Minister Conor Lenihan announces new Irish Aid Strategic Partnerships with United Nations’ development agencies

Core funding for United Nations’ development agencies

to exceed €86.44 million in 2007

Conor Lenihan TD, Minister of State for Irish Aid and Human Rights, today announced new strategic partnerships with key UN development agencies. He was joined at the announcement by the Director of Emergency Programmes for UNICEF, Dan Toole.

Under the strategic partnerships, Irish Aid will guarantee significant levels of funding for the next four years, allowing for better strategic planning by the UN agencies. The partnerships will include strict requirements on monitoring and evaluation, efficiency and coherence to encourage efforts towards a streamlined UN family. Partnerships are being agreed with UNICEF, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Making the announcement, Minister Lenihan said:

“Irish Aid achieves many of its goals through very strong partnerships, with development NGOs, missionaries and UN agencies. Today’s announcement recognises the effectiveness of the UN, in particular UNICEF, in meeting Irish Aid priorities on the ground.

The partnerships that we are putting in place are about making our funding more predictable and ensuring that it is used strategically. We are making our contribution to the UN as effective as possible and ensuring better value for money for the Irish taxpayer.”

UNICEF’s Director of Emergency Programmes, Dan Toole, said:

"Thanks to Ireland's longstanding and future commitment to children, UNICEF has been able to provide life-saving interventions when it matters most. Irish Aid has been there through emergencies in the past and as today's announcement shows, they are willing to help us even more in the future."

Note to Editors:

Irish Aid core funding to the United Nations’ funds and programmes will increase from €62.9 million in 2006 to €86.44 million in 2007. Core contributions to UNICEF have tripled in the last five years. Funding to UNICEF for 2007 will be €14.75m, (up from €10.6m in 2006). In addition to this core funding, Irish Aid provides support for UNICEF’s responses to natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies. The 2007 contribution to UNDP will be €22.5 million, up from €16.2 million in 2006, while UNHCR will receive €12.75 million, up from €9.25 million in 2006.  Irish Aid provided approximately €140 million to NGO funded projects in 2006.