IFGH submission on health to Irish Aid White Paper Review

Irish Forum for Global Health: Submission to the Review of the White Paper on Irish Aid, 24 April 2012

To view the complete submission click here

Key points at a glance

KEY ISSUES

• Renew commitment to health as a core aspect of development and a cross cutting issue across all themes and sectors, including hunger.
• Maintain the current focus on HIV and major communicable diseases and maternal and child health, building on Irish Aid’s achievements and comparative strengths in its contribution towards achieving the MDGs.
• Strengthen national health systems with particular attention to the health workforce, and promote a community systems strengthening approach to health and development.
• Strengthen support and engagement with key global health partnerships where Ireland can make an effective contribution to health outcomes through influence and leadership on policy and practice.
• Ensure development programmes and projects are inclusive and gender-sensitive, equitable and accessible to people disadvantaged by poverty, disabilities and stigma.

WAYS OF WORKING

• Focus on the poorest and most marginalised in countries through support for organisations working at community level, including NGOs and national institutions.
• Collaborate and partner with Irish organisations and institutions that are aligned with Irish Aid’s objectives, including Higher Education Institutions, NGOs, the private sector and networking organisations such as the Irish Forum for Global Health.
• Build on existing collaborations with the HSE and Department of Health to achieve greater coherence towards development goals and help mobilise new resources and skilled personnel to produce greater impact from development budgets.
• Increase attention to evidence-based aid, measurement of development results and demonstration of value for money, and make greater use of research capacity in Ireland to support internal measurement and evaluation processes.
• Integrate health as an indicator of performance across other development sectors – all interventions to address key issues such as hunger, poverty and climate change should be able to demonstrate effectiveness on basic social indicators of well-being.

Consultation documents

A number of relevant background documents were available in preparation for the consultation and are all online on the Irish Aid website at: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/publications.htm In particular we would like to highlight the following:

1. White paper Consultation Review Paper Summary: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/IA-Summary%20Paper_web.pdf
2. Irish Aid White Paper 2006 Summary http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/Whitepaper.pdf
3. White paper Consultation Review Paper: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/IA-Consultation%20Paper_FINAL.pdf
4. IRELAND AND AFRICA: Our Partnership With a Changing Continent: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/assets/strategy_paper_eng.pdf