Ireland

In Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is responsible for Irish ODA. Irish Aid, the Irish Government’s official aid program, lies with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Development Cooperation Directorate, a Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, is responsible for administering the Irish Aid program.

A Better World, Ireland’s new policy for international development, was formally launched in February 2019. It provides the framework for Ireland’s expanding development cooperation program, in line with the government’s commitment to reaching the UN target of allocating 0.7% of GNI to ODA by 2030.

In delivering on A Better World, the Irish government will undertake the initiative to prioritize education for girls and scale up funding to education, especially for girls in emergencies, committing to spending at least €250 million over the next five years.

According to the Irish government, 70% of all expenditure on education is in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2017, the top recipients of basic education ODA disbursements were: India, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Uganda and Zambia.

The Global Campaign for Education has praised Ireland for being a role model in terms of the quality of its aid to education, since its closely linked to national education sector plans.

Ireland sits on the Strategy and Impact Committee.

Ireland was a co-sponsor of the first GPE replenishment conference in Copenhagen in November 2011. Ireland also hosted the Board of Directors' meeting of December 2018 in Dublin.