I thank the Chairman. I appreciate the sub-committee's invitation to appear before it today and I look forward to an active engagement with it in the coming months and, we hope, years to deal with the important issues of international aid and overseas development. I also compliment members on their initiative in holding this meeting because the issue under discussion is more important than I had realised and, consequently, this meeting is highly opportune.
I am grateful for this opportunity to present an overview of the work to date of the interdepartmental committee on development and on the Irish Aid programme for 2008. The White Paper on Irish Aid highlighted policy coherence for development as an important area for action. It included a commitment to establish a new interdepartmental committee on development. The White Paper foresaw two main aims for this committee, namely, to strengthen coherence in the Government's approach to development and to make best use of the expertise and skills available across the public service. The interdepartmental committee on development was duly established in April 2007. The following June, the new programme for Government included a commitment to adopt an integrated approach to development across all Departments, a practice that is commonly described in the media as joined-up thinking.
The committee has a consultative and advisory role. Its secretariat is provided by Irish Aid and it will report annually to the Minister for Foreign Affairs to outline its activities and make recommendations as appropriate. The committee's recommendations can be fed into the work of Irish Aid and relevant Departments.
I chaired the sixth meeting of the committee on 19 June last. I am pleased to report that I saw active engagement in the work of the committee by its members who are senior level officials from all Departments. It is fair to say the committee already has established itself as a key forum in Government to share knowledge and views on development issues across the Civil Service. This is reflected in the scope of its activities to date.
The committee has focused on several areas of work. It is seeking to develop a coherent interdepartmental approach to Irish policy in multilateral fora. It established a subgroup on multilateral organisations to work on this area. The committee also has established a subgroup on skills sets to work further on making the best use of the expertise and skills available across the public service. The subgroup is conducting an audit of existing technical co-operation with a view to developing guidelines in this regard, drawing from international best practice. The consultants also will identify gaps in the area of technical co-operation.
The subgroup on skills sets will oversee awareness raising seminars on overseas development in eight pilot Departments. I support this initiative as I strongly believe that a key element of strengthening coherence in the Government's approach to development is the promotion of awareness of development issues and Ireland's programme of assistance to developing countries among policy makers across the Civil Service and public service. Depending on the experience of this pilot initiative, the interdepartmental committee will consider whether it should be rolled out to all Departments and, where appropriate, public bodies.
In addition to this solid body of work, the committee has received a presentation from the director of the Dutch policy coherence unit. The Netherlands is perceived to be a leader of best practice in this field. The committee also received presentations on Ireland and the World Bank and on development, climate change and adaptation. The committee has also liaised closely with the Institute for International Integration Studies in Trinity College which is conducting an extensive research project at present on policy coherence for development on behalf of the advisory board for Irish Aid. One product of the project will be a scoping report that will identify key issues in Ireland in respect of policy coherence for development and which of them should be most urgently addressed. The report is due to be published next September.
The work of the interdepartmental committee on development has resulted in an increasing sense of engagement and common purpose among participants. A stronger development perspective across Departments is beginning to take hold. I see great potential for this committee to advance Ireland's progress in the area of policy coherence for development. I am convinced this will help maximise the synergies between development policy and policies being pursued in other Departments, resulting in further enhancement of Ireland's aid programme.
In short, members of the sub-committee will appreciate there are often differences in emphasis and approach among Departments across a range of policy issues, which is natural, not all of which have a common goal. For our part, as a Department interested in promoting international development on a national basis, the interdepartmental committee is a highly important tool to ensure the Government works effectively and efficiently rather than disparately.
I now will turn to the Irish Aid programme for 2008. At the recent Estimates discussion before the select committee, I gave a comprehensive overview of plans for 2008. I intend to focus, with the Chairman's agreement, on a few main issues. First, I wish to make clear, as I have done before to the joint committee, that the Irish Aid programme will continue to be focused on the fight against global poverty and exclusion. The millennium development goals continue to be at the heart of our effort and I intend to build on the work of my predecessors in providing leadership towards halving world poverty by 2015. Ireland is playing its part and is the sixth largest donor in the world. This is a record of which Irish people can be justly proud.
The challenges facing developing countries are more daunting than ever. They include humanitarian emergencies, climate change, the recent rise in world food prices, HIV and AIDS and poor governance and corruption. The impact of these issues is felt most by the world's poorest communities or, in other words, on those who already are least able to cope, especially in respect of food supply and food security.
I saw for myself the scale of the food security problem and elements for an effective response during my visit to Malawi last week. As members are aware, Malawi is Ireland's latest programme country and is among the poorest in the world. Almost 80% of the population depend on subsistence farming for survival. Rising fuel and fertiliser prices in particular are having a highly detrimental impact on already vulnerable communities. The response must be multifaceted and sustained. It must be focused on agricultural productivity and livelihoods, research and the removal of infrastructure bottlenecks.
During a visit to a village called Khulumgira in the Dedza district, which receives support from Irish Aid, I gained a sense of how progress can be and is being made. In 2002, 20% of the children in the village did not survive beyond the age of five years. The dependency on maize was total and food insecurity was chronic. The response by Irish Aid, in collaboration with international organisations, included the introduction of new seed varieties and improved soil fertility arising from measures such as planting trees, crop diversification and improved irrigation techniques. These steps have considerably improved food yields, including those from the humble Irish potato. Perhaps we might discuss that point later in the meeting. They have provided a further 400 participating villages with additional income which is invested in agricultural tools and allows children to prosper and stay in school longer. The results from spending by Irish taxpayers are real, lasting, sustainable and tangible.
Irish Aid will allocate €10 million to Malawi this year to support efforts in the food security area and governance programmes. The finalisation of a multi-annual programme of assistance next year will help consolidate the progress already made. Ireland already has provided €3 million in special funding for the UN World Food Programme to allow it to respond to increased food prices. Our funding of the Productive Safety Nets programme in Ethiopia will reach €11 million this year. This programme provides a lifeline for more than 7 million of the country's poorest people and is helping to offset the effects of recent food shortages.
As well as support for governments, NGOs and international organisations, it is clear that we need a comprehensive policy response to food price and food security issues. The Government's hunger task force will report in the coming weeks. The report will identify the additional and effective contributions that Ireland can make to international efforts to reduce hunger.
As part of the expansion of the aid programme, we have greatly enhanced Ireland's contribution to international emergency and recovery efforts following humanitarian disasters. Central to this response has been the development of the rapid response initiative. This initiative, which harnesses the skills of many Irish people, has greatly enhanced Ireland's contribution to the international community's response to such disasters. Already this year, humanitarian stocks positioned under the initiative at the Curragh and Brindisi have provided shelter and sanitation to those affected by cyclone Nargis in Burma and the Sichuan province earthquake in China.
I witnessed at Dublin Airport two weeks ago the loading of an airlift of supplies from the Curragh base. These supplies provide shelter and basic sanitation for 10,000 people affected by cyclone Nargis. As well as providing these supplies, the Government made €1 million available to international partners responding to the crisis in Burma.
A second wave of recruitment to the rapid response corps earlier this year allowed us to increase the size of the corps by half. This has greatly enhanced our ability to quickly provide the individuals and skills required by the international community. So far this year, members of the corps have been deployed in support of international responses to emergencies in Ethiopia, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Developing countries, which have contributed least to climate change, are feeling its worst effects, including drought and failing crops. It is becoming clear that climate change has the potential to reverse decades of investment in development and make it much harder to meet the millennium development goals of halving extreme poverty by 2015. In the face of this challenge, Irish Aid is working with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the EU, international organisations and developing countries to build capacity to address climate change in the most vulnerable parts of the world.
HIV/AIDS has a particularly invidious impact on the world's most vulnerable communities. This year, Irish Aid will allocate €100 million for the fight against this and other communicable diseases. A new three-year partnership between Irish Aid and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, worth €90 million, was launched in April.
Vulnerability to rising prices, the effects of climate change and HIV-AIDS is often accentuated by conflict and political violence. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe is a good or bad case in point, depending on one's perspective . The political crisis there has contributed to a dire humanitarian situation. Ireland, with many other countries, is pressing for a peaceful resolution to the situation and we are working to respond to some of the more pressing needs of the people. Since 2006, we have provided over €25 million for humanitarian aid, primarily for food relief and HIV and AIDS programmes, through NGOs and international organisations. We are closely monitoring the deteriorating situation and will adjust our approach as needed. I had the opportunity last week in my conversations with President Mutharika of Malawi to express the views of Dáil Éireann arising out of the recent debate and the serious and grave concern, which is shared across all parties and Members of Parliament in Ireland about the deteriorating situation. It is only through engagement, particularly with the neighbouring countries of Zimbabwe, including South Africa, that international pressure can be brought to bear in this area.
