ESTHER Ireland is an initiative under the memorandum of understanding bewteen the Health Service Executive and Irish Aid. ESTHER is fully aligned with Irish Aid health policies and will contribute to Iris Aid’s new development policy approach.
Irish Aid wants to make sure that our aid programme delivers changes for the better in the lives of poor people and poor communities. That is why they concentrate support on a small number of partner countries, in particular, countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to reduce poverty and hunger.
Irish Aid provides bilateral and multilateral funding for projects in over 90 countries around the world. However, an important element of the Irish Aid programme is its special relationship with certain developing countries. Direct funding is given to programmes and projects which meet basic needs in these nine priority countries. These nine counties are Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Timor Leste and Vietnam. In addition to these priority countries, bilateral aid is provided for specific projects in a number of other countries including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Western Balkans, Liberia, Eastern Europe, Palestine and Sierra Leone.
The challenges facing each of these countries are complex and varied. Rather than providing relief, which is seen as merely addressing the symptoms of poverty, Irish Aid work to address the root causes of poverty in these partner countries. Thus Irish Aid partner countries form a long-term relationship with Ireland in an effort to improve the lives of the people of these countries.
Our partner countries
Ireland has nine partner countries, click on them below to visit the Irish Aid website and learn more about our partner countries.
Seven in sub-Saharan Africa:
Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
And two in southeast Asia:
Vietnam and Timor Leste.
The majority of the countries where we work are in sub-Saharan Africa. This reflects our commitment to working with poor countries where a large percentage of the world’s poorest people live. It also reflects the long historical relationships between Ireland and many African countries, built through the engagement of Irish missionaries and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Ireland’s relationship with our partner countries is changing. While development assistance is still a core feature of our engagement, we recognise that stronger trade and economic relations are also essential for long-term sustainable development. Irish Aid’s Africa Strategy sets out how we will take account of this in our future support.
At ESTHER Ireland we try to work with and augment the Irish Aid partner country system by aiding and supporting health partnerships between organisations at home in Ireland and those abroad in partner countries. These mutually beneficial partnerships allow country members to exchange ideas on their practices and design a joint approach and common tools for hospital or clinic twinnings and implementation.
