Aid & Development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

The WTO ended its Ministerial meeting in Nairobi in December and 'declined to reaffirm' its commitment to the Doha (otherwise known as the 'development') round of trade negotiations. Heather Stewart says this is the clearest signal that the Doha negotiations, which began way back in 2001, are

COP 21 is over with a deal that has been heralded by world leaders as 'the best chance we have to save the one planet we have', while the expert consensus is that it 'has landed more or less where expected'. Robin Davies pours some cold water on praise for the deal by highlighting three big

The Commonwealth has announced its first female secretary-general, Baroness Patricia Scotland. The Baroness’ first task should be to beef up the effectiveness of their aid work as The Commonwealth has routinely ranked as one of the worst performing multilateral donors. In the first of a two part