Madam, - The comments made by Kevin Myers in the Irishman's Diary of July 29th are ill-informed, irresponsible and offensive.
Unlike those NGOs which concentrate on short-term relief, the Government is promoting the long-term development of the poorest countries in the world.
We are working to put these countries on their own feet, helping them to develop health, education and other systems which are vital for their development. This is necessarily a long-term process. It can only be achieved, furthermore, by working through and with governments. I bow to none in my admiration of the marvellous work done by Irish NGOs and missionaries. But only governments are in a position to contribute to the building of systems which will facilitate longer-term development.
Mr Myers is entirely mistaken in his view that this can be attained by working exclusively through Irish agencies.
We do not go into this work with our eyes closed. Arguably, corruption exists to one degree or another in every African country and, indeed, in many other parts of the world. It is itself a development challenge.
Rather than shirking this challenge, we prefer to look at ways in which we can strengthen a country's defences against corruption and help it to build good governance.
As the Minister in charge of an expanding development co-operation budget, I attach the highest priority to ensuring that we have rigorous controls to protect our funding from abuse.
Uganda is a star performer in development terms. It has halved absolute poverty over 10 years, halved the HIV/AIDS infection rate and doubled the number of children attending school. At the same time, there are concerns about a range of governance issues. We have a frank dialogue with the Ugandan government about these and I believe that this pressure has paid off in a number of decisions they have taken.
Under pressure from donors such as ourselves, the Ugandan army has now withdrawn completely from the Democratic Republic of Congo. While Uganda's involvement in the DRC in recent years has raised very legitimate concerns, it is quite irresponsible for Mr Myers to suggest that Ugandan soldiers have had sole, or even primary, responsibility for the appalling loss of life and human rights outrages there. The conflict has involved a number of internal groups, reflecting deep tribal divisions, and several foreign armies.
The funding we are providing is having a very real impact on the lives of Uganda's poor. To strengthen our focus on key sectors and to enhance our safeguards, I decided, following a recent visit to Uganda, that funding which had hitherto been provided for central budget support would be redirected into a special poverty action fund which concentrates donor funding on health, education and other sectors. We will also continue to provide funding for other sectoral activity and regional programmes and fund Irish NGOs and missionaries. Far from cutting our aid, we will be continuing with our programme in Uganda and developing it further. - Yours etc.,
TOM KITT TD, Minister of State for Development Co-operation and Human Rights, Iveagh House, Dublin 2.