Missionaries helped create the template on which Ireland’s aid programme is built

2015 marks the end of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were visionary and were made with clear targets to improve lives threatened by hunger and disease  in developing countries. Significant progress has been made in the achievement of the goals.
However much more remains to be done. Work on a replacement programme, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is well advanced. Last September, the United Nations General Assembly accepted a proposal for a new set of broader goals for up to 2030.

Ireland and Kenya have been appointed by the UN to co-facilitate the final stages of negotiations for this new global development agenda that will be approved by the UN General Assembly next September. This is a great success and honor for Ireland and Irish Aid. It demonstrates the positive reputation Ireland and the aid programme has achieved.

An international reputation takes decades to grow. Ireland’s reputation in development aid has been driven by values that underpin effectiveness. For many decades, Irish missionaries were the unpaid ambassadors of our country as they lived and ministered among poor and marginalised people in developing countries.

As various presidents and government ministers have acknowledged many times, our missionaries created the example and the environment upon which the country’s international aid programme was built. Many of Ireland’s leading business people operating internationally have commented on the positive reputation of Ireland that our missionaries generated, opening pathways that help international trade.

There are fewer than 1,500 Irish-born missionaries serving overseas. While vocations to the religious life in Ireland have seen a major decline, vocations in developing countries are growing significantly. An estimated 3,500 local or indigenous missionaries work alongside Irish colleagues whom they are gradually replacing.
Speaking in Malawi recently, President Michael D Higgins said the legacy of Irish missionaries “continues today through the inspirational work of their successors here in Malawi and across the globe”. Those 5,000 missionaries constitute one of the largest groups supporting the poor to become more self-sufficient and extricate themselves from the cycle of poverty. Development by missionaries is recognized by the Government as an integral part of Ireland’s overseas aid programme.