MINISTER OF State for Overseas Development Peter Power has defended the Government’s record on implementing the recommendations of its Hunger Task Force report after Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen questioned its ability to translate the report into action following substantial cuts to the aid budget.
Mr Kilcullen was a member of the team responsible for drawing up the 2008 report, which set out a blueprint for the reorientation of Ireland’s aid programme to focus on efforts to tackle food insecurity in the developing world.
Earlier this week Mr Kilcullen called on the Government to outline clearly how it was implementing the report’s recommendations. He also argued that a lack of political will across the international donor community had hampered efforts to fight hunger.
Mr Power countered yesterday that Ireland was “perceived as a major global advocate” on food security issues, and insisted that he had “systematically implemented” the report’s recommendations right across the Irish Aid programme.
This included designating the fight against hunger as a “cornerstone” of the programme, the appointment of a “special envoy for hunger”, the establishment of a specific “hunger unit” within Irish Aid and the allocation of 20 per cent of the aid budget to tackling food insecurity.
Mr Power argued that within Europe, Ireland had been “at the vanguard” of advocating for a central role for hunger and food security in EU policy.
But Mr Kilcullen, in response, again cast doubt on the Government’s capacity to deliver on the Hunger Task Force report, given that the aid budget had since been reduced by almost a quarter and the Government had reneged on its pledge to meet a UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid by 2012.
“Realistically, our capacity to deliver on the recommendations is greatly reduced,” he said. “We need to see the path the Government will now take to reach the UN target . . . The Government is working to put hunger on the agenda at the EU and the UN but it needs to restate Ireland’s commitment to that spending target and lay out in concrete terms how and when it will reach it.”
He added: “With reduced finance for aid and without serious reform of international trade and new money to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change . . . we are not going to be able to deliver on our promises.”