Africa: €10 million in NGO Humanitarian and Recovery Funding

Mr. Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State for Development Cooperation, announces €10 million in support for NGOs bringing humanitarian and recovery support to Africa.

Minister Lenihan said:

“I am delighted to announce this package of support to some of our key NGO partners.  The main beneficiaries of this funding include Concern, Goal, Trócaire and Médicins sans Frontières.

“This funding will go directly to feed and offer help to people in some of the worst humanitarian situations in Niger, Somalia, the Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Darfur, Malawi and Tanzania.

“I am happy to support Irish NGOs in their work, which is often literally the difference between life and death for those they help”.

“Under our plan for predictable funding for our Irish MAPs Partners – Concern, Goal, Trócaire, Christian Aid Ireland and Self Help Development  – we will allocate €54 million to them this year. 

“Despite that fact that Goal and I often find ourselves on different sides of the argument about development assistance, we are both committed to the same goal of relieving suffering and distress and bringing development to the poorest countries in Africa. 

“This is predictable funding on an unprecedented scale. It is one of the success stories of Irish Aid made possible by our commitment to increased funding.”

ENDS +++
16th May 2006
Press Office

Note to the Editors

The Emergency and Recovery Section of Irish Aid has sought to encourage a strategic approach in relation to humanitarian relief on the part of Irish Aid partner NGOs, where needs are predicable and/or ongoing (as is the case in the majority of emergency humanitarian situations).  Inspired by MAPS development funding, this anticipatory approach to emergency funding is very much in line with Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) guidelines which stress the value of early and predictable funding and the need to adopt a proactive rather than a reactive approach to humanitarian crises.  Funding to the Irish NGOs has been steadily increasing in recent years including from Emergency and Recovery Section, reflecting the increased allocation to emergency (this year representing 8% of total ODA funding). 

The funding also includes support for micro-projects undertaken by the Irish battalion of UNMIL in Liberia, including a funding commitment in support of a HIV/AIDS hospice in Monrovia.

The Multi-annual Programme Scheme (MAPS) is an arrangement, which aims to strengthen strategic and programmatic cooperation for NGOs and provide a more flexible and predictable funding framework within which they can operate. Five NGOs, with which the Department had long-established relationships and which had an excellent track record, were invited in 2002 to join the scheme. The five NGO partners involved are: Concern, Trócaire, GOAL, Christian Aid Ireland and Self Help Development International (SHDI).

The total allocation for MAPS in 2006 is €54 million.