27 Sep 2023
Why humanitarian aid is vital to Afghanistan
Despite significant hurdles, aid has continued to bolster the country’s employment, education and banking sectors.
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22 Sep 2023
Post-disaster aid in developing and fragile states
Political mismanagement and failures of governance all too often exacerbate the effects of natural disasters. -
12 Sep 2023
Finding a place for youth leadership in Australia’s new International Development Policy
Young people will be central to addressing regional challenges so their meaningful inclusion must be ensured. -
7 Sep 2023
Does Australia lack strategic imagination on aid and development?
A debate on fundamentals is sorely needed but conspicuously lacking. -
31 Aug 2023
Economic diplomacy: Spirit of Australia charts a fresh course
The government is fashioning a more interventionist economic leg to the new amity between its aid policy, regional diplomacy and military spending. -
17 Aug 2023
Economic diplomacy: Slicing up a new aid menu
Australia is persisting with a homemade mix of old and new financing tools to be the development dining partner of choice in the region. -
14 Aug 2023
What does the new International Development Policy mean for the Pacific?
Australia has outlined its case for being the preferred regional partner, but the Pacific needs less talk and more action. -
11 Aug 2023
The constrained ambition of Australia’s new development policy
Aid “rebuild” focuses on quality and smarter geopolitics, but not dollars. -
8 Aug 2023
International development: Putting the heart back in Australian foreign policy
The government has taken a big step after listening to regional partners – now it has a chance to fill in the details. -
3 Aug 2023
Economic diplomacy: Hard labour managing geo-economic fragmentation
Australia faces tough choices from aid to energy in a new world of government intervention in trade and industry. -
25 Jul 2023
What is Australia’s role in supporting Timor-Leste?
Health and education are where Canberra can help Dili the most. But language barriers require thinking outside the box. -
16 May 2023
Life in Australia’s aid program - but not as we know it
The cost of development measures is being spread across government in creative ways, making coordination harder. -
5 May 2023
Budget time: Will Labor rebuild Australia’s aid program, and how?
Global crisis and shifting economic realities mean Australia must both rebuild and modernise its development efforts. -
20 Apr 2023
Questions about Australian aid to fund the Pacific Games
Australia is backing a sports tournament over urgent development needs, and doing so may break international aid rules. -
30 Jan 2023
Getting it together: Pacific engagement still lacks coordination
Showing collective action across countries and sectors is essential to Pacific development and winning friends. -
25 Jan 2023
Chinese aid to the Pacific: decreasing, but not disappearing
With fewer Chinese finances available and less demand from Pacific countries, geopolitical competition is opening up. -
21 Dec 2022
Seeking independence: three books to read this summer
From Timorese history and Bougainville’s dreams to Australia’s regional stories, catch up on essential background. -
16 Dec 2022
A changing aid landscape in the Pacific
Budget support was favoured during the pandemic, with loans — which must be repaid — also overtaking grants. -
24 Nov 2022
Defence and development reviews: bringing parallel tracks together
A cultural change in the way Australia’s approach to the world is formulated and prosecuted. -
9 Nov 2022
An explanation for the decline of China’s aid in the Pacific
A drop in Chinese funding may be a sign of belt tightening in an effort to tackle Beijing’s own domestic debt problem. -
3 Nov 2022
Economic diplomacy: Searching for APEC
APEC faces some new competition as Australia considers the sovereign risks involved in reducing domestic gas prices. -
2 Nov 2022
Where does Australia’s new aid budget leave gender equality?
Gender equality is not just an “add-on”, it is essential to a functioning society. Funding must reflect that. -
31 Oct 2022
By the numbers: Papua New Guinea and development funding
Australian funding to its Pacific neighbour outstripped the region’s major partners by four to one during the pandemic. -
30 Oct 2022
Where the buck stops: aid in Fiji
The development funding arena in the Pacific is a crowded space. But local actors are often forced to take back seat. -
18 Oct 2022
Development finance – how much, done how?
Identifying institutional options for infrastructure finance in the Asia Pacific. -
11 Oct 2022
The Global Fragility Act in PNG: can the US succeed?
A seemingly radical approach that relies on prevention and relinquishing control may be a foreign policy game-changer. -
7 Oct 2022
A new aid strategy: purpose, priorities, and plumbing
The government has a chance to define the criteria used in the hard choices about how to allocate scarce aid dollars. -
6 Oct 2022
Economic diplomacy: Time for transparency on aid reform
A new study reveals difficult trade-offs between development spending on governance and the decline of democracy. -
4 Oct 2022
Building a better development finance institution: Australia’s opportunity
Canberra can learn a lot about risk appetite and the culture of financing from those already in the space. -
3 Oct 2022
Greater Sunrise: Can Timor-Leste play the “China card”?
Beijing is a minor player in development finance for Dili – but it’s a different story with state-owned enterprises. -
23 Sep 2022
Six reasons to be cautious about Australia establishing a DFI
As soon as public money is on the table, there will be a line of players looking to “clip the ticket”. -
16 Sep 2022
Five reasons Australia should establish a Development Finance Institution
A DFI would expand Canberra’s development toolkit and re-establish the country as a serious financing partner in Asia. -
8 Sep 2022
Economic diplomacy: Nation building at home and abroad
A jobs summit highlighted the challenges in crafting a foreign policy for the middle class and balanced development aid. -
5 Sep 2022
José Ramos-Horta's Australian visit: a checklist
The Greater Sunrise LNG field will top his agenda, along with economic diversification and ASEAN membership. -
5 Aug 2022
Development finance in Asia: a memoir
A former president of the Asian Development Bank reminisces about dealing with the rise of China. -
1 Aug 2022
Unpacking China’s Global Development Initiative
Red flags should be flying about Beijing’s latest challenge to the international development agenda. -
25 Jul 2022
Engaging with the Pacific: the legal angle
The often complex and transnational legal challenges facing the region are an opportunity to foster cooperation.