Minister for State Conor Lenihan addresses Private Sector’s role in Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger at TCD Lecture
Posted on: 01 March 2006
‘Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day’ Target 1: UN Millennium Development Goals
In a lecture entitled ‘The Private Sector and Poverty Eradication’ Mr Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with Special Responsibility for Overseas Development & Human Rights, will discuss the role the private sector can play in achieving the first Millenium Development Goal: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
Taking place on Wednesday 1 March, this is the second lecture in the TCD Millenium Development Goal annual lecture series organized by the Department of Economics in association with the Institute for International Integration Studies.
This goal cannot be realised without sustained economic growth in the less developed countries. The private sector can play a key role in achieving this growth. As the development programme grows in the coming years, the private sector will be an important feature of Ireland’s development strategies. The Minister will underline the importance that he attaches to using the potential of the private sector to improve the lives of those we are trying to lift out of poverty. He will also outline an initiative to tap into the expertise of the Irish private sector in support of the development agenda. This will seek to build on the considerable potential for linkages between Irish companies and the private sector in developing countries.
Throughout the world 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty on less than one dollar per day. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia alone, over 40% of the population are living below the poverty line. 800 million people – over one-quarter of them children – are suffering from chronic malnutrition. The Trinity MDG public lecture series runs throughout the college academic year to promote awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by looking at these key issues that developing countries face today. Speakers with a wide range of backgrounds and different views are invited to speak on themes related to MDGs.
At the lecture, Minister Lenihan will also launch the publication ‘Meeting Global Development Challenges: How Can Ireland Contribute?’ The result of a high-level conference held by the IIIS at Trinity College in 2005, this publication explores some of the contentious issues that must be addressed in drawing up Ireland’s development cooperation strategy.
Minister for State Conor Lenihan addresses Private Sector’s role in Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger at TCD Lecture
Posted on: 01 March 2006
The second lecture of the TCD Millenium Development Goal annual lecture series, organized by the Department of Economics in association with the Institute for International Integration Studies, was delivered by Mr Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with Special Responsibility for Overseas Development & Human Rights on Wednesday March 1st.
The Minister’s lecture, entitled ‘The Private Sector and Poverty Eradication’, discussed the role the private sector can play in achieving the first Millenium Development Goal: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. In his lecture, the Minister argued that this first goal cannot be realised without sustained economic growth in the less developed countries, and that the private sector could play a key role in achieving this growth. The Minister announced that that the private sector will play an important role in Ireland’s development strategies in the future. He also outlined an initiative to tap into the expertise of the Irish private sector in support of the development agenda, building on the considerable potential for linkages between Irish companies and the private sector in developing countries.
At the lecture, Minister Lenihan also launched the publication ‘Meeting Global Development Challenges: How Can Ireland Contribute?’ The result of a high-level conference held by the IIIS at Trinity College in 2005, this publication explores some of the contentious issues that must be addressed in drawing up Ireland’s development cooperation strategy. Copies of the conference proceedings are available from the IIIS by contacting iiis@tcd.ie