Written answers

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Irish Aid

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

228. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the financial commitments his Department has made for 2022 and beyond to fund the UNESCO programme Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future O3; the monitoring or evaluation Irish Aid has carried out of the programme; if any monitoring or evaluation reports on Irish Aid funding of the programme will be made available publicly; if the funding agreement, memorandum of understanding or contract between Irish Aid and UNESCO will be made available publicly; the reason the planned funding of the programme in Ghana did not proceed following its launch in Accra in January 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48954/21]

Photo of Colm BrophyColm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department has supported the UNESCO Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) programme over the period 2017-2020 to enable adolescents and young people in Sub-Saharan Africa realise positive health, education and gender equality outcomes. Funding was paused in 2021, due to COVID-19 related school closures which affected programme delivery. No decisions have been made in respect of future funding at this stage.

Monitoring of the UNESCO O3 programme is conducted through the Department's standard approach to grant management, which includes review and appraisal of reports on the overall 03 programme, and specific reports on activities funded by Ireland in Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Specific Irish funding has never been provided to O3 programming in Ghana.

My Department holds periodic meetings with the UNESCO O3 programme team to review progress, and also receives UNESCO annual audits and financial statements.

Until the onset of COVID-19 related travel restrictions, staff from my Department were able to conduct field-based monitoring visits of programmes, including the UNESCO O3 programme in Uganda and Zambia. UNESCO will conduct an evaluation of the programme’s impact towards the end of 2022.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.