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Whither Australian aid?
What will become of aid under the new Coalition Government? The answer to this question matters. Australia is the Pacific’s largest source of aid, and globally it is the eighth largest donor country....
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Back to the future? The split personality of Australian aid
It is fairly safe to say that the recent announcement that AusAID will be reabsorbed into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) came as a shock to most observers of aid politics in...
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The continuing revolution in Australian aid
Stephen Howes’ 2011 blog post “The quiet revolution in Australian aid: a blog for Tim Costello and Aid Watch” outlined dramatic change in the way AusAID gives its aid. Stephen argued that criticisms...
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AusAID into DFAT: opportunity not threat
The Federal Government’s abolition of the Australian International Aid Agency, AusAID, merging its functions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, will naturally cause anxiety for those...
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AusAID staffing: how low could it go?
Judging from recent remarks by the finance minister, Senator Mathias Cormann, the government might be about to accomplish an overseas aid hat-trick. Cormann was quoted in the The Australian of Friday...
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Felled before forty: the once and future AusAID
Today the agency known since 1995 as AusAID ceases to exist as an independent organisation. And, as is now clear, by mid-2014 at the latest it will cease to exist as a separately identifiable component...
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More transparent, open and effective: Julie Bishop on Australian aid
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s address to the ACFID Council last week was much anticipated. It was her first major statement on aid since the Coalition won government in September. The speech left...
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What’s the future for Australia’s aid effectiveness?
As part of the scale-up of aid begun under John Howard and continued by the Rudd and Gillard Governments, the agency formerly known as AusAID invested a significant amount of effort in improving its...
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Thinking about aid’s organisation
What does research tell us about the relationship between a donor government aid program’s purpose and the way the program is administered? A salient question given the recent aid organisational...
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AusAID integration: the common-sense upside
The decision by the Australian Government to integrate AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has been widely debated in this blog. Serious concerns have been expressed about...
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Local staff and aid effectiveness: does integration matter?
Much has been written on this blog and elsewhere about the potential impacts of the DFAT-AusAID merger. Some have emphasized the positives: the aid program will more closely align with our foreign...
View ArticleThe mess that is DFAT’s aid website
A while ago, I complained that all the project pages had been taken down from DFAT’s aid website. Now some are back, but in a special archived section of the website. You can find some out-of-date PNG...
View ArticlePlibersek: AusAID to return only if Coalition has a single term
Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Tanya Plibersek used her speech at ACFID Council 2014 to call out the aid sector for so easily letting the government get away with...
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A year in the life: Australia’s integrated aid administration
In September 2013, there was intense media and public interest in the incoming Abbott government’s decision—one of its first—to abolish the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and...
View ArticleA virtual trip down memory lane: accessing AusAID’s old website
Do you miss AusAID? I must admit I do. That’s why I was pretty chuffed to find out – through my friend Dr Jonathan Schultz – that it is now possible to access the old AusAID website through a web...
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The Australian aid fraud beat-up
People believe what they want to believe. So a front-page story in The Australian newspaper on Monday about fraud at AusAID no doubt confirmed to many the rampant waste in Australia’s foreign aid...
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Does merging improve aid efficiency?
In foreign aid, ‘efficiency’ (which is distinct from ‘effectiveness’) usually refers to the costs associated with administrating aid programs, that is, the costs of running aid agencies and activities...
View ArticleLocal staff and aid effectiveness: does integration matter?
Much has been written on this blog and elsewhere about the potential impacts of the DFAT-AusAID merger. Some have emphasized the positives: the aid program will more closely align with our foreign...
View ArticleThe mess that is DFAT’s aid website
A while ago, I complained that all the project pages had been taken down from DFAT’s aid website. Now some are back, but in a special archived section of the website. You can find some out-of-date PNG...
View ArticlePlibersek: AusAID to return only if Coalition has a single term
Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Tanya Plibersek used her speech at ACFID Council 2014 to call out the aid sector for so easily letting the government get away with...
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