Ireland’s overseas aid programme a ‘stand-out’
Irish Aid’s performance was declared a “stand-out” after earning top four places in all categories under which the programme was evaluated.
It was ranked first under the heading of fostering institutions which means supporting recipient countries to strengthen their state institutions and structures so that they can better nurture their own development as a way out of poverty.
It was ranked second for transparency and learning, third for keeping the administration and cost burden to countries receiving aid down and fourth for maximising efficiency in getting funding where it is needed most and ensuring structures are in place locally to make full use of it.
The country that came closest to Ireland was Denmark which under the same four headings managed only a second place, a fifth place, a 12th place and a 15th place.
“Ireland is a stand-out,” said the authors of the report, the Centre for Global Development at the influential Brookings Institution think-tank and research centre in Washington.
The report compared 21 OECD countries and eight multinational funding organisations such as the EU and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The amount of aid donated — in Ireland’s case €637m last year — was not taken into consideration but rather the policies and practices used in dispersing that aid.
