Hunger programme services consultancy

Department of Foreign Affairs/An Roinn Gnóthaí Eachtracha

Ireland’s programme of development assistance has traditionally had a strong focus on tackling hunger, a focus that has been strengthened further since the publication of the Hunger Task Force report in September 2008 on foot of which hunger was designated a foreign policy and development priority. Since then, a strong policy direction has been adopted throughout the overseas aid programme and more broadly within the Department of Foreign Affairs to reflect this prioritisation.
The Hunger Task Force recommendations called on Ireland to focus on:
— Increasing productivity of smallholder farmers in Africa, especially women farmers,
— Improving infant and maternal nutrition; and,
— Addressing governance and leadership failures at national and international levels.
The Hunger unit was established in the Development Cooperation Division (Irish Aid) of the Department of Foreign Affairs specifically to manage the implementation of the Hunger Task Force report. A special envoy for Hunger was appointed to bring forward the report of the Hunger Task Force, and to advise on lessons that could serve to inform Irish hunger reduction activities and policy in the future.
The unit is spearheading Ireland’s engagement on hunger issues at the global level. In September 2010 the unit organised a special meeting during the UN Millennium Development Goals Review Summit, co-hosted by former Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, and the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. At that meeting, Ireland and the United States launched a new 1 000 day initiative linked to the scaling up nutrition framework (SUN), focussed on the 1,000 day window of opportunity to prevent undernutrition in pregnant women and children under 2 years old. During this meeting, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon launched the scaling up nutrition road map which calls for measureable progress to be achieved in the next 1,000 days and is closely linked with the Irish-US initiative. See www.thousanddays.org for more details.
The external service provider will support the implementation of the Hunger Task Force recommendations from a programmatic and policy perspective both internationally and within the Irish aid programme.
The successful consultancy service will provide the Hunger unit with specialist food security expertise on the main international issues in Ireland’s areas of focus.
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