| MONTERREY,
Mexico -- Ireland has set a firm schedule to
meet the official development assistance target
of 0.7
percent of GNP by 2007, said Liz O'Donnell, Irish
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign
Affairs. "At the Millennium Summit in 2000
we decided that, within a specific time frame,
Ireland would reach first an interim target of
ODA of 0.45 percent [of GNP] and, ultimately,
the target of 0.7 percent by 2007," she
said.
Minister
since July 1997, O'Donnell, who has responsibility
for overseas development assistance and human rights,
oversaw the increase of Ireland's ODA from 0.3 percent
in 2000 to 0.45 percent this year. While in absolute
figures Ireland gave $235 million, nowhere near the
total amounts given by larger economies like the
US and Japan, in terms of percentage of GNP it is
among the top ten donors of the 22 donor countries.
Public support for development assistance and aid
plays a large part in allowing Ireland to give so
much, said O'Donnell.
"The template of our official programs
was very much created by our missionary orders
and NGOs [nongovernmental organisations] that
have been working for many decades, particularly
in Africa and in Central America," she said. "There's
strong public in Ireland for ODA, possibly because
we were so recently poor ourselves."
Ireland received significant development funding
and support from its European partners said O'Donnell.
The country's own experience with development
assistance is shaping its approach to development
in Africa and other poor countries.
"We have significantly benefited from the
support of richer countries, our European partners
in particular, who over a period of 20 years
helped us financially," she said. "Over
that period they allowed us to frame our own
development goals, and that's a model we like
to replicate in our work with African countries
in that we allow them to be in the driving seat
of their own development. We believe that a partnership
model is the best for development rather than
a top down donor-driven approach."
Development assistance from Ireland is delivered
both bilaterally through targeted programs and
via multilateral institutions including the European
Development Fund and UN agencies. Ireland has
programs in six African countries including Uganda,
Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Lesotho.
One of the main thrusts of these programs is
improving health services and combating HIV/AIDS.
"We have long-term development programs
and cooperation with the governments of those
countries and districts in those countries," said
O'Donnell. "We work in partnership with
them, building up their health and sanitation
systems, and we focus on basic needs. Of 40 million
people living with HIV/AIDS, 28 million live
in sub-Saharan Africa. It is posing the greatest
development challenge to our African partners,
affecting all of their sectors-including health
and education."
Ireland
also delivers funds through targeted UN agencies. "We work significantly with
the big UN agencies-UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF-all of
those agencies have embraced a reform program
started by Kofi Annan, and our funding for these
agencies has significantly increased," she
said. O'Donnell urged other countries to set
interim targets for achieving the 0.7 percent
ODA target. "We set ourselves a target and
now we, along with Belgium, will be the next
to reach the 0.7 target in the next few years."
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