Dr. Edward Lahiff:

We appreciate the opportunity to attend this meeting. I will try to keep my contribution brief. I am closely involved with Agridiet, which is a research project that started recently. It is funded as part of the strategic partnership between Irish Aid and the higher education sector. A consortium of eight universities, including UCD, some UK universities and four African universities, is looking at the links between small-scale farming and the nutritional status of women and children within farming households in Ethiopia and Tanzania. This critical issue for international development was mentioned by President Higgins at the launch of a conference last week. It was also mentioned by our Minister when he met the World Bank in Washington recently. The links between nutrition and agriculture are really emerging as critical. We are keen to be part of that.

I would like to mention some of our teaching activities. As the Chairman said, they lay the foundation for our other activities. For example, we have an undergraduate programme in international development and food policy. It is the only undergraduate programme of its sort in the country. Many of those who work in non-governmental organisations, Irish Aid and other organisations have come through that programme. A six-month overseas placement where our students spend six months with a development agency - often a national one or a non-governmental organisation with Irish links - is a key part of that. These placements have been generously supported by Irish Aid over the years. We think it is very important to sustain this programme.

In the last five years, we have run a master's degree programme jointly with two Ethiopian universities. It has been based in Ethiopia and funded by the Irish Embassy in Ethiopia and the World Bank. On the strength of that emerging relationship with those universities, we have registered ten junior lecturers from Ethiopian universities for PhD study in UCC. We expect to see those graduations from this year onwards. We anticipate that we will offer a new, rather specialised, master's degree in food and nutrition security from next year. It will be aimed very much as mid-level, mid-career specialists who work in this area internationally. We consider that this area is under-served by academic courses.