Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The task force on hunger report that we launched was very well received and the event was attended by many influential heads of relevant international organisations dealing with this area on behalf of the UN and some of its agencies. It was seen as a constructive contribution to the debate. Clearly what we seek are allies for the arguments we make and we will pursue diplomatically the objectives we set ourself in that task force in order to find others.

Much development aid is best achieved in terms of outputs and outcomes when we co-ordinate efforts and where governments come together and work hand in hand. Thereby an even greater critical mass of individual effort is put to a collective approach often used in terms of government to government aid. In this way we insist and obtain commitments on transparency and outputs etc. by working with other like-minded countries such as Sweden and others in terms of how we develop our aid programmes in many of these countries. Much of our aid is concentrated on least developed countries and the alleviation of poverty has always been a strong component in the policy framework we are implementing.

Specifically regarding the ambitious target to move 20% to this particular area, we will work to that over time. The overseas development aid section will do that and it is important to point out, as Deputy Kenny did, that much of the emphasis is not simply about the need for emergency aid, important as it is in terms of the human tragedy, whether today in Congo or in any other part of the world where famine ravages a population. For some nations this is almost a perennial problem. The real solution is the Chinese idea of not merely providing the fish today but of providing the fishing rods for people to fish for themselves tomorrow. That is sustainable development into the future.

In the task force report we identified the fact that many of the farmers of Africa are women and that support for women in agriculture is the best guarantee of enhancing productivity in African agriculture. We need to ally that to the new technologies that will assist in building production in these countries and organising agriculture on a sustainable basis to provide for families. There have been indications of where that works, Uganda and some other countries being good examples. In the priority countries we have identified we intend to work with other partners who provide development aid in order to add critical mass to our efforts and bring a more co-ordinated approach that will best guarantee better outcomes.

All that Deputy Kenny said is well taken. One must understand also that this is becoming an even more acute problem in the context of higher commodity and food prices. Many who formerly exported rice now just have sufficient for themselves because of the price involved.

A big change has taken place in terms of food security. In the 1970s and 1980s there was an understanding in this part of the world that surplus food production existed and we should simply provide from that surplus to those countries that needed it. There were, of course, different dietary and other considerations involved. Export refunds, now happily eliminated, were another sophisticated means of dumping onto those markets at the expense of domestic producers in those countries. That policy was also not sustainable. The issue of food security is now back at the top of the agenda because of the impact of recent developments. The conversion of food production to energy production is also having an impact, not only within developing countries but also in developed economies such as the United States.

All of this is very intricate and involved but it is an area in which Ireland can provide a leadership role. It should not underestimate its influence, given our background and our track record in many of those parts of the world where we have been active, not only officially but through missionary work over many generations.

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