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Ireland - ILO Cooperation

Ireland has been an ILO member State since 1923 and is a long-standing partner in the promotion of the Decent Work Agenda. It has ratified 73 ILO Conventions and three Protocols, including all eight fundamental and three priority conventions.  In addition to Regular Budget assessed contributions made by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), the Government of Ireland, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is a major contributor to the ILO development cooperation programme.

Ireland's strategic contributions to the ILO 

Ireland funds the ILO through:

  • Assessed contributions to the ILO's Regular Budget paid by all ILO member States by virtue of their membership. From 2018 to 2022, Ireland contributed US$ 7.0 million.
  • Voluntary, non-core funding contributions earmarked for priority themes and projects. From 2018 to 2022, Ireland contributed US$ 9.3 million.
Ireland's financial contributions to the ILO, 2018-22 (US$ 16.3 million)

Ireland’s support to ILO actions

Ireland is a long-standing partner of the ILO. Since 2001, there have been multi-annual Irish Aid-ILO Partnership Programmes, providing over US$ 35 million of Irish funding to the ILO through four consecutive phases in support of the work on disability, women’s entrepreneurship, forced labour and child labour. Ireland also provided support to the ILO beyond these multi-annual Partnership Programmes.

The multi-year partnership (2016-2021) between Irish Aid and ILO focused on social protection and employment-intensive investment programmes (EIIP) and has activities in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Viet Nam and Tanzania, including a small global component for social protection.

  1. View Ireland's portfolio in the Development Cooperation Dashboard

Ireland’s development cooperation priorities

Ireland’s policy for international development ‘A Better World’ was published in 2019 and focuses on gender equality, climate action, good governance and combatting poverty. It builds on Global Ireland, the Government’s initiative to double the scope and impact of Ireland’s global footprint by 2025. The new policy prioritises making progress towards the UN target of allocating 0.7 percent GNI to Official Development Assistance by 2030, as economic circumstances permit.

Ireland’s development cooperation priority countries

Ireland has nine partner countries, eight of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and one in Southeast Asia: Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Viet Nam. It has also had an ongoing development programme in South Africa since 1994 in support of the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy. Ireland works in Timor Leste as well as conflict-affected countries and fragile contexts to support peace, stability and development.