Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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128. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount of Irish Aid’s budget that was spent on nutrition specific programmes in 2012; and if he will detail which nutrition specific programmes received this funding. [25433/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Combating global hunger and under-nutrition is a key pillar of our foreign policy and our overseas development assistance programme, and this was reconfirmed earlier this month when we launched Ireland’s new policy for international development, 'One World, One Future'. Indeed, I think it would be fair to say that Ireland, for many years, has been a leader on hunger and nutrition even before the issue gained more recent interest. Irish Aid is committed to building further on the 2008 Hunger Task Force Report, the framework which continues to guide Ireland’s response to addressing global hunger and under-nutrition, and its priority areas of focus, in particular targeting under-nutrition in mothers and children.

With under-nutrition causing the deaths of an estimated 3 million children every year, and 165 million children under five years of age suffering from stunting and lacking the nutrients they need to develop their full potential, Irish Aid has strengthened its nutrition response in recent years. Since its inception in 2010, Ireland has been a strong supporter of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, a global movement which brings together different development partners to tackle under-nutrition, especially maternal, infant and child under-nutrition.

We are supporting a wide range of specific nutrition interventions and programmes in Irish Aid partner countries with a particular focus on preventing stunting in early childhood by targeting the 1,000 day window of opportunity (from pregnancy to the age of two). We work with partners to improve infant and young child feeding practices in Tanzania and Sierra Leone and promote exclusive breastfeeding for infants up to six months of age. We are supporting a number of micronutrient supplementation programmes which deliver essential vitamins and minerals to poor households with young children through providing capsules, micronutrient powders and food sprinkles. We are also supporting national programmes in Mozambique, Malawi and Ethiopia to fortify food staples such as flour, sugar and salt with essential vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin A deficiency is the number one cause of childhood blindness and also greatly compromises the immune system. In Malawi, Mozambique and Ethiopia we are working with partners to address high Vitamin A deficiency rates through the growing of nutritious, and vitamin A enriched, orange fleshed varieties of sweet potato. In Tanzania we are working with partners to improve nutrition through enhancing homestead production of nutrient rich foods. We are working with partners in Lesotho on a keyhole gardens programme in which poor households can grow micro-nutrient rich vegetables all year-round.

We have delivered on our target of directing twenty per cent of the Irish Aid budget on hunger reduction. Reaching this target has involved a reorientation of our development programme to ensure a stronger hunger and nutrition response at country level and at the global level. It clearly marks Ireland out in global terms as a nation that is committed in the fight against hunger and under-nutrition. We estimate that in 2012 Irish Aid expended approximately €14 million on direct nutrition interventions, however this figure may indeed be higher after we get feedback from Irish Aid's civil society partners on the use of grants provided to them.