Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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113. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the progress to date on the UNCCD Great Green Wall project and Ireland’s engagement with the UNCCD; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23961/21]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Great Green Wall is a Pan-African initiative to restore and sustainably manage land in the Sahel-Saharan region, covering more than 20 African countries. The intervention zone dedicated to the Great Green Wall spans a length of at least 7000 km between Senegal and Djibouti and is home to some 232 million people.

To reach its targets the initiative needs to rehabilitate 8.2 million hectares per year between now and 2030. The initiative involves a broad range of organisations, including the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

In 2020, UNCCD reported that eleven countries participating in the Great Green Wall have collectively rehabilitated approximately four million hectares of land between 2007 and 2019. This has resulted in a number of environmental and socio-economic benefits, including the creation of 335,000 jobs.

US$14 billion was pledged at the recent One Planet Summit for Biodiversity, organised by the Government of France in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank, to help assist the completion of the Great Green Wall by 2030.

Ireland makes an annual core contribution to UNCCD, and in 2020 this amounted to €27,426. In addition, Ireland has made specific contributions to the Great Green Wall initiative.

- In 2018, Irish Aid provided €50,000 to support the production of a documentary on the Great Green Wall. This was released in 2020 and can be viewed at www.greatgreenwall.org/film.

- In 2018, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications provided funding of €1.2 million to UNCCD to help develop a detailed implementation and reporting plan for the initiative.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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115. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which Ireland might utilise its position on the UN Security Council to encourage a rejuvenation of the structures of the UN in order to restore its influence in dealing with peacekeeping needs, natural disasters, famine and starvation, ethnic cleansing, international conflict and human rights abuses globally in order to have increased and positive impact on all such situations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3971/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland is committed to the United Nations, which continues to play an indispensable role at the heart of the multilateral system. We believe that the UN system should be strengthened and revitalised so that it can continue to effectively address global challenges, and support reform where it is necessary.

Discussions on reform of the Security Council take place in the General Assembly, through the Intergovernmental Negotiations framework for Security Council reform, which last met on 4 May. Ireland actively engaged in these negotiations and has been consistently clear on the need to increase the size of the Security Council; to address geographic under-representation, in particular of Africa; and to see an end to the use of the veto, particularly in cases of actual or potential mass atrocity crimes. While I am aware of the challenges in securing progress, we will continue to support calls for change.

Ireland also remains actively engaged in seeking to make a positive impact on the work of the Security Council, in line with our core principles: Building Peace, Strengthening Conflict Prevention and Ensuring Accountability. We are working to improve peacekeeping mandates to ensure they are realistic, achievable and properly resourced, and can effectively act. Ireland is committed to actively promoting respect for human rights, accountability and compliance with international law in our work across the Council agenda and its subsidiary bodies.

Ireland has consistently supported and been actively involved in ongoing reform of the UN Development System, which aims to reposition the system to implement Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals more effectively. This has led to the restructuring of UN development accountability structures, with direct lines of responsibility from country leadership to the Secretary-General, and Resident Coordinators empowered to coordinate UN Country Teams to address development challenges in a more joined-up way.

The UN’s approach to the COVID-19 crisis, through a Global Humanitarian Response Plan and coordinated country-level needs assessments and response plans, demonstrate that the reform is having a positive impact and we will continue to support its implementation.