Women walking across an irrigation site at a Christian Aid funded project - Meabh Smith
Irish Aid funding 2017-2021
In 2017, Christian Aid Ireland began a new five-year funding partnership with Irish Aid, the Irish government’s development agency running from 2017 -2021.
Building on our previous phase of funding from 2012-2015, we will work to expose and end the scandal of poverty and inequality in seven countries: Angola, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador and Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory – in our Programme Grant 2017-2021.
Our partnership with Irish Aid also enables us to respond to humanitarian crises, providing crucial aid to people whose lives have been devastated by violent conflict, forced to flee from their homes, natural disasters and extreme poverty.
Our funding from the Humanitarian Program Plan, 2017-2018, allows us to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people living in five countries: Burundi, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar and Lebanon (working with refugees across the Middle East).
As part of our grant from Irish Aid we also receive support to engage the Irish public on development, human rights and peace building issues.
Read our 2012-2015 Evaluation Report (PDF)
Read our Programme Strategy 2016-2021(PDF)
With this support from Irish Aid, we work directly with more than 40 local Christian Aid partner organisations to alleviate poverty, demand transparent governance, promote increased civic participation, protect human rights and work toward positive peace.
The Christian Aid and Irish Aid partnership is focused on achieving outcomes against the five key objectives outlined in our Programme Strategy:
Participation, Accountable Governance and Human Rights: To increase accountability of governance systems at all levels and challenge unjust power dynamics, so that marginalised people, especially women and girls, can demand and access justice, essential services and can fully realise their human rights.
From Violence to Peace: To tackle the root causes of violence and use our understanding of the key causes of violence to promote transparent and inclusive peace building that contributes to lasting peace, justice and security for all, especially vulnerable women and men. Read our From Violence to Peace global strategy.
Humanitarian Response: To respond to humanitarian crises, with a focus on protracted and forgotten emergencies, providing lifesaving assistance, restoring livelihoods and protecting the dignity of the most vulnerable.
Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality: To challenge patriarchal power relations so that everyone, especially women and girls, can claim their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights, whilst mitigating threats of violence or intimidation.
Taking an Active Lead in the Global Movement for Social Justice: To inspire and mobilise support and action in Ireland for a just and sustainable world.
Research in the ‘Humanitarian Programme Plan’
Integrating a Conflict Prevention Approach in Humanitarian Resilience Programmes
How can we build the resilience of communities living in an environment of protracted violent conflict? How can we understand our impact on the conflict as well as the conflict’s impact on our work? How is building the resilience of communities facing violence different from supporting communities facing natural hazards?
These are some of the questions motivating Christian Aid Ireland’s new programme of learning research in its humanitarian resilience programmes. Christian Aid Ireland’s Irish Aid Humanitarian Programme Plan (HPP)1 is being implemented in Burundi, DRC, Myanmar, and South Sudan, where humanitarian needs are driven mostly by protracted violent conflict. So, we are testing a new approach that integrates conflict prevention into the resilience activities of the HPP. Researchers from Queens University Belfast are supporting this with ways to capture learning.