Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the initiatives that have been taken to strengthen the research capacity of Irish Aid; the funding which is being allocated each year for the research advisory working group since 2003 to date in 2008; and the institutions which have received funding. [16841/08]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I believe that research is central to improving the quality of our aid programme at all levels — the global, regional and country levels. Implementing the findings of well targeted research means better and more effective aid programmes.

The Advisory Board for Irish Aid (ABIA) has a mandate to commission research of the highest international standards. The Board funds ongoing research in areas such as policy coherence, measuring the impact of aid and good governance.

The Research Advisory Working Group is a small internal body of the Advisory Board and consists of three Board members and Advisory Board secretariat staff. Separate steering committees oversee each research project. A representative from Irish Aid sits on these steering committees.

Specific pieces of research are commissioned through the normal tendering process. Funding is provided to a number of Irish and overseas institutions for this work — Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway, Dublin City University, the Haughton Institute (St. James's Hospital Dublin), the Overseas Development Institute and Oxford Policy Management group. Each of these in turn links with one or more developing country institutions to undertake the research. In this way, research capacity in developing countries is improved. Since 2003 funding amounting to approximately €2.45 million has been provided for this work.

As well as this research undertaken by ABIA, Irish Aid has initiated two programmes to stimulate and enhance domestic research activity around international development. Funding has been provided through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for a programme of strategic cooperation with higher education and research institutions. This links education and research institutions in Ireland with similar institutions in the developing countries that benefit from our support. Funding is also provided to the Health Research Board (HRB) for Irish researchers focusing on international health issues. The funding via the HEA is approximately €20.4 million over five years and the HRB is approximately €2.5 million over two years.

We also support the network of agricultural research institutions known as CGIAR (the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). The aim of this work is to assist in practical and pro-poor agricultural research that can have a positive effect on the lives of the poor.

Irish Aid supports a range of operational research to evaluate the impact of global and country HIV initiatives it funds. An example is the Joint Learning Initiative on Children affected by HIV and AIDS (JLICA). This research partnership was established to identify and address the needs of children affected by HIV and AIDS. In October this year, Ireland will co-host with UNICEF, the 4th Global Partners' Forum (GPF) on children affected by HIV and AIDS. The GPF will base key commitments to children affected by HIV and AIDS on the findings of this research.

Research is very important to the aid programme. It is equally important that such research is practical and focused on the important issues we are dealing with on a day to day basis. Research has to provide decision makers with the information needed to make better and more informed judgements. I believe that the research funded by Irish Aid is very valuable in this regard.