Written answers

Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Foreign Policy

Photo of Alan FarrellAlan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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250. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the efforts that are being made to assist nations in the Horn of Africa in dealing with severe food shortages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44858/22]

Photo of Colm BrophyColm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Horn of Africa is facing a rapidly deteriorating food security crisis, as a result of a four-season drought, protracted and new conflicts, and the global impact of the war in Ukraine.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Irish Aid programme, has responded over the past eighteen months with over €74 million in direct humanitarian aid to countries in the region, working with partners on the ground to deliver lifesaving assistance to those who need it most. Recognising the recurrent nature of drought crises in the region, we are also investing in anticipatory action to mitigate the impact of future shocks. These interventions complement the Irish Aid investment of over €33 million in development funding over the last two years to communities across the Horn of Africa, including in partnership with Irish NGOs, to help address the underlying causes of food insecurity and to build community resilience.

I visited Kenya and South Sudan at the end of August, and witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by the drought and the impact of the crisis on vulnerable communities in the region. On 6 September, I announced an additional funding package of €3.2 million to respond to growing needs in the Horn of Africa, including €1.5 million to Irish NGO partners already active in the region delivering life-saving assistance to those most in need and €500,000 to UNICEF responding to child malnutrition.

In addition to direct humanitarian assistance, communities in the Horn are being supported through Ireland’s contributions to multilateral humanitarian action, such as the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which reacts immediately to crises as they happen. Ireland is the eighth largest contributor to CERF, providing €11.5 million in 2022. Since 2021, the CERF has allocated over $302 million for emergency relief across the region.

Ireland is also a consistent advocate for increased support to the Horn of Africa at a global level.On 26 April we delivered a statement at the high-level roundtable chaired by the UN and the EU on the drought in the Horn, at which member states pledged $1.3bn to the humanitarian response. On 7 July, Minister Coveney met with UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed in New York to discuss the situation in the Horn of Africa, including opportunities for greater EU-UN coordination in the collective response to the crisis.

More broadly, Ireland has been a long-standing champion of global efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition, working with a range of partners to address the worst consequences of food insecurity. As focal point on hunger and conflict at the Security Council, we have highlighted the underlying causes of food insecurity and the links between conflict and hunger, together with the impact of climate change.

We have underlined the importance of the recent conclusions approved by the Foreign Affairs Council on the Team Europe response to global food insecurity. The EU has pledged over €600 million in support of the Horn of Africa. As part of the overall EU Global Food Security Response, the EU has identified a total contribution of over €5 billion in humanitarian and development assistance for global food security from 2021 to 2024.

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