Irish aid to Africa can make 'real difference'

Ireland will have the opportunity to make a real difference in tackling global health problems such as HIV and Aids if the Government honours its commitment to increase foreign aid, a conference in Galway heard.

Dr Vincent O'Neill, of Irish Aid at the Department of Foreign Affairs, told the Irish Forum for Global Health conference on Equity Challenges in Global Health that Irish funding for global health and HIV/Aids had doubled to €130 million this year and was likely to increase further in the years ahead.

"If the Government honours its commitment to increase aid to a target of 0.7 per cent by 2012, the total foreign aid budget by then could be in the region of €1.6 billion a year.

"This would give us the opportunity to make a real difference in global health," he said.

Dr O'Neill pointed out that the Republic was already making a difference in a number of areas of global health, with Irish Aid one of the architects of the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria and the world leader along with France in donating to this fund.

"There have been many global initiatives in international health in malaria, TB and so on and we have played an important role is setting up some of those, particularly in relation to research into microbicides in women to prevent the spread of HIV in women."

The Republic has been the world's leading health donor to Mozambique over the past few years, according to Dr O'Neill, and the State had shown a lot of international political commitment to the fight against HIV/Aids.

In fact, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was the only European head of government to attend a UN special session of HIV/Aids in June of this year, he said.

"This forum is very important because it will help us to see how over the next few years the universities, Government departments, professional bodies and individuals can perhaps play a more prominent role in the area of international health," Dr O'Neill explained.

He said the key challenge was to ensure that funding for Aids reached affected communities in Africa and other parts of the world and did not get "swallowed up in bureaucracy".

Dr O'Neill also highlighted the need to focus on prevention of HIV/Aids rather than just treatment, as well as focusing on the care and support of families and communities who looked after children affected by Aids.

He pointed out that HIV/Aids, which was a huge problem in Africa, eastern Europe and Asia, was not just a health problem, but a problem of under-development and poverty.

"We have learnt from the Aids epidemic that investing in good health first is a very good way of promoting development and that low levels of development in turn lead to worse health, particularly among poor people," he said.

As well as Aids, children are still dying globally from diseases such as malaria, TB, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infection, which all need to be addressed, Dr O'Neill concluded.

The two-day conference in Galway brought together experts to debate the global challenges of addressing inequities in health and to identify ways in which the Republic could respond both globally and locally.

Diarmuid O'Donovan, senior lecturer at NUI Galway's Department of Health Promotion and chairman of the Irish Forum for Global Health, said: "Despite dramatic improvements in certain areas, on a global level the gap between the rich and poor in terms of healthcare is widening.

"HIV, Aids, TB and malaria are huge problems for developing countries. This is an opportunity to debate the issues surrounding these problems and identify practical ways in which Ireland can help."