Foreign Aid
Once again Africa is gripped by a catastrophic famine. As developed countries and NGOs scramble to mobilise aid, we are told incomprehensible numbers of people face a ghastly death by starvation, including hundreds of thousands of children.
It can make you despair. Sometimes we feel like turning away, we seem so powerless and the problems so entrenched and repetitive. Giving money can feel pointless; commercial TV news hardly mentions the crisis, guessing it will have viewers reaching for the remote control.
But there’s another story about Africa many Australians might find very surprising.
Floods, earthquakes, droughts and cyclones are becoming more frequent around the world and the number of people affected by them is growing. In developed countries such as Australia and New Zealand we are experiencing firsthand the demands these events place on those directly affected and on those responding. In developing countries these challenges are amplified.
As Australia’s aid program continues to grow – in line with the bi-partisan commitment for aid funding to reach half a per cent of our national income by 2015 – it will become even more important to make sure we are using this money effectively. The current Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness, led by Sandy Hollway, is timely, needed and most welcome.
Australia’s aid program has experienced an unusually high profile in recent weeks. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s proposal to ‘defer’ a $448 million aid program to Indonesian schools – and the alleged ructions in Shadow Cabinet over it – generated a lively public debate.
Continue reading "Four very good reasons why every aid dollar is needed" »
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Olivia says:
Less advocacy, more substance: http://aidreview.lowyinterpreter.org/ Read more »
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Cosmic Charade says:
Wendy proves my point. Why are there so many refugees? Could it be a combination of once necessary practices of having many children, combined with the well intended push to spread medicine and lower infant mortality, has in fact caused more suffering that it has alleviated? The reason being is… Read more »
Public money should not be spent on promoting religion.
We don’t need religious school chaplains. State schools should be well and truly secular. Religion is a choice, not an educational need. Taxpayers should not foot the bill for others to indulge their beliefs.
Except in Indonesia.
Continue reading "We should fund Islamic schools for our own good" »
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Over recent years, Australia has doubled its financial commitment to foreign aid.
Yet our aid program has remained starved of attention from the government, media and community at large.
On Tuesday, Kevin Rudd sought to rectify this by announcing a five-month independent review of the effectiveness of Australia aid.
Continue reading "Australia’s foreign aid is starved of attention" »
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steve b says:
Well I’m in the minority here. I have no problem with the oz government spending 0.3% of the GDP on our less fortunate neighbours. It would be nice if more of it went to where it was intended - rather than milked by the leeches in the chain. NGOs (non-governemt… Read more »
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Frustrated in Pakistan says:
I’m an Australian aid worker in Pakistan at the moment, and I should stop reading comment threads like this as the close-minded and ill-informed attitudes are so depressing. Yes, millions of dollars are handed over to governments that misappropriate funds (Of the US$500m that the US just gave to Pakistan,… Read more »
It has a population of 6.3 million. It is one of Australia’s two really large recipients of aid.
We are its largest trading partner. It is our 19th. It’s about 400 times closer to us than New Zealand.
Yet for some reason our media and public discourse doesn’t seem to rate the importance of Papua New Guinea. On this website a search on Papua New Guinea yields 23 hits compared to 35 for Spain, 76 for South Africa and 94 for Iran.
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Fred says:
Why are we the big wealthy neighbour not helping more to integrate the 10 000 asylum seekers on the border with the west? Read more »
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stephen says:
Are you suggesting that we are part of a larger ignorance : America and South America, and England and Ireland etc ? Well I think you’re right, and I’ve often said that we ignore these closer states at our disadvantage. One of the signs of cultural ignorance (and indeed immaturity),… Read more »
Although I am closely involved in the aid and development sector, I was pleased to read Monday’s News Limited critical pieces by Steve Lewis in the Daily Telegraph and the Adelaide Advertiser.
Negative publicity is never good for any sector. However, the recent pieces in Australia’s newspapers are a positive sign of the fact that Australians are engaging with the global movement to take action on extreme poverty.
In my role as a development educator, I have been witnessing this change in our societal perspective on a daily basis. Australians are no longer simply asking how many aid dollars are being allocated to help the billions of people living in extreme poverty: we are now questioning the effectiveness of this spending. We are finally applying the age-old adage of ‘quality over quantity’ where it matters most, in the lives of the world’s poorest.
Continue reading "Getting more bang for our foreign aid buck" »
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MakePovertyHistoryRoadTripper says:
The first half of your comment is idiotic. The second half, intelligent. Foreign DOES work, and rarely (if ever) causes aid dependence. In the past 20 years extreme poverty (those living on less than US$1.25 PPP per day) has dropped from affecting 42% of the world, to 19%. Many Pacific… Read more »
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Richard Fleming says:
@Cynical - Did you know that one of the greatest cause of over-population is poverty. This is a brief article that covers your comment - http://www.globalissues.org/article/206/poverty-and-population-growth-lessons-from-our-own-past Read more »
When rock stars Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono stomped through the United Nations a decade ago, demanding rich nations stump up billions of dollars in extra foreign aid, the world took notice.
Even John Howard signed up to this ``Make Poverty History’’ chant, determined to avoid being seen as a global Mr Scrooge.
But with Australia preparing to double annual foreign aid spending to $8 billion-plus by 2015, the time is right to pause and take account of how we are managing the current program.
Continue reading "The business of foreign aid needs a good audit" »
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Scot says:
Marley. So the 2 Trillion USD spent in Africa over the paste decade has shown great outcomes. I do not see them, and many countries also have seen this waste and have changed the model. Even Asian countries will no longer give money. They agree schemes with proven outcomes will… Read more »
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Pablo says:
Great to find so many greedy, selfish, unsympathetic people trawling the internet and encouraging others to act similarly. Isn’t great to read articles that challenge aid and therefore provide you with more excuses to keep your money for yourself? It is a complex world and to simplistically state that some… Read more »
When you think of Canberra’s more secretive agencies, Australia’s spy agencies – ASIO and ASIS – usually come to mind.
It’s likely that the agency responsible for delivering bikes to poor Aids ravaged Africans, in a country with little or no public transport like Namibia, is not top of the list.
Yet as today’s News Limited investigation shows, AusAID is an agency with a secretive culture that rejects the accountability and transparency it demands of aid recipients such as the Bicycle Empowerment Network.
Continue reading "AusAid could tell you, but then they’d have to…" »
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Michael Linke says:
The link (and the name) for the Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia is incorrect, it’s http://www.benbikes.org.za/namibia Read more »
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simon field says:
unfortunately the messages to date really do not add to the discussion. Also the reporters are not very well well informed but trying to make soemthing out off nothing as they have very little experience in understanding the complexity of the issue Read more »
Let me tell you the story of Shane Dolan.
I met him two decades ago, when I was in Ethiopia for Four Corners, filming “The Forgotten Famine”, which I wrote about in this space a month ago.
Shane was an aid worker. Not the kind who hands out food at emergency relief centres, but the kind who works for the long term.
Continue reading "How a black cloud was lifted in an impoverished land" »
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Mr Subramanian says:
Fabulous. I hope articles like this encourage people to increase their giving towards charitable organisations as much as ones about others’ poor experiences with charities discourage them from doing so. Because it’s all really about how effective such aid is, rather than one’s own personal willingness to give, isn’t it? Read more »
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Chuck says:
Mark, what Eric said is true. We rarely comment on your stories, but keep them going. Each one is a great read Read more »
Throughout history millions have urged us to ‘make love, not war’ and an important voice has just joined this choir.
On Tuesday, Australia’s former Army Chief, Peter Leahy, suggested that the defence budget should be cut and redirected towards its diplomacy and aid programs – and no, he wasn’t wearing flares or dreads.
Continue reading "Former army chief says ‘make love, not war’" »
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LynnWynn33 says:
I would like to propose not to wait until you get big sum of cash to order goods! You can get the mortgage loans or consolidation loans and feel comfortable Read more »
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With detention facilities on Christmas Island getting closer and closer to capacity, and a Federal election looming, the issue of desperate people seeking asylum on Australian shores remains a hotbed of cheap political point-scoring at the expense of some of the world’s neediest people.
Disappointingly, the term “queue jumper” is now so deeply entrenched in our nation’s vernacular that some Australian politicians use it interchangeably with the term “asylum seeker”.
Let me be clear and point out that two are not synonymous. In fact, the queue is a myth.
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Your name:Noemie says:
I can’t understand while in having been in contact with these individuals and families you can be so influenced by rumors. You talk about the “benefit of the doubt” rule for all asylum seekers coming. i do not think any body who has nothing to fear for his safety in… Read more »
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John says:
Robert King@ Mate, I’m not sure if you could have seen me, wearing those thick rose coloured glasses. But I think I would have noticed you in your Pollyanna outfit. Read more »
For a politician who prides himself on his relationship with Australian voters, Barnaby Joyce’s comments this week on foreign aid are, frankly, un-Australian.
Senator Joyce used a speech at the National Press Club yesterday to suggest that $50 million in aid that will help people with little or no food in poor countries deal with rising food prices should instead be spent on lowering food prices in Australia.
This year Australia’s foreign aid spending will total just $3.8 billion – or only about 0.35 per cent of our gross national income. That’s 35 cents in every $100. In the context of the Australian Government’s overall budget, we’re talking about a very small amount. Our Government has enough money to fund this, while also spending on essential services here.
Continue reading "Barnaby’s on his own with comments on foreign aid" »
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eye4aneye says:
Not like our health system could use another $3.8 billion anyway Read more »
It was disturbing to read recently that 122 humanitarian workers lost their lives in strife torn countries last year, but even more disturbing to read the reason why.
Aid workers are now often seen in some of the most desperate and violent places in the world to be covert activists, even spies, working against the thugs, dictators and/or clerics who run the hellholes where aid workers try to go about their business.
That makes them targets.
Continue reading "How did aid organisations turn into political activists?" »
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Erin says:
Do we ever analyse why this great Aid PR machine exists? Is it because our concept of giving is so based on if somebody deserves it and is a ‘worthy’ recipient that Aid must be packaged up by PR people for any of us to take notice? Read more »
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Barry says:
I too ceased my World Vision “sponsorship” donations last year after a compulsory increase to the donation amount. I became skeptical of its distribution, especially when I learned my money could have aided 2 communities with another aid organisation who don’t espouse and propagate the myth that you have a… Read more »
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