Programs & Projects

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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
Here come the SuperApps
Here come the SuperApps
Southeast Asia is being transformed by the rapid growth of e-commerce. Citizens have embraced online shopping with open arms and clicking fingers. A recent study projects the…
De-risking developing country debt
De-risking developing country debt
Climate change and debt present a toxic mix for many of the world’s most vulnerable developing countries. Disasters are becoming more frequent and severe. Yet many of the most…
Global Goal on Adaptation: Shaping a new framework at COP28
Global Goal on Adaptation: Shaping a new framework at COP28
The annual UN climate talks, known this year as COP28, are just around the corner. A key item on the agenda will be setting a framework in support of the Global Goal on Adaptation…
The G20’s approach on debt has failed
The G20’s approach on debt has failed
A crisis that will set back many developing countries for decades has been brewing since the onset of the pandemic. The debt defaults began slowly in 2020 but are now speeding up;…
Belt and Road 2.0
Belt and Road 2.0
The third Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing last month was a closely watched affair. Marking a decade since the launch of the trillion-dollar initiative, it was also the first…
The world energy outlook: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Commentary
The world energy outlook: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Originally published in Samoa Observer, 6 November 2023.
Measuring the climate cost to Pacific development
Commentary
Measuring the climate cost to Pacific development
Originally published in Samoa Observer, 4 November 2023.
Fighting risk in everything, everywhere, all at once
Fighting risk in everything, everywhere, all at once
A big debate has kicked off about the interaction of security and the economy as being far more complex in the present than in the Cold War era, when the United States and Soviet…
The world energy outlook: The good, the bad, and the ugly
The world energy outlook: The good, the bad, and the ugly
The International Energy Agency has released its annual “World Energy Outlook 2023”, a report that tracks the global transition to net zero emissions. The report contains the…
The Sydney Morning Herald
20 February 2023
Australian Associated Press
8 February 2023
National Public Radio
8 February 2023
South China Morning Post
27 January 2023
South China Morning Post
27 January 2023
Australian Financial Review
5 December 2022
Radio New Zealand
23 November 2022
The National (PNG)
20 October 2022
The Australian Financial Review
27 September 2022
ABC Radio National Breakfast
5 July 2022
The Saturday Paper
27 August 2022
ABC Radio National Breakfast
5 July 2022