Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence
Global Progress and Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion
Ms Jane-Ann McKenna:
I will refer to Ms Van Lieshout in a moment to speak from GOAL's experience. Generally, as a sector, we are very much focused on shifting a lot of the power towards local organisations, and how we can do that on a long-term basis. As Dr. Keogh said, it requires a significant shift not just in how organisations work, but also in how donors work and how we can ensure that funding gets to those local organisations to ensure that they have the power to actually make and inform those decisions. It is striking that such a small percentage of overall funding goes to women-led organisations, for example. We know that women are very much at the heart of the community. They understand the needs of those who are typically the most vulnerable or most at risk, particularly children. I think it is about ensuring how we can create that space and ensure that we are supporting organisations that are very much carrying out the work that we would like to see, carrying out what we would like to achieve with the sustainable development goals, and seeing how we can enable and empower them. Perhaps Ms Van Lieshout can speak to some of her partners' experience.