Development Assistance

Replenishing the Asian Development Bank in the Pacific
Replenishing the Asian Development Bank in the Pacific
In early May, donor governments are expected to unveil new funding commitments for the grant-financing window of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – the Asian Development Fund…
Gender equality financing: Spotlight on Southeast Asia
Gender equality financing: Spotlight on Southeast Asia
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, as the adage goes. And in terms of measuring gender equality and women’s empowerment, considerable barriers exist. While significant…
Global economic prospects are the worst in decades but investing in the future could be the answer
Global economic prospects are the worst in decades but investing in the future could be the answer
The World Bank released its semi-annual Global Economic Prospects Report on 10 January, and it reads like a warning shot across the bow for the world’s economies. Global…
Gains, pains, and dubious claims from the Pacific Labour Mobility Survey
Gains, pains, and dubious claims from the Pacific Labour Mobility Survey
The World Bank’s new report, The Gains and Pains of Working Away from Home, makes the extraordinary claim that migrant workers and their communities experience “net positive”…
Geopolitics and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway
Geopolitics and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway
The long-delayed, China-backed Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway opened to the public on 2 October, with the journey of its first bullet train bringing to a conclusion the…
Post-disaster aid in developing and fragile states
Post-disaster aid in developing and fragile states
In the last 12 months, we’ve seen floods in Pakistan, earthquakes in Syria and Morocco, Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar and Storm Daniel in Libya. What connects these events? Many…
The constrained ambition of Australia’s new development policy
The constrained ambition of Australia’s new development policy
The Australian government has released a new international development policy. Like all such policies, on its own it will not dramatically change the nature or performance of…
Chinese aid to the Pacific: decreasing, but not disappearing
Chinese aid to the Pacific: decreasing, but not disappearing
Chinese engagement in the Pacific regularly hit the headlines in 2022, sometimes with dire warnings. The recent China–Solomon Islands security agreement sent shock waves across…
Building a better development finance institution: Australia’s opportunity
Building a better development finance institution: Australia’s opportunity
Last week, Roland Rajah and Jenny Gordon wrote illuminating pieces on the pros and cons of Australia setting up its own development finance institution, or DFI. The debate comes…
Development finance in Asia: a memoir
Development finance in Asia: a memoir
Book review: Takehiko Nakao, The Rise of Asia: Perspectives and Beyond. Memoir of the President of the Asian Development Bank 2013–2020 (Asian Development Bank, 2022) In April…