Minisister Flanagan meets UNICEF Youth Ambassadors
17/9/14
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, TD, today met a group of UNICEF Youth Ambassadors ahead of UNICEF Ireland’s Youth Summit in Dublin Castle on Friday 19th September.
The five youth ambassadors, aged 13-16, were accompanied by Peter Power, Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland. The delegation delivered the ‘Dublin Declaration on Children & Youth 2014’ containing results of a UNICEF Ireland survey of young people which was funded by Irish Aid. The survey - ‘It’s About Us’ - sets out what young Irish people see as the major global development challenges.
Welcoming the delegation, Minister Flanagan said:
“Ireland’s overseas development programme, Irish Aid, has a strong focus on improving the lives of children in the developing world. Our programmes and partnerships – including with UNICEF – are designed to tackle child malnutrition, increase access to quality education and protect children from harm in humanitarian crises.
“The results of UNICEF’s study will help inform Ireland’s position at next year’s critical negotiations on the new framework which will succeed the Millennium Development Goals once they expire in 2015.
“These Sustainable Development Goals will set the international agenda for actions needed to complete the unfinished business of the MDGs and to move the world onto a sustainable path towards a better future.
“This campaign has played an important role in mobilising the youth of Ireland to reflect on the state of the world, their role in it, and what sort of world they would like to live in.
“I look forward to raising these results with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, when I meet him in New York next week.”
ENDS
Press Office
17 September 2014
Notes to the editor:
- Irish Aid is the Government’s overseas development programme. It is managed by the Development Cooperation Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
- More than 2,500 young people in Ireland have voted in the on line survey.
- Among their top priorities are health, education, poverty and hunger, safety from harm, and equality.
- Irish Aid provided over €8 million in core funding to UNICEF in 2013.
- Ireland’s support to UNICEF helps the world’s most disadvantaged children to reach their full potential with targeted measures to save and enhance their lives.
- Ireland also supports UNICEF efforts to help communities affected by crisis or disaster to rebuild their lives.
- For more information on the ‘It’s About Us’ campaign, visit http://www.unicef.ie/itsaboutus