Kenya," but the Irish aid is not recognised, although we are funding much of this work.
The new defence Bill which has gone through the House will allow the Army to be deployed in emergencies, such as drought, without having United Nations control. It was somewhat contradictory that there was a major conference in Nairobi while there was drought in northern Kenya. There are excesses in these situations. I do not know who are worse off — the people in the shanty towns of Nairobi, a developed city, or those in northern Kenya who are receiving aid. In my view, the quality of life of people in the north is far better.
The work done by David Andrews and the Irish Red Cross is very much appreciated, as is the fact that they respond so quickly to crises throughout the world. The fact that they had been in northern Kenya immediately before the visit by UNICEF was a great boost.
I also thank the delegation. The Austrian Presidency had a seminar in Cape Town in May, which I and Deputy Woods attended. There was a strong emphasis by both the African and European parliamentarians on the issue of corruption. They spoke about a body similar to the Committee of Public Accounts looking at these issues in each country. I hope that will work.
Mr. Andrews
: I express my appreciation to Deputy Higgins and Senator Leyden. We appreciate that other members of the committee have to be engaged in other matters. It is always a great pleasure for me to appear before an Oireachtas committee, especially one chaired by a member of the Kitt family. I knew the Chairman's father — which was not today or yesterday.
I pay tribute to Noel Wardick, who has brought the aid arm of the Irish Red Cross from zero to where it is now. We are doing a great job of work in various places. Arising from the money donated following the tsunami, in August I will be opening 84 housing units in Sri Lanka. That is the sort of progress we are making in places such as the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malawi and other countries in which we are involved. I again thank the committee. It has been a pleasure to be here.
Our next meeting will be after the summer recess.
The sub-committee adjourned at 12.33 p.m. sine die.