:Irish Aid

Ireland works towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as set out by the United Nations. Accordingly, Irish Aid's priority areas are; Ending Poverty, Hunger, Gender Equality, Environment and Climate Change, Health, HIV/AIDS, Governance and Human Rights, Education, Trade and Economic Growth, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation.{{cite web|title=Our Priority Areas|url=https://www.irishaid.ie/what-we-do/our-priority-areas/|publisher=Irish Aid|access-date=15 January 2016}}

Irish Aid also responds to humanitarian crisis around the world, including locations not in their area of operations, through humanitarian relief/assistance and supporting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with multilateral aid. The Irish Aid Rapid Response Corps (RRC) is a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals available to deploy at short notice to humanitarian emergencies anywhere in the world, working with the UNHCR, WFP, OCHA and UNICEF to identify and fill specific skills gaps in emergencies.

Ireland sits on the OECD's 30-member Development Assistance Committee (DAC).{{cite web|title=DAC member profile: Ireland|url=http://www.oecd.org/dac/ireland.htm|publisher=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|access-date=4 January 2017}}

The main focus of Irish Aid is on East, West and Southern Africa. Long-term development assistance has been established in nine "Key Partner Countries", these are:

• {{flagcountry|Ethiopia}}
• {{flagcountry|Kenya}}
• {{flagcountry|Malawi}}
• {{flagcountry|Mozambique}}
• {{flagcountry|Sierra Leone}}
• {{flagcountry|Tanzania}}
• {{flagcountry|Uganda}}
• {{flagcountry|Vietnam}}
• {{flagcountry|Zambia}}

Irish Aid also works in a number of other countries affected by conflict, including; Liberia, Palestine, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.{{cite web|title='Countries Where We Work'|url=https://www.irishaid.ie/what-we-do/countries-where-we-work/|publisher=Irish Aid|access-date=14 November 2021}}

In 2014, more than 80 countries benefited from Irish bilateral aid.{{cite web|title=Where the Money Goes|url=https://www.irishaid.ie/what-we-do/how-our-aid-works/where-the-money-goes/|publisher=Irish Aid|access-date=16 January 2016}}

Irish Aid operates its assistance programmes through the network of Ireland's overseas diplomatic missions.

• Director General
• Multilateral Unit
• Humanitarian Unit
• Civil Society & Development Education
• Planning & Performance Unit
• Bilateral Cooperation Unit West & East Africa
• Bilateral Cooperation Unit Southern Africa, Asia & Palestine
• Evaluation & Audit
• Policy Coherence & Research Unit{{cite web|title=Organisational Structure|url=https://www.irishaid.ie/about-us/our-organisation/our-structure/|publisher=Irish Aid|access-date=15 January 2016}}

The Irish Aid programme is managed by staff of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Recruitment is generally managed through the Public Appointments Services, with some positions advertised directly by the Department of Foreign Affairs on their website. Most positions are for permanent employment, and include general civil service, diplomat and development specialist positions. There are also temporary two-years contracts through the Junior Professional Internship (JPI) scheme. There are 145 permanent posts attached to Irish Aid's domestic headquarters in Dublin and Limerick. There are 39 permanent posts (excluding locally recruited staff) within Irish Aid missions in nine programme countries and a further 290 locally recruited overseas staff across all missions. This brings the agency's total number of employees to 474.

Ireland allocated €870 million in official development assistance (ODA) in 2019.{{cite web |url=https://www.irishaid.ie/news-publications/news/newsarchive/2020/november/irelands-official-development-assistance-annual-report-2019.html|publisher=Irish Aid |date=9 November 2020 |access-date=14 November 2021|title=November - Ireland's Official Development Assistance Annual Report 2019 - Department of Foreign Affairs }} This represents 0.32% of gross national income (GNI).

Since the beginning of 2000 has been an overall expansion in the scale and scope of Ireland's development assistance programme which has seen the foreign aid budget rise from €255 million in 2000 to €870 million in 2019. The ODA GNP% peaked at 0.59% in 2008, later reducing to a consistent 0.32% since 2015.

According to the OECD, 2020 official development assistance from Ireland decreased 4.1% to USD 972 million.

{{Cite web|url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org//sites/941ec6f0-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/5e331623-en&_csp_=b14d4f60505d057b456dd1730d8fcea3&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=chapter#|title=Ireland | Development Co-operation Profiles – Ireland | OECD iLibrary}}

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Irish Aid's headquarters in Ireland are at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Iveagh House, 80 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2 and Riverstone House, 23-27 Henry Street, Limerick. Irish Aid has permanent offices in Irish embassies in; Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.

• Foreign relations of the Republic of Ireland

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.ireland.ie/en/irish-aid/ Irish Aid]
• [http://www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/ Department of Foreign Affairs]

{{International development agencies}}

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Category:Foreign relations of Ireland

Category:Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Ireland)

Category:International development agencies

Category:Economic development organizations

Category:National development banks

Category:Government agencies established in 1974