Presentation by the Director General of Irish Aid (Ireland)

During the private reception, Prof. Dr. Pham Quang Minh (Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities) introduced to Mr. Ruairi de Burca about cooperation activities with Irish universities, emphasizing the Project "Cooperation in capacity building in key areas of International Research at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities" implemented with University College Cork (UCC, Ireland) funded by Irish Aid.

Mr Ruairi de Burca's presentation outlined the Irish government's new international development policy, entitled “A Better World”.

Ireland’s international development policy focuses on the key priorities of gender equality, humanitarian response, climate change response, and governance capacity building. For each priority, Ireland sets out its own targets and approaches to achieving them. For example, on gender equality, Ireland will increase funding for gender relations and gender equality across all its programmes; focus more on women, peace, security and domestic violence; promote the Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative; prioritise girls in education support; and launch a new Reproductive Health and Rights initiative.

Mr. Ruairi de Burca agreed with Principal Pham Quang Minh's view that Vietnam and Ireland have many similarities such as going through the process of fighting for independence from colonialism, sharing traditional values ​​in development, focusing on ensuring social values ​​in parallel with the economy, considering education as a motto in national development.

Along with these priorities, Ireland uses interventions divided into three areas: protection (including conflict prevention; disaster response; supporting high-risk and crisis areas), food (including sustainable food systems; agriculture and markets; inclusive economic growth) and people (including education and skills; health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health and Rights; Social protection).

Speaking about the context of the birth of this new policy, Mr. Ruairi de Burca shared that in the current multipolar world order, the world is changing rapidly. Along with the development of technology, digital and the future of work are global issues such as conflict, human rights, climate change, poverty and inequality, migration and homelessness, instability, changes in the methods of finding income and influencing.

The presentation was attended by a large number of staff, lecturers and students of the School.

In this context, international development cooperation has become a central part of our foreign policy. Ireland wishes to work with partners around the world to address development challenges, contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, and implement other humanitarian goals and policies. Moving towards the commitment to contribute 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) to Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2030. All towards a more equal, peaceful and sustainable world. With the motto of "focusing on those furthest behind first", Ireland's development policy demonstrates its willingness to extend support globally, not just within its own territory.

After the presentation, Mr. Ruairi de Burca received questions and comments from the audience on issues such as cooperation opportunities between Vietnamese and Irish educational institutions in training social activists and entrepreneurs; opportunities to organize cultural exchange events, including Vietnamese-Irish literature; important aspects of national development policies such as governance models, civil society, cultural diversity; the importance of social capital and human capital in each country's development policies, along with the need to improve the capacity of social workers and staff; undergraduate and postgraduate scholarship programs at Irish universities.

Established in 1974, Irish Aid is the official agency of the Government of Ireland for international development. Irish Aid is administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is managed by the Development Cooperation Department. Irish Aid’s objectives are to promote sustainable development, reduce poverty, promote gender equality and protect the environment in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. The Irish Aid programme is an integral part of Ireland’s Foreign Policy. In Vietnam, Irish Aid supports efforts to reduce poverty and vulnerability and increase opportunities for ethnic minority groups in the most disadvantaged and hard-to-reach areas.