The devastation to Vanuatu left in the wake of Cyclone Pam shows small islands in the Pacific need a climate insurance scheme, similar to what has been achieved in the Caribbean.
Destruction caused by Cyclone Pam is visible on the outskirts of Port Vila.
AAP Image/ Care Australia, Tom Perry
Australian aid to Indonesia, both in the form of loans and grants, is not independent of its political and economic interests.
The killing of polio workers in Pakistan by the Taliban is a tragic illustration of why no development program can ignore the political problems associated with poverty.
EPA/Arshad Arbab
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2015 annual letter outlines their vision for global development and poverty reduction. The letter outlines four areas where they expect breakthroughs over the next…
A$1.8 billion is no longer available to help populations in our neighbouring countries achieve a decent standard of health.
Gates Foundation/Flickr
The federal government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook announcement this week to cut the foreign aid budget by a further A$3.7 billion over three years is unprecedented. The current government has…
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have said the government will get the budget back into surplus.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The budget is projected to return to surplus in 2019-20, according to the budget update which shows this financial year’s deficit has blown out from less than A$30 billion to more than $40 billion. Treasurer…
Many G20 members have now pledged contributions to the Green Climate Fund, but Australia has signalled it will not.
PR handout/AAP
The G20 summit in Brisbane has put the pressure on Australia to boost its action on climate change not just at home but also internationally through a new UN-backed fund. The summit yielded major pledges…
Media reporting on the costs of Australia’s Security Council bid has overlooked several significant issues.
EPA/Andrew Gombert
In the lead-up to Australia’s election to the United Nations Security Council in 2012, much of the media focused on the costs and value of the campaign. In particular, it was claimed Australia “bought…
Joyce Banda, who was forced to fire her entire cabinet for corruption.
DFID via Flickr
Like many aid-dependent countries in the developing world, Malawi cannot balance its books without donor support, which makes up as much as 40% of the national budget. Yet because of the ongoing nightmare…
“I mean, I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but…”
Chris Ison/PA Archive
International development secretary Justine Greening’s speech at the Conservative Party conference was a safe one. Recognising that many of the audience have criticised the need for the UK’s aid programme…
While many poor people in Indonesia and elsewhere lack clean water sources, research has challenged long-held assumptions about the best aid approach to this problem.
Wikimedia Commons
Despite cuts to future aid spending since the Abbott government assumed office, the level of aid to Southeast Asia remains largely unchanged. What is in doubt is the space and the mechanisms for research…
There is scant evidence that ‘aid for trade’ programs have any impact on lifting the poorest people globally out of poverty.
EPA/Yahya Arhab
Even before assuming office, foreign minister Julie Bishop was clear on the Coalition’s approach to foreign aid: “aid for trade” was touted as the primary strategy of the Coalition’s aid program. Last…
Three in four Australians see aid to help the world’s most vulnerable poor as a simple human priority. Their government has a different view of the aid program.
Julien Harneis/Flickr
Major changes have been made recently to Australia’s official aid program. Funding has been cut sharply. Australia’s aid agency AusAID has been absorbed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and…
Australia’s new foreign aid priorities and level of funding suggests we are now failing in our moral obligation to help the most vulnerable overseas.
AAP/Department of Defence
While the Abbott government’s first budget has been widely criticised for its aggressive cost-cutting measures, the largest single reduction – a A$7.6 billion cut to Australia’s Official Development Assistance…
Charis Palmer, The Conversation and Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation
Since publication this infographic has been amended. The original version stated the NDIS was scaled back. There are no planned cuts to the funding of the NDIS.
Treasurer Joe Hockey and finance minister Mathias Cormann face a difficult sell for the Abbott government’s tough first budget.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Abbott government is hoping an A$11.6 billion infrastructure spending package, combined with a $20 billion medical research fund, will help soften the blow of widespread tightening of health and welfare…
Glimpses of horror: while the West watches, Syria burns.
SIcco2007
The humanitarian crisis in Syria is no longer news. It is simple fact: tragedy writ large, as cities burn and lives are ruined. Our eyes may widen at the sheer scale of this destruction: four million people…
Right twice a day - but not this time.
Steve Parsons/PA
The Daily Mail has launched a petition which strongly urges prime minister David Cameron to “divert some of the £11 billion a year spent on overseas aid to ease the suffering of British flood victims…
Australia made a generous contribution to the relief effort in the Philippines, but has significantly reduced humanitarian and emergency response funding for 2013-14.
DFAT
The Coalition government’s changes to Australia’s foreign aid budget for 2013-14 were finally confirmed in January by means of a rudimentary spreadsheet. This showed A$650 million in cuts at the level…