Mr. Johnny Sheehan:

On behalf of the 65 non-governmental organisations, NGOs, in the Dóchas network I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for this opportunity to appear before them. As the Chairman already stated, I am accompanied today by Dr. Lorna Gold, who is head of policy and advocacy in Trócaire and a member of the board of Dóchas. In the context of the European Year for Development 2015, Dr. Gold attended all the key international United Nations summits that took place during the year and can respond to questions on them. Similarly, I am accompanied by Ms Marissa Ryan, campaigns and advocacy manager in Oxfam Ireland, which was also represented at all the key UN summits that took place during 2015. As the Chairman noted, a delegation from Dóchas met the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs in December 2014 to outline its plans for the upcoming European Year for Development 2015, EYD2015, and to ask the joint committee to play a role in shaping the European Union's position on key issues during 2015. In today's presentation, I wish to update members on the achievements from the EYD2015 and my colleague, Dr. Gold, will highlight key international agreements reached during 2015 regarding sustainable development and climate change that have major policy implications for Ireland and the EU.

The European Year for Development 2015 was an opportunity to celebrate the power of ordinary people to make a real difference locally and globally. It was rolled out across all EU member states and in Ireland, Dóchas, which is the Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organisations, implemented a national plan of action in partnership with a range of actors across the development and environmental sectors, wider civil society in Ireland and with media organisations, local authorities and European institutions. By the end of 2015, we had increased the number of people who believe they can influence global issues. We encouraged people to recognise their potential as change makers and we dented the feelings of powerlessness people experience when it comes to global issues.

The European year confirmed that the vast majority of people in Ireland continue to support Ireland's overseas development programme. Research conducted during the year showed that supporters of overseas aid outnumber critics by a ratio of 3:1 while a special Eurobarometer poll found that seven out of ten Irish people were in favour of increasing overseas aid. Dóchas members engaged 55,000 citizens directly through activities at 56 events during the year, including at national public-facing events such as Africa Day, the Electric Picnic music festival and the National Ploughing Championships. As part of a Europe-wide day of action to mark the European year, Dóchas took to the streets to deliver a special print edition of theWorld’s Best News, which is an ongoing media campaign that highlights positive stories of development progress from the developing world. A team of 95 volunteers handed out 10,000 copies of the World’s Best Newsnewspaper to members of the public in 14 towns and cities across Ireland in September. The EYD2015 also reached hundreds of thousands of people through print, broadcast, online and social media. For example, The Irish Timesnewspaper ran a monthly "Inside Out" series in its online edition to highlight positive stories of development around the world which it also linked to Ireland.

The year was launched in January by President Michael D. Higgins and he continued to provide inspirational leadership throughout the year. Moreover, the EYD2015 played an important role of the President’s ethics initiative, which took place during the year. Leadership also was shown by the establishment of a network board with representatives from environmental organisations, domestic NGOs, the private sector, local authorities and media organisations. This contributed to leadership for the year and directly to the establishment of partnerships withThe Irish Times, as I mentioned, and with Dublin City Council, the European Commission and others. Dublin City Council erected a large banner highlighting EYD2015, and citizen action in particular, on Dame Street for two weeks leading up to the UN summit on the sustainable development goals. In addition, during the year we engaged in discussions and debates with journalists, advertisers and NGO communication professionals on how development stories are communicated and with regard to the Dóchas code of conduct on images and messages. Furthermore, we trained and mentored NGOs in storytelling to ensure the work of the year continued on an ongoing basis.

At this point, I will hand over to Dr. Gold, who will speak about the sustainable development agenda.