Ms Jane-Ann McKenna:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the members for the invitation to brief them on progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals, SDGs, and on why 2023 is such a pivotal year for this agenda. In 2015, all UN member states signed up to Agenda 2030, and with that committed to progressing the 17 goals and their 130 underlying targets. Today, the SDGs represent the only universally agreed framework for meeting the needs of all. Indeed, the global goals are deeply interconnected – a lack of progress on one hinders progress on others.

Given our engagement with the committee in the past year on the global food crisis and in particular on the crisis in the Horn of Africa, I am sure the members will not be surprised to hear that at this halfway point towards 2030, many African countries are struggling to meet most SDG targets. The catastrophic levels of food insecurity are decimating many countries' ability to even fathom achieving the SDGs. Without deliberate policies to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by 2030, at least 492 million people will be left in extreme poverty.

Dóchas members and their partners have decades of expertise and experience in not only responding to humanitarian crises, but in supporting communities to build their resilience, address their development needs and realise their rights. For some communities, however, holding onto those development gains is becoming harder and harder. There is an increasing number of crises, escalating humanitarian needs and a lack of adequate funding globally. Aid budgets have become more volatile and stretched amid the crises, compromising investments in long-term development and climate transition. Unsustainable debt levels also continue to cripple government efforts to deliver the SDGs, with 23 out of 50 sub-Saharan African countries considered to be in or at high risk of debt distress.

This year represents a significant opportunity for Ireland to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable development. For the first time in five years, Ireland will present a review of its SDG progress to the United Nations at the high-level political forum in New York. Ireland is also co-hosting the political declaration for the SDGs which will form a core part of the SDG summit in September 2023. Ireland is leading the journey towards the achievement of the goals and has a critical role to play in galvanising energy, optimism and, most importantly, action. As President Biden mentioned in his speech to the Oireachtas last week, Ireland carries "the moral authority with nations around the world". Now, more than ever, we need to use this moral authority. Indeed, in this pivotal year, this Oireachtas joint committee has an opportunity to be a champion for the SDGs and ensure that action for sustainable development leaves no one behind and reaches those the furthest behind first.

Ireland's own policy, A Better World, illustrates our commitment to ensuring our overseas aid will continue to be poverty-focused and 100% untied. However, we do not have a clear framework for action and monitoring mechanism. This should demonstrate pathways for SDG implementation that reach the furthest behind first, plus a commitment to work with partner countries and safeguard civil society space. A roadmap and timeline detailing how Ireland will meet its commitment to contribute 0.7% is overdue and would be a welcome initiative ahead of this year’s SDG summit in September. We will not be able to speak to all 17 SDG goals today, but we will touch on several key areas that we see as being important, especially concerning women, gender equality, people with disabilities and the important role of education.

I am joined by my colleagues who were already introduced by the Leas-Chathaoirleach. Ms Van Lieshout and Dr. Keogh will give the committee an insight into the global progress being made against targets and the impact of humanitarian emergencies in delivering upon ambitions, while Ms Tenorio will provide an overview of how we are progressing on realising the rights of children and young adults to education.

With that in mind, we ask the committee to endorse certain requests. We ask Ireland to live up to the commitment of spending 0.7% of gross national income, GNI, on official development aid spent overseas by 2030 and to develop a roadmap and timeline as to how this will be achieved. If we are to reach the furthest behind - girls and women, people with disabilities, refugees and those who are displaced within their own countries - we must invest in local women-led organisations that can deliver effective community-led solutions. We must also ensure we have data to track this progress because the lack of data, for example on persons with disabilities, makes tracking progress challenging. We ask that Ireland continues to increase its climate finance contributions beyond 2025, including financing the loss and damage fund. We urge the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, to use their collective influence to push for debt cancellations for sub-Saharan Africa and low-income countries to ease the burden of debt repayments. We ask that Ireland uses its unique role as co-chair of the SDG summit to lead and revitalise global cooperation on the SDGs. This is a significant opportunity for Ireland to communicate its commitment to multilateralism and our shared values of human rights, justice and dignity for all people.

I hand over now to Ms Van Lieshout.