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Humanitarian Aid

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 May 2013

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Questions (37, 84)

Niall Collins

Question:

37. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the steps he has taken to address inadequate international response to commitments humanitarian; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23181/13]

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Bernard Durkan

Question:

84. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the degree to which commitment entered into in respect of aid have been honoured, wholly or partially, with particular reference to areas of civil conflict or natural disasters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23616/13]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 84 together.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve the scale and effectiveness of the response of the international community to major disasters and humanitarian crises. This has included the provision by Ireland and other donors of predictable emergency response funding. However, disasters on the scale of the earthquake in Haiti, the famine in the Horn of Africa and, more recently, the conflict in Syria continue to challenge the humanitarian system. For such crises, international pledging conferences are often considered necessary in order to generate additional donor funding.

Two months after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, an international donor conference was held in New York, at which US $4.5 billion worth of assistance was pledged by the international community in response to the crisis. UN figures indicate that, by the end of 2012, just $2.38 billion of this had actually been disbursed. For our part, we have worked hard to meet the Government’s commitments to the people of Haiti. Ireland pledged €13 million at the Haiti Donor Conference in March 2010 and, by the end of 2012, had honoured this commitment, with support totalling almost €14 million.

Similarly, at a Ministerial mini-summit in New York in September 2011, An Tánaiste pledged that €10 million in humanitarian assistance would be made available to help the poorest and most vulnerable in the Horn of Africa before the end of 2012. I am happy to report that this pledge has also been met, with almost €12 million in funding provided by December 2012. To date in 2013, I have approved almost €6 million for continued humanitarian assistance to this region.

Most recently, at the High-Level International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in January 2013, I announced a commitment of €4.7 million to support the provision of humanitarian assistance in Syria and its neighbouring countries. Since I made that pledge, Ireland has already surpassed our commitment, with funding of €5.7 million having been provided to date this year. Ireland, as one of the founding members of the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative, takes seriously our commitment to act as a responsible and accountable donor. Equally, we are committed to the full implementation of the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid, which clearly articulates the EU and its Member States’ commitment to ensuring that humanitarian aid pledges are transformed into commitments and disbursements in a timely way, and are clearly linked to the assessment of needs. As Presidency of the European Union during the first half of 2013, we will continue to press our fellow EU Member States to live up to their commitments under the Consensus.

In order to promote the importance of ensuring that donor aid pledges are credible, achievable, and properly monitored, the OECD has published a ‘Recommendation on Good Pledging Practice’. This comprises a set of principles relating to pledging practice for financial undertakings to developing countries. The Recommendation is designed to serve as a benchmark to help OECD Member States frame future aid pledges in terms that are clear, practical, realistic, and capable of being monitored. Ireland strongly supports this OECD initiative and will continue to use all appropriate fora to urge our fellow donors to ensure that they meet their humanitarian commitments in full.

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