It's not all doom and gloom in Africa, Bertie Ahernwrites from Johannesburg, and Ireland has a role to play in helping nations there
Ireland recognises much of itself in Africa. The challenges of nation building, overcoming conflict and the fight against hunger and poverty are familiar themes of our history. But so too is a sense of the opportunities that peace, reconciliation and stability can bring.
It is in this spirit that I am visiting South Africa and Tanzania. It is also with the knowledge of the proud contribution that Irish missionaries and non-governmental organisations have historically made to Africa and which the Government's funding, through Irish Aid, is making today.
I hope that my visit, which follows that of President McAleese to Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania in 2006, helps to build on these links and on the potential for even stronger political, economic and cultural ties that this vast and diverse continent offers.
Africa's challenges are enormous and can appear overwhelming. It is, of course, for African countries themselves to set the course for their own development and foster opportunities for their own citizens. For the poorest among them, external development assistance will continue to be needed to ensure that basic health, education and nutrition needs are met and that ultimately they get to a position where they can benefit more fully from global economic opportunities.
The images we see of Africa are often those of poverty and conflict. But that is far from being the full picture. Many African countries are currently experiencing healthy economic growth. South Africa and Tanzania are good examples of countries that have managed to spread the benefits of economic growth to the wider population.
They are also forces for peace and stability in their respective regions and across the continent. Both are active members of the African Union and the Southern Africa Development Community. We know from our own experience within the European Union of the importance of economic and political integration for development and a sense of national ambition.
For more advanced economies such as South Africa, we see a lot of potential to strengthen our direct trade and investment links. Accompanied by Minister Micheál Martin I am leading a delegation of over 50 companies drawn from sectors as diverse as food, telecommunications, consumer goods and education to Pretoria and Cape Town.
Ireland's trade in services with South Africa, including tourism, was estimated at €876 million in 2006, and we have significant opportunities also to grow our merchandise trade which was valued at almost €400 million in the first eight months of last year alone. Investment flows are also strong in both directions, and strengthening. This level of exchange points to the strong potential of this resource-rich continent.
Ireland's support for Africa's development effort is channelled through the Government's aid programme. Overall spending on the programme will reach €914 million this year and we are well on our way to meeting the UN target of allocating 0.7 per cent of our GNP to overseas development assistance by 2012. Ireland is now the sixth-largest donor per capita in the world and has one of the most highly regarded aid programmes in the world. My visit will allow me to see for myself the impact we are having in responding in a flexible and accountable way to the needs of some of the world's poorest people.
Tanzania is one of Ireland's nine priority countries for development assistance. Between 2007 and 2010 we will spend €170 million there mainly on rural development, health and HIV and Aids and good governance. These are areas that make a direct contribution to the fight against poverty. Along with Minister of State for Overseas Development Michael Kitt, I will visit Irish Aid-funded projects and discuss our co-operation and the political situation in the region with President Kikwete.
In South Africa, I had the opportunity to see the great work that Niall Mellon and his volunteers are doing with the Township Trust in Cape Town, as well as also visiting a number of Irish Aid-funded projects. Today I will have a chance to meet Belfast-born Fr Kieran Creagh, who runs a hospice to care for terminally ill poor people. Fr Creagh has recently returned to South Africa following an incident in which he was shot and seriously injured in February last year. He encapsulates the spirit of generosity, tenacity and courage with which Irish missionary and NGO workers in Africa are so closely associated. There is a sizeable Irish diaspora, including over 500 missionaries, in South Africa, and a considerable number of Irish missionaries and development workers in Tanzania. I look forward to meeting many of them during my visit and to warmly acknowledging their contribution to development and the economic, political and cultural life of their adopted countries.
The ties that bind Ireland and Africa are strong and enduring: a striving for peace, equality and a better future for all as evidenced by our attachment to the United Nations, our joint development efforts and more recently through increased trade, investment and migration flows.
Reconciliation in South Africa provided an inspiration to our own peace process. We have much to learn from each other. I hope that the visit will in some small way contribute to a renewed sense of common purpose and ambition, not just in terms of relations between Ireland and South Africa and Tanzania, but with all our partners on the continent.