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Ireland’s Aid
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Joan Burton TD made a speech today about Irish Development Aid programme. Today also the United Nations World Food Programme got a donation of €6.2 million from Ireland. Conor Lenihan is the minister for state in charge of Irelands aid budget. He of kebabgate. He is currently in Liberia where he announced €20 million in aid to support the recovery and transition from conflict in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In her speech Ms Burton siad “We must give witness as a society. A more pro-active approach from our own government is called for. Our government’s commitment to its aid to 0.7 percent of GNP by 2012 must be met this time. Ireland Aid must become something more than a mere conduit of funds to deserving NGOs – it must become an active and committed advocate of change, change in the Bretton Woods Organisations and in the WTO. Meaningful and workable debt cancellation, open access to industrial nations markets and a more socially aware aid policy are minimum requirements if real change is to come about. It must explore, with likeminded nations, ways to bring the transnational corporations to account. In short it must bring an ethical dimension into the aid debate.”
So is the government doing enough for aid developement?
A couple of quick things. I think in general the government does a good job with the aid budget — they concentrate on a small number of countries and pick a few themes (e.g. gender) where a bit of push from a donor can make a difference. But some of the issues on the development agenda now are electorally tricky for the government, most notably agricultural sector reforms. Note for instance the risks of backlash in Carlow and Cork on the sugar factory closings, which reflects an EU policy decision to help low income sugar producing countries. Finally, the aid unit (they keep changing its name but I think it’s now called Irish Aid) is being decentralised to Limerick. To put one of the most internationally-oriented bits of the government outside the capital, and in city about to lose a big chunk of its airline service, makes very little sense. Interesting to watch how the move actually plays out e.g. will the staff refuse to go?