David was born in Dublin and has had a long and distinguished career in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. Among his many achievements, David was one of the Irish Government’s negotiators for the ground-breaking Good Friday Agreement. Throughout his illustrious career, He also served as Irish Ambassador in Russia, Germany and Austria. From 2001-4 David was the Director General of Ireland’s development co-operation programme, today known as Irish Aid. As Political Director from 2009-13, he had 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. He served as co-facilitator (with Kenya) for the UN negotiations which led to the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The SDGs are increasingly being recognised as a beneficial framework for responsible investment as the business world shifts its focus more intensively to ESG.
David 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 contributes regularly to the work of several global think-tanks on the challenges associated with implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals along with issues around conflict prevention and resolution.
David sits on the board of Irish NGO, Trócaire