- Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced the government will embark on the first foreign policy white paper in 13 years. It will be interesting to see how much Australian aid, the management of which is now firmly ensconced within DFAT, will factor into the review. An Independent Review of Australian Aid was conducted in 2011, and an Australian aid White Paper in 2006.
- Minister Bishop also marked World Humanitarian Day last week at an event co-hosted by the Lowy Institute in Melbourne where she launched Australia’s new Humanitarian Strategy.
- Ashlee Betteridge and Stephen Howes evaluate the performance of DFAT’s Office of Development Effectiveness on its tenth anniversary.
- Terence Wood proposes a new 0.7% target – that NGOs contribute as much to broader advocacy to fund a collective effort to persuade the Australian public and their elected representatives that Australia should give more, and better, ODA. This would reap about six times more funding than the existing budget of the Campaign for Australian Aid.
- More details are emerging of the brutal attack on foreign journalists and aid workers by government troops in South Sudan last month, highlighting yet another case of UN peacekeeping forces failing to intervene despite desperate calls for help.
- The Guardian has an insider’s view on the first few days of South Sudan’s chaotic slide back into conflict from the former head of the UN there.
- Owen Barder writes about what international development can learn from Britain’s Olympic Team’s success.
- Take a look at this video breaking down the world’s demographic and human development trends if it were only 100 people (h/t Duncan Green).
Aid & development links: DFAT white paper, aid campaigning, South Sudan chaos and more
Published 22 Aug 2016
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