O'Donnell says Government Committed to Increasing Overseas Aid Budget
- Says new charities legislation is needed.
- Launches new name and new logo for Irish aid programme
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Liz O'Donnell TD, says the unprecedented growth in the Government's overseas aid budget is helping to ensure that Ireland continues to play a central part in the alleviation of poverty in the developing world.
And she says the trend of annual increases will continue.
Opening the 1999 National Forum on Development Aid at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham this morning, Minister O'Donnell said the Government remained committed to reaching the UN target of 0.7% of GNP and to moving as quickly as possible towards an interim target of 0.45%.
Minister O'Donnell today also marked the 25th anniversary of the Government's aid programme when she unveiled a new logo and a new name for the programme, "Ireland Aid".
She told the conference that poverty reduction would remain a central focus of our aid programme.
"Over 1.3 billion people worldwide live on less than one dollar per day. In the developing world, excepting China, over 100 million more people are living in poverty compared to a decade ago. Set against this grim situation is the internationally agreed development goal of halving the number of those living in poverty by 2015. We intend to redouble our efforts to work with the international community to root out the causes of poverty and to reduce the suffering which goes with it," she added.
Minister O'Donnell said it remained our foremost aim to be able to react as swiftly and effectively as possible to crisis situations.
"Earlier this year we were able to provide temporary protection for over 1,000 refugees from the crisis in Kosovo and they are now enjoying a new life of peace and security here. We have also been able to respond in meeting the immediate needs of the people of East Timor who have suffered so cruelly for so long. We have pledged to continue to support them as they begin to build a new society and a new democracy. As a measure of this commitment, I intend to visit East Timor shortly and to have discussions as to how we can help. Before that a technical mission is being sent to the area to prepare assessments . At the same time, we continue to respond to crises which are not making the news headlines like those in Angola, Sudan,
Somalia and Burundi".
A number of other pressing issues would have to be addressed, she said.
"Population growth in much of sub-Saharan Africa is now being checked, not by increased access to contraception, but tragically by the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. In ten countries in Africa, AIDS has reduced life expectancy by 17 years.
"Another important factor we will be devoting attention to is the phenomenon of globalisation. It has helped people in East Asia to emerge from dire poverty. It has also produced a disturbing and increasing trend in income inequality".
Minister O'Donnell said our overseas aid programme would soon be extended to include a new priority country.
"The continued expansion of our aid programme raises our capacity to expand our network of priority countries for bi-lateral assistance. I am working on specific proposals and these will shortly be considered by the Government," she added.
The Minister also backed calls by NGOs to put the registration of charities on a statutory basis.
"I strongly endorse the need for charities legislation and will lend my personal support to bringing forward draft legislation in this area," she said.
The Minister said our expanding aid programme gave us a real opportunity to further contribute to ending extreme poverty in the world.
But she said our own economic success was making GNP targets difficult to achieve.
"The exceptional growth in our economy in recent years has slowed our progress towards reaching ODA targets expressed in GNP terms. There is a further complication this year with the introduction of a new method of calculating GNP. This has had the effect of boosting our overall GNP yet further. So, while the Aid budget has grown very significantly in case terms under successive governments, including, this one, it has proven more difficult to make an equivalent impact in percentage terms," Minister O'Donnell said.
She said it was important, however, that this should not detract from the real growth in quantity and quality of the aid programme in recent years.
"The main thing is that increases in aid should be politically sustainable and departmentally manageable. Since we expect continued strong economic growth in the next five years, I intend to focus on agreed annual increases in ODA," she added.
our overseas aid programme would soon be extended to include a new priority country.
"The continued expansion of our aid programme raises our capacity to expand our network of priority countries for bi-lateral assistance. I am working on specific proposals and these will shortly be considered by the Government," she added.
The Minister also backed calls by NGOs to put the registration of charities on a statutory basis.
"I strongly endorse the need for charities legislation and will lend my personal support to bringing forward draft legislation in this area," she said.
The Minister said our expanding aid programme gave us a real opportunity to further contribute to ending extreme poverty in the world.
But she said our own economic success was making GNP targets difficult to achieve.
"The exceptional growth in our economy in recent years has slowed our progress towards reaching ODA targets expressed in GNP terms. There is a further complication this year with the introduction of a new method of calculating GNP. This has had the effect of boosting our overall GNP yet further. So, while the Aid budget has grown very significantly in case terms under successive governments, including, this one, it has proven more difficult to make an equivalent impact in percentage terms," Minister O'Donnell said.
She said it was important, however, that this should not detract from the real growth in quantity and quality of the aid programme in recent years.
"The main thing is that increases in aid should be politically sustainable and departmentally manageable. Since we expect continued strong economic growth in the next five years, I intend to focus on agreed annual increases in ODA," she added.
