Aid & Development

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Budget 2019: the race to the bottom for foreign aid

There were few surprises for the Australian aid program in this week’s federal budget, which has disappointingly continued the downward trend of Australian aid spending. At $4.044 billion in 2019, when adjusting for inflation, aid will have now been cut by 27% since its peak in 2013–14.

By Jonathan Pryke

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Reset required for DFAT-AusAID integration

“Foreign policy alignment” was the political “abracadabra” used to explain how the late 2013 integration of what was then AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would deliver better outcomes. DFAT would have direct control over Australian aid and by virtue of that,

By Richard Moore

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Aid links: cyclones, “confusopoly”, collaboration, more

At a speech delivered at the University of Queensland last week, Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong accused the current government of having “damaged Australia’s reputation as a reliable partner in the region” by cutting the aid budget, and committed to increase development assistance as

By Alexandre Dayant

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Book Review: A Partnership Transformed

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By John West

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Aid links: donation paradox, surface-water tension, and more

Last week, at a special one-day conference to ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, $2.6 billion was raised. Paradoxically, more than half was donated by countries that are involved in the conflict. Dave Evans, lead economist in the chief economist’s office for the Africa region at

By Alexandre Dayant

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Economic diplomacy: Development aid in the Belt & Road era

Mergerplomacy Five years after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) swallowed AusAID in the first major spending cuts of the new Coalition Government, two contradictory trends seem to be emerging. The reality of the takeover is getting some grudging acceptance in the

By Greg Earl

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Aid links: calls for Australia first, the upside of dengue, more

Floods in north Queensland, a summer of bushfires around Australia, and one of the worst droughts in living memory have pushed some Australians to ask for a cut in spending on foreign aid and to help Australians “first and foremost”. Morten Wendelbo discusses the reason

By Alexandre Dayant

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The curious case of aid concentration in Papua New Guinea

The aid industry is complex. Dozens of bilateral donors, hundreds of multilateral agencies, and thousands of non-governmental organisations litter the development landscape in all corners of the globe. In aid jargon, this is known as “fragmentation”. Conventional aid-effectiveness literature

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid links: Ebola strikes, donations drop, and Gates debates

Ebola is back. Photographer Kate Holt documents efforts to contain the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, challenged by conflicts and the fear of treatment centres. On Tuesday, the United Nations and its aid partners, together with the Government of Libya, launched a humanitarian

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: Spice Girls and factories, redistribution, and more

Chris Hoy and Franziska Mager conduct the first cross-country survey experiment on preferences for redistribution in the developing world and find that poor people are not as in favour of greater redistribution as what you might expect. Simon Murphy interviews Salma, a worker in a&

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid mergers: no unscrambling the egg

Britain’s former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has called for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to be rolled into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). This would be a monumental mistake for a country looking for relevance in a post-Brexit world. Over the past two

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid links: food theft in Yemen, open mics in India, and more

Mark Cutts, UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, warns the killing of an aid worker last week in Syria brings into focus the daily risks faced by humanitarians working in conflict zones. Figures from 2018 on aid worker security show that Syria is the most dangerous

By Alexandre Dayant

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Jim Kim quits the World Bank, an unexpected gift to Donald Trump

Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, has announced that he will retire. This is far earlier than expected. Jim Kim was first appointed in 2011 and was re-elected in 2016 for a five-year term, due to end in 2022. The president of the World Bank is, in effect, the Pope of the official

By Peter McCawley

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Aid links: donor fatigue, poverty measures, Syrian camps, more

In Australia, Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong announced that a future Labor government will lift foreign aid every year. Caelin Briggs comments on the donor fatigue impacting the Democratic Republic of the Congo and explains what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

By Alexandre Dayant

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Charting a more sustainable development path in the Pacific

It is undoubtedly in Australia’s geopolitical interests to invest in the development of our immediate region, but the question we should all be asking is: what is the most effective way to spend our taxpayer-funded aid budget in the Pacific, rather than simply, how can we compete with China? The

By Majella Hurney

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Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map - Country Profiles

These summary profiles of the 14 Pacific Islands countries analysed in the Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map pull together the key findings for each country. They include the total aid spent and committed, the top donors and the total number of projects. Each profile highlights the key projects in each

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Aid links: bad weather for the Rohingya, Oxfam scandal, more

Seven UN peacekeepers and 12 Congolese soldiers have been killed in clashes with militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After the Oxfam scandal, the peak body for the aid sector – the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) – commissioned an independent review

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: markets from space, a kink in a “nudge” policy, more

Is driving based on a ride-sharing app good work? In the piece, Julie Zollmann and Amolo Ng’weno analyse the impact of the market fight between Uber and Taxify in Africa, and how it impacts directly the livelihood of drivers. Nudge units (techniques to steer people towards making beneficial

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: plastic ban, celebrity ties, and more

Japan has decided to stop its 40-year official development assistance for China, as China has become the world’s second largest economy. Australia gave $5.5 million in relief aid to Indonesia this month after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 2,000 people and displaced millions

By Alexandre Dayant

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America builds on development aid

In the biggest reform of US foreign aid policy in recent history, the US Senate this month passed the Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development, or the BUILD Act. This legislation, signed into law by President Donald Trump on 5 October, will create the new US International

By Cornelia Tremann

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Reconciling with China in the Pacific

Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Wang Yi struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone, expressing the wish to partner with Australia in the development of the Pacific

By Euan Moyle, Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: river relief, ranking helpers, more

The report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explained why the world has just over a decade to get global warming under control. Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis discuss the implications of the research. The full impact of the tsunami in Central Sulawesi is still unknown,

By Alexandre Dayant

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Sulawesi tsunami: how Australia can best help

Yet another tsunami in Indonesia. The earthquake and resulting wave of destruction in Palu, Central Sulawesi, is the second major natural disaster to strike the country this year. It is not yet two months since more than 500 people died in the August earthquake in Lombok near Bali.

By Peter McCawley

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Aid links: African debt, Taxify and more

In New York, Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdoğan says humanitarian aid policies should not increase the dependency of the recipients, but should focus on development. Lisa Cornish from Devex analyses the impact of the new government on Australia's aid and development program. This month

By Alexandre Dayant

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Submission to Review of Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia-Pacific

Review by Department of Communications and the Arts

By Shane McLeod, Jonathan Pryke

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The case for a foreign aid tsar

The Australian aid program has always laboured under multiple and competing objectives, both implicit and explicit. This was identified in the 1997 Simons Report on foreign aid, commissioned by the Howard Government, into what was then a separate agency, AusAID: The managers of the aid

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid links: Idlib and “humanitarian tragedy”, more

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres argued the situation in Idlib, Syria, is not sustainable, adding the presence of terrorist groups sheltering in the enclave cannot be tolerated. He warned the situation had the potential to be the worst “humanitarian tragedy” of the

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: political change and adjustment, more

Following Julie Bishop’s resignation as Australian foreign minister after five years in the job, Stephen Howes reflects on her aid and development legacy, which is only saved by the growth of the Seasonal Workers Program. Ashlee Betteridge and Lisa Cornish separately

By Jonathan Pryke

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Selling a Pacific paradise: upholding the façade

The image of Pacific Islands as a benign utopia – an exotic paradise of green palms, sandy beaches and smiling locals – is a lingering vestige of the first colonial era contact with Europeans. The same clichéd themes can be seen in modern day advertising campaigns to encourage

By Joseph Cheer, Stephen Pratt, Denis Tolkach

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Aid links: USAid cuts, blockchain bonds, and more

Samuel Oakford comments on the new rule applied by the Trump administration on money spent by USAid through the UN and other multinational agencies. The measure could negatively impact a quarter of all US foreign assistance. The Australian picked up Jonathan Pryke’s recent submission to the

By Alexandre Dayant

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Foreign aid and religion in the Pacific

Sometimes we in developed nations fail to grasp that not everything we do, no matter how well intentioned, is entirely welcomed in developing countries. Often they’re just too polite to tell us. Once on a flight to a Pacific island nation, I was seated next to an NGO worker who

By Bruce Hill

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Aid: investing in impact

This article is based on episode 9 of the Good Will Hunters podcast with Giles Gunesekera, CEO of the Global Impact Initiative. In March 2015, the Coalition committed $140 million over four years to an innovation hub within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The hub, known as

By Rachel Mason Nunn

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Aid links: dealing with data deluge, more

Terence Wood provides a good take on this Guardian op-ed from a group of development notables decrying foreign aid. Aid is not perfect, but is better than inaction. Working in development involves collecting a lot of data. But without adequate visualisation, the

By Alexandre Dayant

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NZ and Australia: Big Brothers or Distant Cousins?

“Being in the Pacific, of the Pacific” was an aspiration announced by New Zealand’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fletcher Tabuteau at a recent conference in Wellington. New Zealand’s Pacific identity has been a continuing theme of the Pacific reset policy&

By Katharine Woolrych, Jon Fraenkel

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The new US–Japan–Australia infrastructure fund

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced a “trilateral partnership” for Australia, Japan, and the US for what is billed as “infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific”. In a speech in Washington, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US had earmarked US $113

By Jonathan Pryke, Richard McGregor

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Business aid and aiding business

This article is based on episodes 7 and 8 of the Good Will Hunters Podcast with Georgina Camp, CEO of Huber Social, and Andrea De Almeida, CEO of B Lab Australia. B Corp certification is to businesses what Fair Trade certification is to coffee. In Australia, there are just

By Rachel Mason Nunn

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Aid links: an escape from the resource curse, more

The Thai cave rescue has been a global success story. Jody Lightfoot argues that the rescue is a good example of how Australian aid can change the world. In addition, PM Turnbull will award honours to Australian divers Richard Harris and Craig Challen for playing a key role in

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid and the new face of entrepreneurship

This article is based on episodes 5 and 6 of the Good Will Hunters podcast. Most would agree that “entrepreneurship” has been a business buzzword for quite some time. Less apparent is how entrepreneurship is redefining the informal economy, especially in developing countries. Last week

By Rachel Mason Nunn

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Aid links: empowering women, mapping welfare, more

Dan Kopf at Quartz summarises “the transformative power of giving young women cash”, covering work in Malawi, South Africa, and Bangladesh on cash transfers and domestic violence. A new study shows average unemployment rates are substantially lower in poor countries than in

By Alexandre Dayant

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Asking the wrong questions in the aid debate

This article is based on episode 4 of the Good Will Hunters podcast, featuring former deputy director of AusAID Richard Moore. One draft title for this article was “Why I won’t campaign for Australian aid”. While in some ways this statement is true, it has many, many caveats. A

By Rachel Mason Nunn

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Aid links: maternal mortality, school uniforms and truancy, more

Saku Akmeemana and Tobias Haque analyse the good, and bad, of the new report from the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, chaired by David Cameron, which looks at factors of instability in developing countries. On VoxDev, Dean Karlan, Benjamin N

By Alexandre Dayant

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Aid links: cricket in India, “edutainment” in Nigeria, and more

RMIT ABC fact-checkers confirmed the accuracy of a tweet from World Vision’s policy and advocacy director, Susan Anderson, that stated: “This year’s budget is the fifth year in a row that the Australian Government has cut Australian aid”. Matt Lowe ran an interesting

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Australia can help Indonesia kick the habit

Australia is an undisputed world leader in tobacco control. From massive wins with plain packaging to widely enforced bans on smoking in public places, it is easy to see why. Australia is successfully creating a generational shift in tobacco use, with its youngest generation growing up in a

By Madeleine Randell

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Aid links: top-down development, insurance expectation, more

The Australian budget was handed down last week, with the aid budget receiving a slight increase, though only by definition. Stephen Howes analysed trends in the aid budget in great detail at the Devpolicy post-budget breakfast. In this great blog post, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

By Alexandre Dayant

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Budget 2018: an aid increase by definition, not design

I was quite excited to hear from officials in the budget lock-up on Tuesday evening that the Australian aid budget was going to increase by 5% next year, from $3.9 billion to nearly $4.2 billion. Perhaps additional aid resources would be spent on the new undersea data cable, or

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid links: budget time, poverty and brain power, more

The Australian aid program will be in the spotlight this week as the Australia Federal budget is handed down on Tuesday. To see where Australian aid goes, take a look at the just released statistics for 2016/17. According to a recent poll, the majority of Australians believe that

By Alexandre Dayant

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Working with China in the Pacific

In Wellington earlier this year, Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna took the opportunity to signal the benefits of the Pacific’s traditional development partners collaborating with China. Puna described the Pacific as a region of consensus rather than of competition, and said it

By Tess Newton Cain, Anna Powles, Jose Sousa-Santos

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Aid links: microfinance for farms, religion, Facebook and the poor, more

Penny Goldberg, the new World Bank Chief Economist, and Nina Pavcnik discuss the threats and benefits of trade liberalisation on developing economies. David Evans comments on new research underlining how microcredits in Africa not only help farmers who borrow

By Alexandre Dayant

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Britain’s new Pacific presence

Last week, the UK announced it was establishing diplomatic representation in nine countries: Lesotho, Swaziland, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. From an Oceanian perspective, this might be a game changer. There

By Cleo Paskal

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Aid links: laptop failures, Indian justice, and Australian parsimony

To the surprise of many aid watchers, the Trump administration is supporting a capital increase for the World Bank. Annual (non-aid) lending is expected to leap from US$60 billion to $80 billion in 2019, and to $100 billion on average by 2030. The announcement still has to pass

By Alexandre Dayant

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