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  • 8 May 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Blue bonds and mangrove protection: Small island nations lead in climate resilience

    Christopher Burke
    Localised approaches to environmental, social and governance standards prove more effective than global models.
  • 8 May 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    More than stability: Australia’s aid program needs hard decisions now

    Geordie Fung
    Everything cannot be a priority.
  • 1 May 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands

    What the Pacific sees at stake in the Australian election

    Isabelle Zhu-Maguire
    Climate policy, aid and regional respect hang in the balance.
  • 11 Apr 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Tonga

    Comparing Chinese and Australian aid in Tonga: Visibility, pageantry and performance

    Riley Duke
    A case study in being seen to deliver.
  • 4 Apr 2025
    • Aid & Development

    “Aligning” aid: Which interests and whose interests?

    Cameron Hill , Nicola Nixon
    The nexus between the provision of development assistance and the national interests it helps serve has always been contingent and contested.
  • 27 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    Australian aid budget 2025: Choices on hold

    Grace Stanhope , Roland Rajah
    The local debates are only just starting about responding to dramatic global shifts.
  • 27 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Philippines

    The Philippines walks a tightrope with Chinese aid

    Alexandre Dayant , Grace Stanhope
    Pragmatism, not ideology, is driving development finance decisions.
  • 25 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Bangladesh
    • Myanmar
    • Asylum seekers and refugees

    Beyond politics: Australia’s role in solving the Rohingya crisis

    Arunn Jegan
    More than a million people in disease ridden camps in our region should be a national concern.
  • 21 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development

    Europe compounding Trump aid vandalism – Australia must take a different path

    Richard Moore
    Emergencies will still demand political responses, but those responses will be fragmented, inefficient, and much less effective.
  • 18 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • United States

    US aid cuts are a soft power surrender to China

    Riley Duke
    Even a static China will see its influence fill the vacuum left by US withdrawal.
  • 11 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • International law

    Protecting frontline humanitarians: Australia’s role as a middle power

    Amra Lee
    Coming off the deadliest year on record for aid workers, Australia is well positioned to drive diplomatic change.
  • 6 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Myanmar
    • Philippines
    • Singapore
    • Thailand
    • Timor-Leste
    • Vietnam
    • Australia

    Missed signals: What Southeast Asia wants vs what Australia delivers

    Mira Sulistiyanto
    With US aid disappearing, a new report shows Australia has a chance to align development cooperation with the region’s challenges and Australia’s strengths.
  • 6 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • North Korea
    • South Korea
    • United States

    How US funding cuts could exacerbate North Korea’s humanitarian crisis

    Gabriela Bernal
    Trump’s obsession with getting the deal and an interest in resuming talks with Kim Jong Un all spell trouble for human rights.
  • 3 Mar 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands
    • Development Assistance
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • China and the Pacific

    Is this the end of aid as we know it?

    Soli Middleby
    The task for Western aid is not to rebuild what existed before, but to reduce dependency altogether.
  • 27 Feb 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Australia in the World
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

    UK aid cut: Implications for an increasingly lonely Australia

    Grace Stanhope , Riley Duke
    Starmer’s announcement is another demonstration of a narrowing perception of global security.
  • 20 Feb 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • United States

    What’s next for USAID?

    Lester Munson
    Donald Trump alone can’t decide its future.
  • 13 Feb 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • United States

    How Australia should respond to the implosion of US aid

    Roland Rajah , Grace Stanhope
    Australia’s interests won’t be served by letting vital multilateral anchors of the “rules-based order” wither, decay and collapse.
  • 10 Feb 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • United States

    Aid on ice: How Trump’s freeze hurts the Pacific and Southeast Asia

    Alexandre Dayant
    The outlook is anything but reassuring.
  • 31 Jan 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    Where geopolitics and development meet

    Lucy Pennington
    “National interest” needn’t be a banned phrase, and acknowledgement can help make aid partnerships more honest.
  • 28 Jan 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Asia
    • Asean
    • Timor-Leste

    ASEAN’s new developmental divide

    Grace Stanhope
    The admission of Timor-Leste will recall quarter-century-old unease about the development gap within the association.
  • 6 Jan 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Technology
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu’s digital vulnerability

    Cynthia Mehboob
    Who will fund Vanuatu's second cable? 
  • 19 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands
    • Vanuatu

    Vanuatu: The challenge to build back

    Meg Keen , Riley Duke
    A crippling earthquake will test Vanuatu’s already fragile political and economic system.
  • 19 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    What a Trump second term holds for global development

    Alexandre Dayant
    Judging by track records, there's a bumpy road ahead for aid, health and climate funding.
  • 18 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • Taiwan
    • Russia
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • Technology
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands
    • United States
    • Southeast Asia

    What I’ll be watching for in 2025

    Susannah Patton , Melanie Pill , Sam Roggeveen , Robert Walker , Mihai Sora , Hilman Palaon , Oliver Nobetau
    Lowy researchers gaze at their crystal balls – with questions, more than answers, for the year ahead.
  • 13 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Southeast Asia
    • Australia

    Two steps up in Australia’s Southeast Asia engagement

    Grace Stanhope
    The detail is starting to emerge for the government’s big ticket spending initiatives in the region.
  • 9 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia in the World
    • Australia
    • Australian Defence Force
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Diplomacy
    • Climate change

    Australia is out to lunch on disaster diplomacy

    Fleur Johns
    Despite multiple strategies, frameworks and partnerships, Canberra still lags on regional disaster relief.
  • 26 Nov 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia in the World
    • Defence & Security
    • Diplomacy
    • Global Economy

    Balancing the books on Australian statecraft

    William Leben , Ruby Saulwick
    It should be easier to judge the budget against the warnings of challenging times.
  • 22 Nov 2024
    • Aid & Development

    Pacific Island countries are not just aid recipients. They are also aid donors

    Nasirra Ahsan , Alexandre Dayant
    Intra-regional support is an important yet overlooked feature of the “Pacific way”.
  • 21 Nov 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • China

    China’s Pacific aid is rebounding and recalibrated

    Riley Duke , Alexandre Dayant
    Minor increases in spending and a surge in new deals signal renewed Chinese aid ambition in the region.
  • 18 Nov 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific education: Backsliding outcomes and a financing freefall

    Riley Duke , Nasirra Ahsan
    Education indicators were already flat or falling before the pandemic and are getting worse. But development priorities are focused elsewhere.
  • 30 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Foreign Aid

    Pooled funds give Australia’s new humanitarian strategy a boost

    Grace Stanhope
    Flexibility is essential when responding to a crisis – especially those far from home.
  • 29 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Sex and Gender

    Caring for carers: The gender challenge in peacebuilding

    Eleanor Gordon
    A new report shows women with children, in particular, often find it difficult to remain within or return to this type of work.
  • 24 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    A new multilateral bank, not an American “Marshall Plan” alone, is the key to a clean energy future

    Michelle Lyons , Roland Rajah , Grace Stanhope
    The numbers don’t add up for the United States to make itself the global hub for green technology.
  • 23 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands

    Biases within the capital flows to the Pacific

    Jinita Prasad
    A pervasive power imbalance stops the small steps needed for better aid outcomes in the region.
  • 18 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Pacific Islands

    Can Australia’s new Humanitarian Policy deliver?

    Meg Keen
    The effort is laudable, and a step in the right direction, with more ambition and local engagement needed.
  • 14 Oct 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Papua New Guinea

    How Australia can get better results in Papua New Guinea

    Peter O’Neill
    A former prime minister offers a frank appraisal of the neighbourly relationship.
  • 4 Sep 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Australia should make a strategic investment in the World Bank

    Roland Rajah , Georgia Hammersley
    Geostrategic competition makes the multilateral advantage more vital than ever, especially in the Pacific.
  • 5 Aug 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • China – Belt and Road Initiative
    • United Nations

    What is China’s role in achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals?

    Hannah McNicol
    It is time to think more seriously about the increasing relationship between Chinese and dominant international development models.
  • 30 Jul 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands
    • Sex and Gender

    Gender equality, the Pacific way

    Mercy Masta , Elisabeth Jackson
    “Using culture to change culture” is how to make real progress in addressing a longstanding regional challenge.
  • 29 Jul 2024
    • Aid & Development

    The tricky delivery of aid and access in conflicts and crises

    Grace Stanhope
    Gaza is only the latest example of the logistical challenges in providing humanitarian relief.
  • 27 Jun 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Africa

    Aid discrepancies: Australia’s modest help to the Horn of Africa

    Christopher Burke
    The optics of such a small aid package against significant need could undermine Australia’s image as a significant player in international humanitarian assistance.
  • 24 Jun 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands

    Fragmented and burdensome: Small European donors are clogging Pacific aid channels

    Riley Duke
    Competition, political self-interest, and poor coordination are overburdening the region’s administrations.
  • 19 Jun 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands

    Is a new Australian police program what the Pacific needs?

    Danielle Watson
    Engagement on policing is crucial, but it must be regionally led.
  • 17 Jun 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Southeast Asia

    2024 Southeast Asia Aid Map: Warning signs for the region

    Grace Stanhope , Alexandre Dayant
    Declining levels of international financial support, especially for the clean energy transition, are cause for alarm.
  • 27 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Trade

    What do Biden’s big new China tariffs mean for global development?

    Roland Rajah
    Downsides abound but there’s also a path where developing nations benefit.
  • 24 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Global Issues

    Should foreign aid be the government’s responsibility?

    Clay O’Brien
    A fair-go means everyone pitching in to help those in need. Plenty of options exist, if we choose to use them.
  • 21 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australia's Economy
    • Defence & Security
    • Diplomacy

    Putting dollars behind “all tools of statecraft”

    Tom Barber
    The budget papers offer a chance to assess the government’s claims against fiscal reality.
  • 17 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    Australia is increasingly spending around, not on, development

    Grace Stanhope
    Transparency could be the cost of the semi-commercialisation of Australia’s international development efforts.
  • 15 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Recommendations

    The Translator: The nomenclature of foreign aid

    Grace Stanhope , Riley Duke
    A series in which experts explain the sometimes baffling jargon of international affairs.
  • 3 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands

    Australia’s superannuation rules leave Pacific workers out of pocket

    Jessica Collins
    The government must reconsider its tax on the Pacific’s poorest.
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