Busan needs leadership on civil society space

Based on its strong Civil Society Policy, Irish Aid is well placed to play a leading role at the Busan Summit on Development Effectiveness.

14 Reasons NOT to donate to Somalia

A comment, and summary, of a recent article in Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, which listed 14 reasons why people should not help the victims of the famine in Somalia – and then gave one reason why they should.

Design & Aid? Why we are supporting Dublin’s bid to become World Design Capital 2014.

Dóchas supports www.pivotdublin.com. In this blog post, we explain why.

If ‘charity begins at home’ why are we committing to overseas aid?

The “charity begins at home” slogan is increasingly being used to suggest that cutting the overseas aid budget would be a smart move in times of recession. We beg to differ, as “home” is our globalising world. It would be a mistake to turn insular, at a time that we need the international community more than ever.

Overseas aid is now more important than ever – also for Ireland itself

Delivering on our aid promise is not just the right thing to do – it also make sense for our own future.

Working In Development

I addressed a large group of Trinity College students last week, at an event hosted by their Careers Advise desk. I was asked to give my thoughts on how to get a job in the overseas development sector.

Hunger – Past and Present: a political problem, and one that CAN be solved

I went for a long walk through Manhattan today, at the end of the last day of the UN MDG Summit.

I hadn’t had any time for sight-seeing, and there really was only one place that I had wanted to visit while in New York – Ground Zero. I wanted to see with my own eyes the site of such utter destruction, such violence and such suffering by innocent people.

Poor people can’t afford to be cynical about political promises.

A first post from the 2010 MDG Summit in New York

Charity begins at home, but Irish people don’t want it to end there.

The results of a recent Dóchas/MRBI opinion poll show that the vast majority of people in Ireland want the Government to deliver on our 0.7% ODA/GNI promise.

Aiding Pakistan

Never before was our aid needed so much. We cannot turn our backs on people in their hour of need, and we cannot row back on our promise to be a caring part of the international community.