Statement by Minister of State Power to Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs (17 December 2009)
Mr Chairman,
I am delighted to have the opportunity to once again address the Joint Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, firstly, in the context of last week’s budget and secondly, to look forward to continuing to deliver a quality development cooperation programme in 2010. Members of this Committee will be aware of the exceptionally favourable report which Ireland received this year from the OECD, which confirmed that Ireland has one of the most effective development cooperation programmes in the world and one of which all Irish people can be proud. The question I would like to address today is how we can improve on that performance.
Mr Chairman,
Last week’s budget was one of the most difficult and challenging since the founding of the state. Its sole aim was to stabilise the public finances and to position the economy to return to a trajectory of growth and prosperity. I have stated my belief previously to this Committee that sustained economic growth is a prerequisite for the continued expansion in the aid programme.
Many difficult decisions had to be made in the Budget in relation to public expenditure, including reducing civil service pay, social welfare and capital programmes. These very controversial decisions were made with the greatest of reluctance.
Yet, in the context of this most difficult of budgets, I am satisfied that the overall reduction to funding for development assistance in 2010 is a relatively small amount of €25 million. This represents a very modest reduction of approximately 3.6% in overall aid expenditure – less than reductions made in civil service pay and social welfare. It is an indication of the determination of the Government to maintain Ireland’s position as one of the most generous and effective donors in the world.
In 2010 Irish taxpayers, through our development programme, will spend €671 million in some of the poorest countries in the world in the fight against hunger, poverty and exclusion. In the context of the current economic crisis in our public finances it is my strong opinion that this outcome for ODA represents a very positive achievement. It also represents a vote of confidence by the Government in the work of Irish Aid and our partners. Over the past six years Ireland has spent over €4 billion on development assistance. In the current crisis this is a very significant aid programme by any international standard.
Mr Chairman,
I would like to address the issue of ODA targets. As members of the Committee are well aware the international norm is to calculate ODA as a percentage of a country’s gross national product. In this respect, Ireland set itself a target of spending 0.7% of GNP on development aid by 2012. This was three years ahead of the EU target date of 2015. Our aim was set in very different economic circumstances. This year we will be compelled to borrow €24 billion to bridge the gap between what we will take in and what we will spend. Next year we will borrow some €18.8 billion. Were this to continue it would represents an unsustainable position for any country. To borrow for development cooperation as part of this borrowing is equally unsustainable.
During the estimates process we carried out a very rigorous assessment of our capacity to meet the 2012 objective and crucially our capacity to sustain it thereafter. It became clear that in strictly financial terms we could not meet this target in the current economic climate.
That said, we have now stabilised our aid spending at 0.52% of GNP - still ahead of the EU target of 0.51% by 2010. In this respect we continue to lead most other Member States of the EU in our development cooperation expenditure.
Indeed, Ireland will still remain one of the most generous donors in the world. As soon as our economy begins to grow again our aid programme will also resume a growth path. To expand our aid budget without this economic growth would be unsustainable.
I have just returned from a meeting of EU Development Ministers at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. My colleagues in the EU, many of whom are struggling with their own economic difficulties and the effects of the downturn on aid budgets, are very aware of our substantive achievement of delivering 0.52% of GNP at this time of national crisis in our finances.
I have also had conversations with members of the development NGO community and their representatives and, quite frankly, while they would like to see increase in development aid – as we all would - they are very much relieved at the very small level of reduction in 2010, in the context of this most severe budget.
Mr Chairman,
There are two key elements in any effective aid programme. One is the volume of aid and the other is its quality. As I have mentioned our volume for next year will be €671 million in total.
Of equal importance is the quality of the programme. The quality of our aid programme has been improving over many years.
In recent years there has been a significant move away from measuring aid quality merely by looking at inputs such as money spent, placements in the field or even construction completed, to a much more results based agenda. This approach to development expenditures puts the real emphasis on the results and the outcomes achieved. For example rather than simply counting the numbers of classrooms completed, a results based approach looks at the quality of teaching, the participation rates of boys and girls and most importantly the educational outcomes. I am very supportive of this new approach and am keen to pursue it further, next year.
This way of working is about getting the best possible value for money and achieving outcomes which will last the test of time.
In the current global economic climate it behoves all donors, aid organisations and recipients to adopt a more results based approach. The money goes further and the results are better. Ireland is one of the world leaders of this results based business model, which is designed to ensure aid is effective. Its ultimate aim is to foresee a time when development assistance, as we know it, will no longer be needed, i.e. that the money is spent in a way that makes our priority countries sustainable in their own right without development assistance.
At the outset, I referred to the OECD Report on the quality of Ireland’s official aid programme. As members of this Committee are aware our aid programme received a very strong endorsement, following a detailed and comprehensive review, including a visit to the field. The OECD congratulated Ireland on our “cutting edge” programme and as “champions of making aid more effective”. The Report also adverted to the fact that we were “embedding aid effectiveness in Irish Aid’s systems”.
I therefore strongly believe that our systems are agile enough and honed sufficiently to maximise the effective use of the funding available in these difficult times and will also be able to respond to growth in future years.
Mr Chairman,
An aid programme does not begin and end in any particular year. It consists of a series of rolling programmes which are carefully planned and executed over a period of time. By the end of 2010 Ireland will have delivered, through all its partnerships and programmes approximately €5 billion in development assistance in the last seven years. These are enormous sums, by any measure.
The budget for development aid in 2010 is now set.
The reductions which were necessary, beginning particularly in 2009, were implemented in a way which protected, as far as possible, core elements of our programme such as the work in Programme Countries and our work with missionaries and NGOs.
The small reduction in the programme next year will now enable all our partners to adjust their programmes where necessary. In the coming weeks, my officials will present me with detailed allocations for consideration over the coming weeks. Our focus will be on meeting existing commitments before embarking on any new programmes.
In 2010 I expect that we will be allocating well in excess of €100 million for our missionaries and NGO partners. I will also provide over €100 million to address the continuing scourge of HIV and AIDS and other communicable diseases and over €50 million to emergencies and additional funding to fragile states. We will continue our work in our nine Programme Countries and currently new planning cycles are underway for Uganda, Timor Leste and Malawi and I expect to be able to finally approve the new Country Plans in 2010.
The publication 15 months ago of the Report of the Government’s Hunger Task Force set a high benchmark for ourselves and indeed for the international community in addressing global hunger and food security. The presence of the Taoiseach, the Secretary General of the UN and many others with a deep interest in food security at the launch, was testament to its importance. It propelled Ireland into a strong global leadership position on hunger and food security.
I am fully committed to giving effect to the recommendations of the Hunger Task Force and hunger reduction is key element of the aid programme and will become even more important over the coming years as we begin to put in place our new programming cycles. I have already established a Hunger Unit within my Department.
Next year I will allocate significant resources to the fight against global hunger and food security. Our new Country Strategy for Malawi is being designed and planned with this in mind. We are taking a lead role in agriculture in Tanzania and I am allocating significant resources to practical, pro-poor agricultural research as recommended by the Task Force. We are also beginning to focus more on maternal and infant nutrition.
Other Programme Countries also have significant hunger and food security elements and I am glad that Deputy Deasy and Senator Hannigan had an opportunity to witness these efforts at first hand in the last few weeks in Mozambique and Lesotho. By the end of 2010 I believe that over 15% of our programme will be focussed on hunger and related sectors.
Mr Kevin Farrell, the Special Envoy for Hunger is continuing his work and I am expecting his Report on our progress implementing the recommendations of the Hunger Task Force in our programme, in the third quarter of 2010.
Mr Chairman,
Before concluding my remarks, I wish to touch on the international climate change negotiations which, as we meet, are reaching their final stages. The Taoiseach is travelling today to Copenhagen to head Ireland’s delegation. We all share a desire that an ambitious political agreement be reached which includes the essential building blocks of a new treaty.
There is an inextricable link between development and climate change activities. On Monday, I was in Copenhagen to meet with other EU Development Ministers and Ministers from developing countries, including Ethiopia, Lesotho, Bangladesh, Ghana and Mali. We focused on ways in which the EU can support developing countries to respond to the huge challenges of climate change.
Two things were very clear to me at this important gathering:
- Development programmes worldwide, including Ireland’s, are already dealing with climate change issues for many years now;
- Our existing development programmes contain a reservoir of knowledge and expertise on how to effectively channel new climate change financing.
We will not reach our development goals unless we address the additional challenge of climate change. Conversely, we will not be successful in supporting the climate change actions of our partners in developing countries unless we make full use of our experience of delivering aid in an effective and transparent manner.
While in Copenhagen I also held meetings with representatives of civil society and assured them of the Government’s commitment to increase our focus on supporting developing countries as they cope with the key issues of adaptation and mitigating the impact of climate change, within our development programme. I also reiterated the EU’s strong view that significantly increased financial resources will be needed to support the necessary adaptation programmes in developing countries. Ireland is fully committed to paying its fair share within a new global climate change agreement.
It is essential that climate change funding does not undermine the fight against poverty, and that it is delivered in a way that complements development assistance. At last week’s meeting of the European Council in Brussels, it was agreed that the EU and its Member States would contribute €2.4 billion annually in fast-start funding for the three years 2010 to 2012 to support the climate change needs of developing countries.
The Taoiseach pledged that Ireland will contribute up to €100 million in fast-start funding over the three year period. The exact composition of Ireland’s fast-start package will be finalised by the Government. I can say that it will include substantial new and additional funding for developing countries.
Mr Chairman, in conclusion,
It has been a challenging year for our aid programme. I would be less than honest if I did not say that Irish Aid and its partners faced real challenges in making do with less funding than planned or anticipated. I believe that all concerned made real and sustained efforts to protect core activities and operations. I believe we succeeded in this regard.
We have now stabilised the budget and can plan for 2010 with certainty. I believe that the vast majority of those directly involved in development assistance believe that the budget for 2010 is fair and reasonable, given the circumstances in which the country finds itself.
The challenge for all of us now is to ensure that the considerable amount of precious taxpayers’ money available for development in 2010 and beyond is directly linked to results and outcomes. I believe our conversation must now move on from “how much money” to “how well do we do the job”.
Thank you. |
