Mr. Jim Clarken:

I thank the joint committee for its invitation, with special thanks to the Chairman, who has travelled with us in the past few months. Others have shown a tremendous commitment to our issues.

The impact of the visit by the Chairman and others to particularly remote parts of rural Tanzania to really understand the issues instead of reading about them was important and we are grateful for that level of engagement. We had a conference this morning on the theme of "Ending poverty starts with women" because that is something we in Oxfam strongly believe in. During the course of the morning, a number of issues came up. This gave a sense of the disproportionate effect that so many issues have on women and women locked into poverty. The burden of the financial crisis has been borne by women more than anyone else. Issues such as land grabbing, which Ms Looloitai mentioned and which is fuelled by the drive towards biofuels encouraged at EU level, have had a disproportionate impact on women and access to land. The lack of access to literacy, health and basic human rights disproportionately affects women. The impact of culture and unacceptable behaviour driven through social norms over generations again disproportionately affects women. Members are acutely aware of gender-based violence, which is not unique to developing countries but something from which we suffer in this country. There are many important issues and it was helpful to have our really great speakers come a long distance to speak to a large audience. Details of that will be available to members.

The disproportionate impact of poverty on women and girls is not an accident. It is the result of discrimination and the denial of women's basic human rights, rooted in the historical subordination of women in societies around the world. We in Oxfam believe that issues around women's rights are central to resolving wider issues of inequality and poverty. The gender justice agenda we speak about has to involve developed country donor governments and recipient governments, NGOs, local community-based organisations, local leadership and citizens all working together and focusing proactively on these issues that keep women and thereby their communities locked into poverty. These issues can be as far-ranging as the lack of progress on reproductive health, which we heard about this morning. People may not realise it but the single biggest killer of women in South Sudan is childbirth. Other issues include access to education, land rights and the impact of gender-based violence. Supporting women around the world in tackling these injustices and human rights abuses must become an even bigger priority than it is now. Certainly, we must laud Irish Aid and the Government for their commitment thus far but we feel Ireland and governments around Europe can do more, as can NGOs. We request that this become a key focus in the committee's thinking and in the strategies around our development support and assistance.

We say ending poverty starts with women not because women are passive victims who need to be helped but because women are often the innovators, the survivors, the source of true leadership and the social glue in their communities. I can give the committee many examples of inspirational leaders whom I have had the good fortune to meet in the various countries in which Oxfam works. I will give one example. Our country director in Haiti had to deal with the tragedy of losing two staff on the evening of the earthquake in 2010. When she was finally able to contend with this and try to ensure everybody else was alive and accounted for - the programme was terribly damaged - she went home and found her mother had been buried under her house. She recovered her mother's body, buried her and went back to work for the next several weeks leading the emergency response. This is just an example of one of many inspirational women leaders. Unless we invest more in women's rights issues, women such as that will not make it to the fore and will not make it into those leadership positions. That is what we need for society to prosper.

We strongly request that Ireland continue to develop its investment in gender issues and also act as an inspiration to other EU countries. There is a wonderful opportunity now with the Presidency starting in January. During those six months, a lot of progress will be made on the post-2015 framework for development. We encourage those in Ireland who will be involved in that to push strongly to ensure that women, women's rights and gender issues are at the forefront of and key to the delivery of that. We have seen how investment in gender issues from the donor community is now going down globally. Not only does this trend need to be reversed, but investment in gender issues needs to be strengthened substantially. Some good work has been done but we certainly need to do a lot more. Ireland has shown great leadership in the area of overall development support over many years but I appeal to the committee in these difficult times to continue to show the commitment that Ireland has shown and to work our way towards our aid commitment of 0.7% of GDP by 2015, which is not that far away. In respect of the millennium development goals, we are now talking about the post-2015 framework but we still have three years in which a lot can be achieved, so it is important that we do not lose sight of that and that we continue our focus and commitment. We encourage the committee to do that.

I have some closing points in respect of why the focus on gender is so important, which might help to trigger some thoughts and discussion later on. If one does not address gender issues consciously but rather buries them in some other programme, change will not really happen. Culture is never an excuse for gender inequality. A tradition that demeans people is not worth saving and we should not be precious about that. We should consider women's rights as human rights and think of sexism in the same way we think of racism - how offended we are by it. We should have zero tolerance in respect of discrimination against women. Gender issues are about the entire community, rather than just women. Men have a critical role to play in this. I encourage the men who are involved in decision-making processes to show a commitment for the benefit of the whole society.