Ireland needs a rights-based foreign policy

The formation of a new Government is a unique opportunity for Ireland to develop a new foreign policy, more explicitly based on the fulfilment of human rights.

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Ireland’s Response to Haiti Earthquake – Facts, Figures and Challenges

On 12 January 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. The quake killed over 250,000 people and destroyed much of the country’s capital, Port au Prince, where nearly 40% of the nation’s population lived.

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Hunger is much more than not having enough to eat

If in its first 1,000 days, a child does not receive adequate nutrition, its physical and intellectual development will be permanently stunted. Yet, nutrition has for a long time been neglected as a Development issue. At a recent event in Ireland’s parliament speakers explained how that is changing now.

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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.

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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.

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Why are there so many NGOs?

This blog post attempts to answer the question most often asked in the public debate about overseas aid: Why are there so many NGOs?

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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.

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Great news – the glass is indeed half full

Some more thoughts from the MDG Summit in New York

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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.

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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.

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