The World Bank research body was blocked from publishing – and then subsequently allowed – a new paper exploring how 7.5% of the money the international organisation had sent to developing countries was being stashed in secret offshore banks.Melissa Conley Tyler challenges the way development
Does foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing economies lead to investors shopping around for weak regulations and more pollution, or does it promote green growth? Tim Philips from VoxDev talks to Beata Javorcik, looking at the particular case of Indonesia.Terence Wood and Sherman Surandiran
Indonesia’s booming economy has been growing between 5% and 6% for years and its GDP (PPP) is well ahead of Australia’s. A G20 member, it is proud of its new status as an emerging middle-class country, with PricewaterhouseCoopers predicting it will be among the world’s top five economies by
Eromo Egbejule explains how a tweak to an immigration system in a richer country – such as Canada – can negatively impact a developing one by siphoning skilled professionals. Many are highly educated and would likely make outsize contributions to their own state’s economy, tax revenue, and
Book Review: Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (Penguin, 2019)
It’s a seductive idea – the notion that we can “do good” for people and the planet while also profiting from the status quo, that we can make a difference without it really
By refusing to fill vacancies in the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, the Trump administration has paralysed the trading system. Anabel González and Euijin Jung argue that the large emerging-market economies – Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Thailand, and others –
The “Australia–China–Papua New Guinea Pilot Cooperation on Malaria Control Project” is one of the most famous aid projects in the Pacific.
It is not a large project. Indeed, at $1.3 million per year it represents only about 0.2% of Australia’s bilateral aid spending in PNG. Its fame
By gathering retail prices from around the world, William Masters and colleagues examine the affordability of the EAT-Lancet healthy diet, and find out that many people around the world cannot afford such food.The Kenyan government is forcing importers to use a costly new Chinese-built railway from
Australia and China cooperating in the Pacific Islands? At first glance it seems absurd.
Australia-China relations are hardly warm and glowing right now. Just in the last few weeks, there’s been a focus on alleged espionage courtesy of Wang Liqiang, claims of attempted political
To solve the social costs of congestion, such as long commuting times and high pollution, cities in developing counties often turn to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. But in Indonesia, BRT made things worse. Arya Gaduh et al. look at the case of TransJakarta to understand why.Yuhua Wang explains the
2014 marked the 70th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference, and it was a turning point for the global financial architecture. In July that year, the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – established the New Development Bank (NDB). A few months earlier, China
Since coming into office in 2013, the Coalition has cut aid by 17% in nominal terms and 27% adjusting for inflation. More cuts are in the pipeline, and by 2021 aid will have been subject to a real cut of 31%.
Given that the Coalition’s justification for cutting aid was the budget deficit, you
The big boost
When Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the South Pacific at the centre of his foreign policy priorities last year, the relatively low-profile Export Finance Insurance Corporation was suddenly thrust into the strategic limelight.
But last week’s foray into a form of state
Among all the things the Oecussi enclave in Timor-Leste needed for its development, a luxury hotel, a state-of-the-art airport, and posh villas weren’t high on the list. Michael Rose looks at the implementation of the original concept behind the “development” of the region.In 1995, more than
Bryan Caplan makes the argument for his “Trillion Dollar Idea” – international open borders, which would allow productive labour to work in productive places.A group of Stanford researchers found Russian-run fake Facebook accounts attempting to influence public political opinion in four
“Category 5 strength cyclones have occurred in some years with similar conditions leading into the 2019/20 season,” New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research recently reported. “Therefore, all communities should remain alert and well-prepared for severe events.”
In the last two years China’s engagement in the Pacific – particularly through its aid program – has sparked alarm in Canberra. The spiking orange line in 2017 is part of the story.
In 2017 China committed to spend almost US$5 billion in the Pacific. US$4.1 billion of that was to upgrade
“Debt trap” diplomacy has been a recurrent rallying cry for critics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its overseas infrastructure lending activities. Over the past two years, this debate has taken centre stage in the Pacific, with China accused of drowning these tiny economies in
Three development specialists (MIT economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, and Harvard economist Michael Kremer) won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their groundbreaking work on global poverty, studying interventions in a range of areas: combating teacher absenteeism, direct cash transfers to
In the varied debates about influence in the Pacific, rarely does Japan’s position in the region feature prominently. On the off chance that Japan’s presence in the Pacific is discussed, its “aid diplomacy” is usually characterised in quid pro quo terms.
Yet a closer examination of Japan
In response to Donald Trump’s scepticism about climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron is now offering US scientists four-year grants to move to France and carry out research on global warming.In this blog and working paper, Lauren Post, Rachel Landry and Cindy Huang argue that both the
The Pacific Islands are grappling with the effects of disasters and climate change, which have the potential to make entire countries inhospitable, posing significant development challenges.
Small Pacific Islands countries have limited natural resources, are far from major markets, and are
Each year, former World Bank economist David Evans releases his five tips on education. This year, among his key findings are: let your kids learn from MTV, go to school, don’t just enrol, and education is not just for children anymore.Mark Hayward looks at a program that has embraced adaptive
In August last year, the Lowy Institute launched our flagship Pacific research project, the Pacific Aid Map. Foreign aid is an important resource flow for many parts of the Pacific, making up 7% of regional GDP. Leaving out Fiji and Papua New Guinea, this number shoots up to 27%. But the world of
Media forecasts ahead of natural disasters are often misunderstood. The New York Times has a great visual piece about trying to communicate statistical uncertainty about hurricane paths.Linda Calabrese offers a very interesting view on China and development issues, from domestic inequality to debt
Fin Tarp and Sinikka Parviainen discuss the economic benefits of migration and refugees.An African doctor is believed to have found anti-Ebola drugs, with an efficiency rate of 90%. Zimbabwe’s former finance minister explains the deep roots of the economic crisis in the country at the time of
This month, Timor-Leste is in a festive mood, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence referendum. On 30 August 1999, the people of Timor-Leste cast their ballots in a United Nations–administered popular consultation to determine the fate of the country, with 78.5% voting to separate
China is changing the way Australia’s political elites think about aid. Chinese aid to the Pacific isn’t new, but in recent years, “China the aid donor” has become an unavoidable presence. In response, the Australian government is increasing the Pacific focus of its aid programs. It has also
Car crash rates run high across the world, and often proportionally higher in developing countries. But a simple nudge can change this. In India, a firm is now using behavioural science to decrease the number of accidents on the roads.Why do parents invest in girls’ education? In this analysis
Despite the recent spotlight on Chinese aid and labels of China as an “emerging donor”, China has actually been delivering foreign aid since as far back as the 1950s. Indeed, China provided aid to North Korea for reconstruction purposes after the Korean War, along with Cambodia, Nepal and Egypt
Rory Stewart, Britain’s international development secretary, announced the UK will have an “ethical” development policy focusing on climate emergency and environmental protection. It will consist of spending on low-carbon energy and projects to help developing countries adapt to the effects of
What counts as aid? Whether it’s disaster relief, infrastructure, or a much longer term and less visible type of development assistance, in the end it all comes back to money.
But the many differing types of aid does create awkward discrepancies when seeking to rank the contributions by nations
The UN has partially suspended its aid to parts of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, accusing them of misappropriating supplies.Interesting piece by Richard E. Feinberg on Cuba, talking about how the weakening of two foundational pillars of the revolution – regional equality and social betterment
Gender equality is fundamental to human development. Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour and biggest recipient of Australia’s bilateral development aid globally – but significant and persistent inequalities remain when it comes to the status of women in society, sexual violence
A group of adolescent girls in Solomon Islands huddle around a piece of butcher’s paper. They are considering their answers to a question put to them as part of a research project: What makes it so hard for girls and young women in Solomon Islands to finish high school?
The spur for the research
If you are interested in teaching people what development economics is, look at David Evans’ presentation to a youth group, making it easy for everyone to understand the wealth inequalities of this world.Similarly, Professor Lord Nicholas Stern analyses an extraordinary dataset that has been
Devex reporter Lisa Cornish looks at how the Australian election result will affect the aid sector.Alwyn Chilver compares two schools of thought to escape poverty: market systems and social protection. He explains how Palladium International succeeded in taking the best of both approaches.Amr Darrag
Speaking at the launch of Christian Aid Week in Westminster on Sunday morning, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown set out a passionate defence of the international aid budget and the importance of the fight against global poverty, before addressing the themes behind the Brexit debate.In this
China has renegotiated US $50 billion in loans to developing countries in recent year, according to the findings of a new study, countering the talk of debt-trap diplomacy that surrounds Beijing’s loan activity.Good news! We might have found a vaccine against malaria, one of the world deadliest
The Pacific, when measured by aid inflows as a proportion of GDP, is the most aid-dependent region in the world. Geographic remoteness, exposure to frequent natural disasters and vulnerability to climate change are several of the causes that make the region vulnerable.
Because of this
Book Review: Utopia For Realists, And How We Can Get There, by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, 2017)
Rutger Bregman shot to public fame calling out billionaires at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
“1500 private jets flying in here to hear Sir David Attenborough speak about
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.
“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,
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
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
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
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