Aid & Development

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The Asian Development Bank's unfinished business

In his recent Interpreter post, Richard Moore provides a handy summary of the work of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over the past 50 years. He also poses questions about the future of the Bank. Moore is a former ADB Board member, so he is thoroughly familiar with debates about the Bank's role in

By Peter McCawley

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Aid and development links: Rejected reports, Europe’s refugee crisis, UN leadership and more

A US Department of Health and Human Services draft report found that the government made $63 billion more in revenue from refugees over the past decade than the refugees cost the government (the report was rejected by Administration officials). Tony Blair writes for The Guardian that aid by

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & Development links: Bill Gates on Trump’s cuts, AI challenges, the NZ election and more

Aid officials fear a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ is unfolding in Rakhine State in Myanmar as the government has effectively implemented a blockade of their efforts in the region. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a new report, which will become an annual project, to track

By Jonathan Pryke

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The Asian Development Bank at 50: A spent force?

In May, the Asian Development Bank celebrated its 50th anniversary with a big bash in Yokohama. Senior ADB figures repeatedly pointed to the record crowd of more than 6000 attendees as evidence of the meeting's success and the ADB's enduring relevance. Not all of the 6000 were convinced. If there

By Richard Moore

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Aid and development links: Evidence and policymaking, Kenya's election, disaster relief and more

SBS reports that Australia and Timor-Leste have reached agreement over a maritime boundary dispute that has significantly eroded the bilateral relationship. Final details will be announced in October. Kennya’s Supreme Court has nullified the country's recent elections, ordering a new poll within

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: US threat to Pakistan, cholera in Yemen, transfer pricing and more

President Trump is trying to pressure allies, notably Pakistan, by threatening to cut foreign aid if they don’t cooperate with the American mission in Afghanistan. Writing for the Washington Post, Jessica Trisko Darden concludes this tactic that never works. Devex has produced a special

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: How rich are you? Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the case for optimism and more

FT Data takes a look at how global income inequality has shifted since the Global Financial Crisis. The Washington Post discusses why it is so much worse in the US than other rich countries. CARE has a sobering and powerful advocacy tool showing how your income compares with the rest of the

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Deforestation, Rwandan elections, slavery and Thai fishing and more

At the Centre for Global Development, Michael Clemens argues the Trump administration's plan to scale back legal immigration in the US would be a lose-lose scenario for both the US and the world. Rashida Petersen and Jennifer Lentfer write for the Guardian on tackling structural racism in the

By Erin Harris

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Aid & development links: Rohinyga asylum seekers, blockchain tech potential and more

Vox has an explainer from Paul Slovic discussing how 'psychic numbing' helps to explain the limits of human compassion. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim shares five TED Talks that have inspired him. Keane Shum discusses the ongoing plight of Rohingya asylum seekers. Wade Shepard

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: Labour mobility, the future of NGOs, inequality and more

The Economist has argued for the profound potential benefits enhanced labour mobility could have on the world. Late last year the Lowy Institute released a research paper on the impact greater labour mobility could have in the Pacific region. The Guardian and Reuters have both covered

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: Kenyan elections, the SDGs, aid systems and more

The ABC’s latest episode of Foreign Correspondent covers the work of GiveDirectly’s basic income trial in Kenya – written story here. United Nations Seretary-General António Guterres has outlined his plan to reposition the UN development system to better help achieve the Sustainable

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Sudan, planning families, advice for academics and more

The East African hunger crisis is not cutting through to Australian donors as previous famines have, reports Michael Bachelard from South Sudan (whose trip, consequently, was funded by the Campaign for Australian Aid and CARE Australia). The crisis co-incides with South Sudan's sixth

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: Contractors, WHO leadership, aid budgets and more

The Economist reports on the growing role of private contractors in the aid sector, citing many cases from Australia. Senate Estimates recently revealed that close to 20% of Australia’s aid program is now being delivered by ten contractors. Michael Kleinman’s article in the Guardian

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: WHO's new boss, US aid cuts, UK election and more

The World Health Assembly has appointed the first African, Tedros Adhanom, as Director-General of the World Health Organisation. Dr Adhanom will take over a WHO under siege from criticism of its slow response to the Ebola epidemic and revelations that the agency has spent more than 10% of its $2

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: M-Pesa in Kenya, Blockchain, Paul Romer and more

The New York Times discusses the success of M-Pesa leapfrogging conventional banking in Kenya and how it is continuing to innovate. 'Blockchain' is getting thrown around a lot in development circles this year. Duncan Green provides a handy primer of what it actually means. As the Trump

By Jonathan Pryke

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Australian aid budget: It could have been worse

A $300 million cut. That’s what the headlines will say about the impact of this year’s budget on the Australian aid program. But that cut won't happen for another two years and there will be an election between now and then. In the meantime, this year the Federal government's spend on aid will

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Australian Federal budget primer

The Australian Federal Budget 2017-18 will be handed down on Tuesday, 9 May. This is the most important date on the national aid and development calendar and has major implications for the volumes of foreign aid that will be delivered by Australia. It’s been a tough few years for the

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: Zuckerberg’s billions, the sweatshop fallacy, aid insurance and more

The OECD has released the official numbers for foreign aid flows in 2016. Total aid has increased 9% from 2015 to $US142 billion, but critics argue that much of this increase is staying at home to pay for the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe. Meanwhile global remittances to developing countries

By Jonathan Pryke

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Belt and Road: Australia cautious, but New Zealand sees opportunity

New Zealand became ‘the first Western developed country’ to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) when it signed a Memorandum of Arrangement (MoA) during Premier Li’s March visit. For New Zealand, signing up to the BRI was the logical next step in a long-held policy of engagement with

By Jason Young

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Aid and development links: How to sell aid to voters, taxing remittances, edible drones and more

The Guardian documents the increasing difficulty of providing humanitarian assistance to Northern African areas facing famine, due to ongoing conflict and security challenges. On the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, Séverine Autesserre discusses three assumptions of effective

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: War in Yemen, inequality rankings, cash transfers and more

Two-thirds of the population of Yemen are facing severe food shortages, with the ongoing civil war raising concerns of a potential for widespread famine in the country. Priti Patel, UK Secretary for International Development, is giving a speech today that is expected to provide a robust defence for

By Jonathan Pryke

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Is the AIIB still ‘lean, clean and green’?

It is just over two years since the United Kingdom announced (to the surprise of everyone involved, most notably the United States, but also China) that it would join the new, China-led multilateral development bank known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This triggered an

By Sam Geall

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Aid & Development links: Kenya tests universal basic income, Salome Karwah, South Sudan famine and more

Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton discusses topics ranging from extreme poverty, opioid addiction, Trump voters, robots, and rent-seeking in this fascinating interview in The Atlantic. The fund to fill the gap left by President Trump’s global gag rule on family planning services has reached $190

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and Development links: American aid, financial literacy, demonetisation and more

The Trump Administration is gearing up to propose ‘dramatic reductions’ in foreign aid expenditure. Alex Thier at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) argues that these proposals would make America weaker.The EU and the UK have begun rolling out an $85 million Euro project of cash transfers

By Jonathan Pryke

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Development – the missing link in Australia’s foreign policy

This post is part of a debate on Australia’s foreign policy White paper 2017. Click here for other debate posts. The dazzling speed at which Asia has grown in the past 50 years has obscured a fact we often overlook in Australia: most of the countries and people in our part of the world remain

By Jonathan Pryke

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Hard-wiring aid and development to foreign policy

The acid test of Australia’s new foreign policy will be longevity. As a nation, can we set an approach that endures? 'A dynamism about it that can carry forward over about 10 years', is how Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, described the key ingredient for the new foreign policy white paper.

By Marc Purcell

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Aid & development links: Famine in Sudan, universal basic incomes, fighting cholera and more

Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, with the UN calling for an additional $4.4 billion in humanitarian support in the next month to avert catastrophe. Donations can be made to UNICEF or your international NGO of choice.The Guardian has a photo-essay on how food aid has worked to date

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & Development links: Seasonal work, the Gates letter, ADB research and more

The Australasian Aid Conference took place in Canberra last week, with more than 350 participants and 100 speakers in attendance. You can watch a livestream of the plenary sessions from the two days, including Julie Bishop’s opening address.Roby Alders has won the inaugural Mitchell Humanitarian

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: Smoking costs a trillion, Global Gag Rule, peak global and more

A new report from the WHO has found that smoking costs the global economy more than US$1 trillion in health care costs and lost productivity annually. The UN is calling for an 'immediate and massive' reaction to the very real risk of a widespread famine in Somalia that could impact more than

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & Development links: Jin Liquin, vaccine funding, Zika and more

The NY Times has run a profile of Jin Liquin, the inaugural head of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.A coalition of governments, philanthropists and business have announced $460 million of funding for an initiative that will focus on creating vaccines for infectious diseases that afflict

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & Development links: 2016 not so bad, a Lagos holiday, UK frets and more

For many 2016 felt like a punch in the guts. Max Roser helps provide some perspective with his Our World In Data website. Writing for the Washington Post, he discusses why we are programmed to think things are getting worse and tend to ignore or overlook the slow transformations that change our

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: South Sudan, cash transfers, philanthropy, and more

World Bank member countries have pledged $75 billion in lending to the world’s poorest countries over the next three years. This amount is 50% more than what was committed over the last three years. The increase will be financed through the Bank issuing debt to capital markets, the first time

By Jonathan Pryke

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The future of the AIIB is bigger than Australian coal

The Australian has run a story, 'Power row engulfs Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank', about tensions between the Australian government and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) over the focus on renewable energy in the latter's proposed energy strategy. Most of the article

By Hannah Wurf

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Aid and development links: The war on poverty, UN apologises, education intervention and more

William Easterly writes for the New York Review of Books about why it is time for the war on poverty to separate itself from the war on terror (ungated version here.) Facebook has released high-resolution population maps for Ghana, Haiti, Malawi, South Africa, and Sri Lanka for their internet

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: India's cash chaos, controlled trials under fire and more

The chaos caused by India’s sudden ban on high-end bank notes that represent 86% of all cash in circulation continues. The Economist warns that 'it could, in fact, turn out to be the worst mistake of Mr Modi’s career', while The Guardian assesses the political ramifications this will have on

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: COP 22, trading in cash, Africans on China and more

COP 22 is underway in Marrakech. Carbon Brief provides a primer for what the latest UN Climate Change Conference expects to achieve.Despite concerns that it might back out, Australia announced last week at the summit that it will ratify the Paris climate agreement.Smoking cigarettes still causes

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Unskilled migrants, security partnerships, UN peacekeepers and more

A damning report from the UN on its South Sudanese peacekeeping force has resulted in the sacking of their Kenyan commander, Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki. Kenya has responded by withdrawing its 1000 troops from the peacekeeping force of 13,000. Zimbabwe is becoming a cashless society, but not

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Poverty, tractors, Wonder Woman and more

The Economist discusses why the world should be both encouraged and embarrassed by the latest global poverty figures. It highlights that, were it somehow possible to transfer the right amount of money into the right hands without cost, just $159 billion a year would be needed to end

By Jonathan Pryke

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Mapping Pacific aid: Facebook, India and money laundering

Mapping China’s opaque aid program in the Pacific Islands was more complicated and time-consuming than I had anticipated. I made peace with this fact when I found myself building a makeshift 270-degree visual cocoon out of every electronic device in my apartment so that I could cross-check the

By Danielle Cave

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Aid & development links: UK aid, WHO's next head, globalisation, and more

The Clinton Foundation has been under the microscope over the last few months. Dylan Matthews takes a look at its record and details how it has undoubtedly had an impact in saving millions of live through playing a critical role in pushing down the cost of HIV/AIDS drugs in developing

By Jonathan Pryke

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Witnessing an opaque Pacific power shift

Today the Lowy Institute’s Melanesia program launches a major update to the Institute’s flagship research mapping project on Chinese Aid in the Pacific.* The map now contains a decade of Chinese government aid activities in the Pacific Islands region, making it a valuable resource for

By Danielle Cave

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Aid & development links: Basic income, urbanisation, funding tech and more

The Indian Government is proposing a basic income guarantee in India that it estimates would cost 0.3% of GDP. Maitreesh Ghatak argues that it would cost up to 11% of GDP, which is particularly worrying in a country where 'only 1% of Indians actually pay income tax, while a mere 2.3% file tax

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Happiness Report, Australian aid budget, Venezuela's two-day work week and more

By Chloe Hickey-Jones, an intern in the Institute's Melanesia Program. The World Happiness Report for 2016 has been released. Australia is ranked in the top 10. Check it out here.The fourth annual Aid Budget Breakfast will take place this Wednesday 4 May, following the release of the latest

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Australian aid tumbled in 2015

With the first Turnbull Government budget this week, it is important to take stock of the impact the Coalition government has had to date on Australia's aid program. Perhaps the largest foreign policy legacy of the Abbott Government has been the impact it had upon Australian aid.

By Jonathan Pryke

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Pacific Island links: NZ foreign policy, death penalty in PNG, Somare dynasty, Bishop in Fiji and more

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully addressed New Zealand's international priorities in a speech at the Lowy Institute. The minister discussed the importance of economic development, renewable energy and disaster readiness in the Pacific and talked about New Zealand's relationship with Fiji

By Alastair Davis

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The Embarrassed Colonialist

Forty years after independence, Papua New Guinea is the largest single recipient of aid from Australia. Yet Australians seem to be largely ambivalent about the country. Few Australians know the history of our colonial rule in PNG and our ties to the country are being forgotten.

By Sean Dorney

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The Zika Virus won't be 'Ebola 2.0'

The recent outbreak of Zika virus and its spread to 23 countries — mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean — has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). On 1 February 2016 Director-General of the WHO, Margaret

By Allira Attwill

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Pacific Islands links: Fiji's Russian arms, PNG drought, Vanuatu election and more

Alastair Davis is an intern in the Lowy Institute Melanesia Program. Political tension relating to payments to ex-combatants in the Solomon Islands has continued. PM Sogavare has responded forcefully to critics of his contribution towards peace in the Solomons. Vanuatu Youth Against Corruption

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Aid & development links: $137 billion in 2014, power of philanthropists, refugees and more

The OECD has released full details of official aid flows for 2014. Foreign aid from OECD members totalled US$137.2 billion, a 1.2% increase in real terms over 2013. Less of that aid, however, appears to be going to the poorest countries. Annie Duflo, the Director of Innovations for Poverty Action

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid and development links: dengue vaccine, refugees and wages probe, jargon and more

The world’s first dengue fever vaccine, which in clinical trials has prevented up to 93% of severe dengue cases in people aged 6-45, is about to be released in Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil. Dengue fever causes about 25,000 deaths around the world annually. The Economist has a piece

By Jonathan Pryke

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