"Ireland’s Presidency will ensure a focus on development cooperation" - Minister Neale Richmond

Ireland’s EU Presidency is rooted in three priorities: competitiveness, values, security. When Europe looks at how to build our markets, strengthen our security and uphold the values of peace and cooperation that are the foundation of our Union, the common link between these priorities is development cooperation.

Europe and its member states are now the world’s largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA). This support tackles insecurity, builds markets and is the tangible expression of our European values.

A key priority for Ireland’s Presidency is to support strategic level dialogue on the future of development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.

This has never been more urgent.

Progress in eradicating extreme poverty has slowed down in the past decade due to several interconnected crises, including conflict and severe weather related shocks.

An estimated 826 million people live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is increasingly associated with contexts of high fragility. While these areas are home to 25% of the world’s population, 72% of the extreme poor live in these regions.

This comes at a time when there has been a significant decline in ODA, which has fallen by over 23 per cent between 2024 and 2025, the largest annual drop in the history of ODA.

The challenges we are facing are not just financial. We are seeing substantial changes in priorities amongst countries that we would once have considered like-minded.

This is bringing a shift away from a focus on human development towards an exclusive emphasis on economic development, heavily structured around investment, ‘mutually beneficial partnerships’ and private capital mobilisation.

Ireland and Europe’s core values are being challenged. I am deeply concerned by the unprecedented levels of pushback against human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, and LGBTQI+ rights that have begun to unravel decades of progress.

All of this makes discussions around the future of development cooperation both timely and challenging.

I will host an informal Foreign Affairs Council on Development meeting in Dublin this October, at which I will work with our European partners to discuss the very considerable issues we face.

Development cooperation is about doing the right thing, but it’s also an investment to target the issues at source. Food prices, energy security, irregular mass migration, climate change, conflict and political extremism all originate from fragility.

Ireland’s Presidency will prioritise progress on our collective commitment to reaching the furthest behind.

We will ensure that a strong focus on principled and needs-based humanitarian assistance in response to the most severe crises. We will ensure that neglected crises receive the attention they need.

Ireland recognises that advancing the rights and empowerment of all women and girls in society is foundational for global sustainable development, peace and security, and acts as a catalyst for economic growth and good governance.

Ireland’s Presidency will aim to shepherd an ambitious European agenda on gender equality and the rights and empowerment of all women and girls.

Ireland is a long-standing champion of global efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition, priority issues firmly rooted in our own history. Food security and nutrition are inextricably linked to peace and stability, poverty reduction, and economic prosperity.

Ireland will continue to step up its international solidarity to advance global food and nutrition security.

Ireland continues to be a global leader in child nutrition. This year sees the start of the implementation of Ireland’s Nutrition for Growth commitment to provide €250 million annually over four years to address hunger and malnutrition globally.

During our Presidency, we will bring a focus to the need for collective action when it comes to food security and nutrition.

Ireland will support discussions on Sustainable Food Systems to identify short, medium and long-term investments the EU can make to advance global food and nutrition security.

We will highlight the role that the Global Gateway strategy can play in generating inclusive economic growth.

The recent outbreak of Ebola in the DRC underlines more than ever the important role of International Health Regulations in ensuring global health security by promoting transparency, cooperation, and coordinated action.

Ireland will work through our Presidency to continue to prioritise the Global Health agenda, facilitating discussions on the EU’s new Global Health Resilience Initiative. We will encourage reflection on the reforms needed to the global health architecture including on financing, support for a strong multilateral system, and enhanced co-ordination.

The gains we have made on important areas such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, including child and maternal health, must not be allowed to slip.

During our EU Presidency, we will ensure that we embed a rights based approach to health especially sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Climate change is having a significant impact across the development agenda. Ireland will be leading and co-ordinating the EU at COP31, working to assist Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and fragile and conflicted-affected areas adapt to climate change.

Democratic values are under attack by actors who seek to undermine Europe's values. We are clear: human development will not be achieved or sustained without respect for human rights, transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Democratic governance underpins inclusive growth, social cohesion and the trust that citizens place in their institutions.

We will work to keep democratic resilience at the heart of Europe’s international partnerships, so that Europe’s offer is defined as much by our values as by the scale of our investments.

Ireland’s Presidency will advance ambitious and important work around Europe’s competitiveness, security and values.

The focus on development cooperation will be central to this.