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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 5 Nov 2002

Vol. 556 No. 3

Written Answers. - Non-Governmental Organisations.

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

307 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the role of an organisation named AFrI; the objectives, rules and constitution of this organisation; the amount of State funding provided to this organisation; the purposes for which such funding is applied; and his views on whether this organisation requires State funding in view of the fact that this organisation has sufficient funds to erect false propaganda posters. [19799/02]

AFrI, by its own definition, is a non-govern mental organisation dedicated to advocacy on development issues with a special focus on the promotion of equity and justice in poorer countries. Details of its organisation and structure are available on its website at www.afri.buz.org. It would appear from this website that AFrI is now giving priority to advancing its concerns about what it perceives as the militarisation of Ireland through participation in NATO's PfP and a supposed European army. The Government regards these concerns as groundless. I regret that AFrI appears to be diluting its original vocation as a development organisation.

AFrI is among a number of organisations which have received assistance from the National Committee for Development Education, NCDE, as part of the promotion of development education in Ireland. The NCDE has received its budget from Ireland Aid, the Government's development aid programme. Over the past three years, AFrI has received grant assistance totalling approximately €78,000 from the NCDE. This year €35,500 has been committed to AFrI.

This funding has been granted in response to specific project proposals submitted by AFrI and approved by the NCDE, all of which related exclusively to the development education sector – in particular, activities which are designed to heighten awareness among target groups, e.g. secondary school teachers and students, youth group leaders and members of the general public, of the links between food insecurity and conflict.

In addition to the above, a grant of £4,000, equivalent to €5,080, was paid in May 2001 to AFrI under Ireland Aid's NGO co-financing main scheme in respect of a project in which it was the Irish partner organisation. The funding was for the purchase of a computer and software for the San Jose de Aparatda Education Centre in Colombia and was approved as an appropriate basic education project.

The decisions taken in these instances were a matter for the NCDE, which judged that the development education projects submitted by AFrI satisfied its criteria for applications under this heading and approved support on this basis.

In accordance with a recommendation made by the Ireland Aid review, which was accepted by the Government, the functions of the NCDE have recently been transferred to a dedicated development education unit within Ireland Aid as part of a process of integration between the NCDE and Ireland Aid.

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