Mr. David Donoghue
Distinguished Fellow of ODI, former PR of Ireland to the UN in New York, co-facilitator of the intergovernmental negotiations on the 2030 Agenda
Born in Dublin in 1952, Ambassador David Donoghue had a long and varied career in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
He was involved for many years in the Northern Ireland peace process. He was one of the Irish Government’s negotiators for the ground-breaking Good Friday Agreement (1998), which has provided a political framework for lasting peace and stability in Northern Ireland.
Ambassador Donoghue served at different times as the Irish Ambassador to Russia, Austria and Germany. From 2001-4 he was the Director General of Ireland’s development co-operation programme, today known as Irish Aid, and oversaw in this capacity a programme growing significantly in budget allocation and thematic and geographic range. He also served as Political Director from 2009-13, a post which gave him responsibility for Ireland’s overall foreign policy.
From 2013-17 Ambassador Donoghue was the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York. At the request of the President of the General Assembly, he served as co-facilitator (with Kenya) for the UN negotiations which led to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. He also served as co-facilitator (with Jordan) for the negotiations which produced the New York Declaration on large movements of refugees and migrants, adopted at a special summit in September 2016.
Ambassador Donoghue retired from the Irish foreign service in September 2017. Since then he has been actively involved with issues relating to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and to follow-up to the New York Declaration and the related Global Compacts on Migrants and Refugees. He is contributing to the work of a number of think-tanks and academic institutions on these issues and also on issues around conflict prevention and resolution. He is, inter alia, a Distinguished Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute and the Chairman of the Board of Conciliation Resources.