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The Indo-Pacific Development Centre

The Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC) is a policy research centre at the Lowy Institute dedicated to generating fresh policy insights and ideas on the most pressing economic development issues in the Indo-Pacific region. The IPDC focuses on key challenges facing emerging and developing economies in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia as well as the role of more advanced Indo-Pacific economies such as Australia, the United States, Japan, China, and others in helping shape the future economic development of the region.

The work of the IPDC is organised around six key themes:

  • Post-Covid recovery, growth and development
  • Climate finance and decarbonising development
  • Technology and the digital economy
  • Globalisation and regional integration
  • The future of international development finance
  • Geoeconomics and the intersection of development and security

As part of its development finance pillar, the IPDC houses the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map, a digital interactive that tracks all official development finance flows to the Pacific region.

The IPDC has been established with the support of multi-year funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Featured projects

Southeast Asia Aid Map
Southeast Asia Aid Map
New interactive tracking more than 100,000 development projects, the most comprehensive assessment of development flows in Southeast Asia ever undertaken.
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Updated research shows the unprecedented disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Pacific Islands region caused upheaval in how international donors provide aid.
Experts
Latest publications
News and media
Lead Economist; Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Pacific Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Southeast Asia Aid Map
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Nonresident Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
ASEAN’s dealmaking with Trump shows promise
ASEAN’s dealmaking with Trump shows promise
Donald Trump’s blitz through the ASEAN meetings at the weekend has shone a spotlight on usually dry and unambitious regional summitry. Exaggerated claims by the US President that …
Pacific Aid Map 2025 - Key Findings Report
Report
Pacific Aid Map 2025 - Key Findings Report
The annual Pacific Aid Map — launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018 — is a comprehensive database tracking official development finance (ODF) flows in the Pacific Islands region…
Pacific Aid Map 2025
Interactive
Pacific Aid Map 2025
A comprehensive database tracking official development finance (ODF) flows in the Pacific Islands region, the eighth edition of the Pacific Aid Map encompasses the period from…
The sun is setting on Southeast Asia’s solar exporters
The sun is setting on Southeast Asia’s solar exporters
Southeast Asia’s solar panel manufacturers are facing hard times. Having benefited from anti-China trade measures, Southeast Asia had become the largest source of US solar…
Signal failure for China’s railway diplomacy in Southeast Asia
Signal failure for China’s railway diplomacy in Southeast Asia
News this week that Indonesia has entered debt restructuring negotiations with China over its Jakarta-Bandung high speed rail mega-project should have come as no surprise…
Prabowo’s policies won’t fix Indonesia’s problems
Prabowo’s policies won’t fix Indonesia’s problems
Indonesia is navigating political turmoil, economic instability, and social unrest. Governance is weakening, investor confidence is fading, and inequality is worsening. Does…
Is the Green Climate Fund starting to deliver for the Pacific?
Is the Green Climate Fund starting to deliver for the Pacific?
For Pacific Island countries, securing enough money to deal with the consequences of climate change has proved an arduous task. Despite facing existential threats from rising seas…
Social protection in an unpredictable region
Commentary
Social protection in an unpredictable region
Originally published on Devpolicy Blog
Trump tariffs drive  Southeast Asia towards China
Commentary
Trump tariffs drive Southeast Asia towards China
Originally published in East Asia Forum
Why downstreaming policies in Asia struggle to deliver
Commentary
Why downstreaming policies in Asia struggle to deliver
Originally published in East Asia Forum
China Global South Program
30 June 2025
PNG Post Courier
6 June 2025
Al Jazeera (English) 3 August 2011
29 May 2025