By Diarmaid Doherty
Donegal Minister Charlie McConalogue said he accepts that his trip to Africa as part of the government’s overseas travel for this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations will be a little bit different from the normal annual trips abroad.
The Minister for Agriculture and the Marine will visit Kenya, Ethiopia and war-ravaged Sudan where more than 12,000 people have died following 8 months of fighting.
The UN has called Sudan the “world’s worst displacement crisis” with the number of people uprooted from their homes surpassing seven million.
Minister McConalogue’s St. Patrick’s trip will last a week from March 12-19.
He said he requested to go to Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan because the Department of Agriculture sponsors the UN World Food Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture organisation which are very active in these areas.
“In South Sudan at the moment there is a very challenging situation with lots and lots of displaced people as a result of the instability there,” he told the Donegal News.
“I will be visiting refugee camps and seeing some of the work that is going on as well as visiting a lot of the development work that is going on in other countries including Ethiopia and Kenya.
“It’s something that I feel is an important role for country and the Department of Agriculture that we lead out on these issues, and also that we provide support through the World Food Programme for those who just don’t have food at the moment.
“We also use our own expertise in terms of food systems nationality to try and work and help with developing countries to provide them with the resilience and capacity to be able to improve food production locally.
“It’s going to be a very intense seven days but it’s important work.”
Minister McConalogue plans to meet up with Donegal woman Mary Ellen McGroarty who is the country lead for the World Food Programme in Sudan.
“It will be a very different type of visit to the normal development and trade visit that you would normally do,” he added.
“We will be working closely with the embassies in the area and the Department of Foreign Affairs staff in relation to the organisation of all the different visits we will be doing locally.”
In a statement, the Government Press Office said St Patrick’s Day is “an unparalleled opportunity to promote Ireland as a great place to visit, work, study, trade with, and invest in. This year, in all, 38 representatives of the State will bring Ireland’s message to 86 cities in 48 countries”.
“The theme of the trip will be “Ireland’s Future in the World.”
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