INTERVIEW:THE QUESTION of how a country sunk deep in debt continues to fund overseas development lingered in the background during Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O'Sullivan's five-day visit to Africa last week.
Reminders of Ireland’s economic crisis, whether in queries from local journalists in Malawi and Mozambique or Ms O’Sullivan’s frequent references to the need to show Irish taxpayers their money was well spent, were never far away.
The trip to two of Irish Aid’s nine priority countries took place amid increasing debate at home over Ireland’s overseas aid budget of €670 million per year (about 0.52 per cent of national income). Department of Finance briefing documents say increasing the budget to meet the Government’s expressed goal of achieving a UN target of 0.7 per cent by 2015 could result in cuts elsewhere.
Ms O’Sullivan began her trip in Malawi, where she examined Irish Aid-supported initiatives aimed at reducing hunger and improving agricultural productivity. In Mozambique – which as home to Irish Aid’s largest country programme will receive €37.5 million in funding this year – she visited education and health projects, including some related to HIV and Aids.
“We need to tell the Irish people that they are literally saving lives, and literally bringing up standards of living. I saw that for myself in so many ways . . . I saw how basic the needs are, and how relatively cheap and totally unsophisticated the interventions that can literally make the difference between children being able to live or die,” Ms O’Sullivan said at the end of her trip.
In the coming months, a review of the White Paper on Irish Aid will measure progress in meeting commitments set out in the 2006 document as well as outlining priorities for the future direction of the Government’s overseas development arm, whose funding has already been cut by one-third since 2008.
Ms O’Sullivan said she would draw on much from her trip. “There is a need to constantly evaluate how we bring a country forward, and how we measure outcomes, so it’s not just about how much money you spend. It’s about how many less children die, how many more children go to school, and how governments distribute money in the economy.
“I think in evaluating the programme we have to ensure always that we are spending the money well but also influencing the way in which [recipient] governments spend money.”
Aid agency Goal book-ended the Minister’s trip with statements calling for greater oversight in terms of how Ireland’s bilateral aid is spent in countries where corruption is a problem. “I’m not sure, in making those statements, that [Goal] have actually examined the oversight systems that are there,” said Ms O’Sullivan. “I would challenge [Goal chief executive] John O’Shea to genuinely engage with the systems – and if he has specific criticisms, rather than making generalised statements, then I would be delighted to engage with him.”
On a recent trip to Tanzania, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore framed Ireland’s aid budget in terms of how it could “open doors” to trade and investment opportunities in Africa’s growing economies, which are already being courted by the likes of China, India and Brazil.
“We’re doing development for the reason we’ve always done development but, because Ireland is very much more challenged economically now, we have an added impetus to use our reputation in order to exploit opportunities for trade and business,” said Ms O’Sullivan.
“There’s nothing wrong with that . . . It is essentially a maturing of the relationship that we have as a development partner into one that is more complex and broad.”
The Minister rejected the suggestion this new framing of the overseas development programme was in response to fraying public support. “I think the Irish public have supported the aid budget over the years not because they want trading opportunities, but because it is the right thing to do. I don’t think support for the programme has slipped in any substantial way.
“I think we probably should try to measure [levels of support] if we can. And I think we need to be aware that because people are struggling in Ireland, they’re questioning spending in a variety of ways,” she said. “I think we need to go out there and talk about what we are doing, and let people make up their own minds.”
DONOR CONCERNS CASE OF MOZAMBIQUE
WHAT HAPPENS when a country considered a donor darling falls out of favour with its international benefactors? Ask Mozambique.
Last year the southern African state, which, after emerging from the ruins of a civil war that ended in the early 1990s, now enjoys one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, discovered that governance concerns had grown too big to ignore for the donors that provide half its national budget.
Mozambique is Irish Aid’s largest country programme – this year it will receive €37.5 million in aid from Ireland.
Donor worries centred on long- standing issues related to corruption as well as misgivings over how the 2009 presidential election, which saw President Armando Guebuza and his Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) returned with three- quarters of the vote, was conducted.
The 19 donors and funding agencies – including Ireland and more than 10 other EU members – that give direct support to Mozambique’s national budget threatened a “donor strike” unless it cleaned up its act.
The aid began to flow again last summer only when the government agreed to implement 35 reform measures proposed by the so-called G19.
Ian Dolan, Trócaire’s regional manager based in the capital Maputo, says NGOs had been raising concerns for some time.
“Mozambique was a bit of donor darling but we [believed] the donors should have taken a bit of a harder line with the government on governance issues, particularly on transparency, corruption, the justice system and so on.
“The government was moving ahead on other issues so the donors let it go for a number of years, but things came to something of a head last year.”
After he met Ireland’s Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O’Sullivan last week, Mozambique’s prime minister Aires Ali said tensions between donors and his government had eased.
"Last year we had some problems but it is important that we find the best way to build again confidence between the camps," he told The Irish Times.
“We are moving forward to improve our relationship, improving our laws and [bringing in] some reforms in government. Governance issues are always a challenge and we must improve all the time.”
Dolan, whose work with Trócaire includes building civil society capacity in Mozambique, says the stand-off highlighted more general issues of accountability in the country.
“We would argue that the government is not necessarily meant to be accountable to international donors – although half of its budget is coming from overseas – but really the focus should be on being accountable to the people of Mozambique.”
MARY FITZGERALD