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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
Greening the World Bank
Greening the World Bank
The World Bank is the single most important global development agency – in terms of financing, knowledge production, and setting the international policy agenda. Negotiations…
What recent changes at the top mean for Vietnam
What recent changes at the top mean for Vietnam
Within the span of the last few weeks, a series of major high-level personnel changes have taken place inside the Vietnamese government. On 5 January, deputy prime ministers Pham…
Confronting the mounting human costs of Sri Lanka’s debt spiral
Confronting the mounting human costs of Sri Lanka’s debt spiral
Sri Lanka turned 75 this month. Despite an unfolding economic and humanitarian crisis, the government chose to celebrate Independence Day on 4 February with an extravagant…
Indonesia’s uncertain climb up the nickel value chain
Indonesia’s uncertain climb up the nickel value chain
Indonesia has historically had limited success with industrial policy. That may now be changing, with recent interventionist policies targeting the nickel sector suggesting…
China’s growth prospects after zero-Covid
China’s growth prospects after zero-Covid
China’s economy has had a tough time of late. The strict lockdowns associated with the earlier zero-Covid policy and Beijing’s subsequent messy reversal saw economic growth…
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…
A changing aid landscape in the Pacific
A changing aid landscape in the Pacific
The latest edition of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map provides the first comprehensive picture of how official development finance in the Pacific — including grants, loans,…
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Interactives
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 to the…
Upgrading Cambodia’s Economic Model for a Post-COVID-19 World
Commentary
Upgrading Cambodia’s Economic Model for a Post-COVID-19 World
Published by the Cambodia Annual Outlook Conference ↗
Six reasons to be cautious about Australia establishing a DFI
Six reasons to be cautious about Australia establishing a DFI
In The Interpreter this week, Roland Rajah presented five reasons for establishing a Development Finance Institution (DFI). While he makes a good case, like any major policy…