Ireland — a global leader in foreign aid

When many countries are reducing their aid to the world's poorest countries, Ireland still dedicates more than half its official development assistance budget to LDCs and uses poverty and fragility as formal criteria for selecting priority countries. A guest opinion by OECD Chair Erik Solheim following the recent peer review of Irish aid.

By Erik Solheim // 03 December 2014

Ireland is a world leader in directing foreign aid to countries most in need.

Global development assistance reached a new record high of $135 billion last year, but many countries are giving a smaller share to the least developed countries. This trend must be reversed. Ireland allocated 0.24 percent of its gross national income and more than half of its development assistance budget to least-developed countries. That is among the highest in the world and well above the U.N. target of 0.15-0.20 percent.

Other countries should be inspired by Ireland’s willingness to focus on sub-Saharan Africa by allocating 81 percent of total bilateral aid to the region, and use poverty and fragility as formal criteria for selecting priority countries.

The views in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect Devex's editorial views.

About the author

Erik Solheim
Erik Solheim is chair of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee since January 2013, and incoming executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. With a solid background in climate, the environment and peace building, Solheim was also Norway’s minister for international development from 2005 to 2012.