Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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58. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which the bilateral aid programme continues to make progress in the context of delivering aid effectively and efficiently to those it was intended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3906/18]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Government is strongly committed to Ireland’s overseas aid programme and to its place at the heart of our foreign policy. Detailed planning leading to a results-based approach characterizes Ireland’s bilateral aid programmes. This enables the quality, effectiveness and efficiency to be kept under regular review by the Department. The Embassy network, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, plays a key role in the planning, management and oversight of Ireland’s bilateral partners on the ground, frequently augmented by the insights received from other countries’ Embassies regarding their interaction with the same partners. In addition to reporting against results, Ireland’s development cooperation programmes are subject to regular monitoring and are frequently evaluated, both by the independent internal evaluation section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and also, as required, by external evaluators. The combination of ongoing qualitative and quantitative oversight helps ensure that Irish bilateral development assistance remains well targeted, contributing as effectively and efficiently as possible to the priorities of Ireland’s foreign and international development policies.

I witnessed first-hand the impact of Ireland’s bilateral and multilateral support during my recent visits to Tanzania and South Africa. I met with refugees who had fled conflict in Burundi and were hosted in a camp in western Tanzania managed by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). I saw how Irish assistance was making a difference to their lives, in particular through the provision of water and education. I also saw how Irish bilateral assistance was impacting positively on lives across the country, through targeted and effective interventions in the health system and in building a social safety net for the most vulnerable, in particularly women and girls at risk of violence.

Irish assistance goes beyond money: I met, for example, a doctor in rural Tanzania who had trained in Ireland as an Irish Aid Fellow and who on his return home was sharing the knowledge and experiences gained here. Ireland’s work in the digital education space, in particular Africa Code Week, which I launched during my visit to Tanzania, reaches over 1.5 million people in Africa each year.

The impact of Irish development assistance is reported on annually. As demonstrated in the 2016 Irish Aid Annual report, bilateral ODA currently represents 53% of Ireland’s total ODA. This funding is making a difference in alleviating the suffering caused by humanitarian crises and hunger, and supporting improvements in access to health, education, agriculture and social protection services for some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Ireland complements bilateral assistance through support for the multilateral system, allowing knowledge gained in bilateral contexts to inform and influence the international response, especially through the European Union and United Nations.

Ireland’s development cooperation has a very strong reputation internationally for delivering results, consistently performing well in OECD-DAC peer reviews, which take place every 5 years.

The most recent such review, in 2014, found Ireland to be one the best performing donors in responding to the world’s neediest countries. That report demonstrated that in 2012, for example, 0.24% of Ireland’s gross national income was as part of Ireland’s assistance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This exceeds the UN target of 0.15%, and outperforms many other donors. This focus on the most needy has continued, with the 2016 OECD DAC Development Cooperation Report ranking Ireland highest among DAC members for the share of bilateral ODA allocated to least developed countries.

My Department is committed to the continued strengthening of our planning, monitoring and oversight mechanisms to ensure that Irish development assistance continues to effectively and efficiently deliver results, in particular the alleviation of poverty.