The Irish government first launched an official development aid programme in 1974, which has since grown remarkably along with Ireland’s level of Official Development Assistance (ODA). Today, Ireland’s development co-operation constitutes and integral part of the country’s foreign policy. The Development Co-operation Directorate as a division of the Department for Foreign Affairs is responsible for administering Ireland’s development co-operation under the name “Irish Aid”.

The overarching policy objective of Ireland’s development co-operation activities is the reduction of poverty, inequality and exclusion in developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) underpin all policies and activities of Irish Aid, which are gauged against the progress they achieve towards the internationally agreed MDG targets. The thematic priorities of Ireland’s development assistance have shifted over time but have always focussed on education and health in particular. Since 2000, the MDGs provide the context in which Irish Aid’s priority sectors are decided. In recent years, the government has increasingly shown a commitment to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic (see “Support for SRHR and HIV/AIDS activities”).

Irish Aid’s key focus areas, which make up approximately half of the total aid budget, are:

• Education (about 14% of the total aid budget)
• Primary Health Care (about 20% of the total aid budget)
• HIV/AIDS prevention and care (about 10% of the total aid budget)
• Emergency and Recovery Assistance (about 6-8% of the total aid budget)

In 2004, the Irish government announced its intention to publish a White Paper on Official Development Assistance to provide a framework for the future direction of Ireland’s development assistance. Apart from engaging in public debate about the White Paper and possible new priorities for Irish Aid, a consultative forum in co-operation with civil society and other stakeholders was held in Dublin in October 2005. The government has planned to approve the White Paper by mid-2006.

It is expected that the White Paper will build upon the current key principles of Irish Aid:

• Focus on poverty reduction
• Geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa
• Providing untied aid
• Close co-operation with bilateral, multilateral and civil society partners
• Coherence and donor co-ordination
• Effectiveness and Accountability

Ireland’s ODA levels have risen dramatically since the early 1990s, backed by strong domestic economic growth. Ireland’s net ODA spending increased from US$ 70 million in 1992 (0.16% of gross national income (GNI)) to US$ 692 million (0.41% of GNI) in 2005, according to OECD figures. However, Ireland’s ODA growth has slowed in recent years, and in 2005 the government had to revise its initial target of reaching 0.7% of GNI by 2007. Instead, it aims to reach 0.5% in 2007 and eventually fulfill the UN target of 0.7% by 2012.

An important feature of Ireland’s ODA is a focus on the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs), as recommended by the UN. With 50% of Ireland’s total aid budget going to LDCs, Ireland is one of only six donor nations to provide at least 0.15% of GNI to the world’s poorest regions.

Through multilateral and bilateral aid, Irish Aid funds projects in more than 75 developing countries. However, Ireland has always concentrated its bilateral partnerships on a limited number of countries only, with a strong focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. This tight concentration on a small number of priority countries is regarded as one of the strengths of Ireland’s development programme. Recently, Irish Aid has signed partnership agreements with East Timor and Vietnam, which increased the number of programme countries from six to eight.

As of 2006, Ireland’s programme countries are:

• East Timor
• Ethiopia
• Lesotho
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Vietnam
• Zambia

Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique have the largest co-operation programmes with Irish Aid. Several other Eastern European and Southern countries also receive bilateral Irish aid for specific projects and activities: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Laos, Macedonia, Moldova, Palestine, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia & Montenegro, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The bilateral relationship with all of Ireland’s programme countries, except Vietnam is governed by individual Country Strategy Plans (CSPs). These policy documents are based on the country’s own development strategy and are negotiated between Irish Aid, the national government, other donors and international organisations, with a review every three years.

Over the past years, Ireland has gradually replaced its project support in key priority areas with sector wide approaches (SWAps) and budget support. In the health sector in particular, Irish Aid implements SWAp programmes and channels its funding through government managed pooling arrangements to strengthen the government’s capacity to direct and manage health sector reforms. Budget support is provided to specific government departments in programme countries (e.g. education, health) based on set priorities in order to support national development strategies.

In recent years, Irish Aid has expanded its co-operation with UN agencies and has increased funding to UN programmes that reinforce its development objectives. At the same time, Ireland has withdrawn its support for several agencies to which it was marking largely symbolic contributions or which did not fit with one of its development priorities.

As part of its concentration to improve the effectiveness of its multilateral aid, in June 2006 the Irish government announced Euro 43.5 million in voluntary contributions to UN funds and programmes, including Euro 16.2 million to UNDP, Euro 10.6 million to UNICEF, Euro 3.3 million to UNHCR and Euro 3.1 million to UNFPA.

During the Irish presidency of the European Union in 2004, the government supported a better harmonization and effectiveness of EU’s development programmes and put a special emphasis on strengthening the new member states institutional capacities as new donors. On a bilateral level, Irish Aid maintains close relations with the ODA agencies of Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.

In 2004, Ireland spent US$ 198 million on multilateral ODA (around a third of its total), of which US$ 93 million went to European Union (EU) aid programmes, US$ 61 million to UN agencies, US$ 27 million to the World Bank, and US$ 17 million to other multilateral organisations.

The fight against HIV/AIDS is a key focus area of Ireland’s development co-operation. Irish Aid’s initial emphasis was on global responses, including support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), Ireland has increasingly enhanced its capacity for HIV/AIDS programming at the country level. 

A comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategy was first published in 1999 (“A HIV/AIDS Strategy for Irish Aid”. This strategy has since been supplemented by the document “Experiences and Lessons of Best Practice in Addressing HIV/AIDS”, which was launched in 2002.

These policy documents lay down Ireland’s response to HIV/AIDS. To support the prevention of HIV/AIDS and to reduce its impact on developing countries, Irish Aid aims to: 

• Mainstream HIV/AIDS into all developing programmes
• Support specific programmes that have been shown to be successful in slowing down the epidemic
• Strengthen the capacity of Irish Aid to respond effectively to the pandemic

Irish Aid’s HIV/AIDS activities largely focus on the provision of treatment and anti-retroviral drugs, as well as HIV/AIDS education. One example of Ireland’s activities in the field of HIV/AIDS treatment is Irish Aid’s co-operation with the Clinton Foundation in Mozambique. Since 2003, the government and the Clinton Foundation have provided over US$ 30 million to make HIV/AIDS treatment available for 27.000 people.

However, in 2005, Ireland announced it will also provide Euro 18 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the International Partnership on Microbicides (IPM) to support research for safe and reliable HIV/AIDS prevention measures, especially for women.

Irish funding for HIV/AIDS has increased significantly since the formulation of the HIV/AIDS strategy in 1999. Government funding for HIV/AIDS activities has risen from US$ 30 million per year in 2001 to more than US$ 120 million in 2006. The government has signed a five year strategic co-operation agreement with UNAIDS in 2006 to increase long-term predictability of funds for UNAIDS. As part of its co-operation, Irish Aid has doubled its core contribution to UNAIDS to Euro 6 million. Ireland’s support to the budget of UNFPA was US$ 3.15 million in 2004.

Compared to its large primary health care and HIV/AIDS programmes, Ireland’s activities in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are less visible, partly due to the widespread influence of the Catholic Church on Irish society. The promotion of condoms and abortion rights is still regarded a sensitive issue within the government.

The engagement of Irish citizens in development activities through missionary and voluntary work or through involvement with civil society organisations has always been a feature of Irish society. Consequently, the Irish government has long supported the work of NGOs in developing countries through funding mechanisms which have evolved and changed over time.

The large rise in Irish ODA since the 1990s has led to the creation of several support schemes that were increasingly regarded as non-transparent and inefficient. In order to streamline and re-focus its NGO grant programmes, Irish Aid has decided to combine the existing funding instruments into several new grant programmes.

In 2003, Irish Aid launched a new funding scheme to support long-term development programmes of five large Irish NGOs. The objective of the Multi-Annual Programme Scheme (MAPS) was to provide a more strategic approach to the way aid is delivered through NGO co-financing programmes and a concentration on strategies that move away from small scale project-to-project activities and focus on macro-level issues within a broader development context. The total financial volume of the first MAPS was Euro 117 million for the period of 2003-2005. Partnership agreements have been concluded with the following organisations:

• Concern (Euro 39.4 million)
• Trocaire (Euro 34.3 million)
• Goal (Euro 32.1 million)
• Self Help Development (Euro 6.9 million)
• Christian Aid (Euro 4.5 million)

After the completion of the three-year pilot phase, Irish Aid commissioned an independent evaluation of MAPS, which has made several recommendations as how to strengthen and improve future Multi-Annual Programme Schemes. The government is currently finalizing new criteria for a new MAPS II, which will be launched at the end of 2006 or early 2007. It is expected that Irish Aid will expand this scheme and invite two new Irish NGOs to join this scheme. Organisations from developing countries interested in setting up partnerships with one of the participating MAPS NGOs will find the relevant contact information on the Irish Aid web site .

Ireland also supports local civil society organisations in developing countries via a variety of mechanisms. Apart from indirect support through Irish NGOs, support is also channelled through its bilateral country programmes. As Irish Aid is currently drafting new strategies for its support of local civil society, interested organisations should regularly check the Irish Aid web site for any updates. A good starting point is to contact the Irish Embassy in your country. Contact information can be found here.

The Civil Society Fund (CSF) and the Micro-Projects Scheme are open to Irish NGOs for projects in developing countries and offer a possibility for Southern civil society groups to establish partnerships with Irish development organisations.

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Department of Foreign Affairs / DCI: A HIV/AIDS Strategy for Irish Aid (1999)

Department of Foreign Affairs / DCI: Evaluation of the Development Co-operation Ireland Multi-Annual Programme Scheme 2003-2005.

OECD Development Assistance Committee: Ireland DAC Peer Review 2003.

UNFPA: Donor payments and pledges for 2004.

Irish Aid

Ireland Department for Foreign Affairs

OECD Development Assistance Committee