The non-government group, Oxfam, says a key consideration for a new New Zealand aid funding scheme is that it make sense in development terms.
The NZ Partnerships for International Development is planned as a contestable fund for NGOs, the state sector and private businesses.
Oxfam's executive director, Barry Coates, says it can't depend on decisions being made in offices in Auckland and Wellington.
He says the only way the aid development will be sustainable is if Pacific people and institutions own the developments with support from New Zealand.
And Mr Coates says Oxfam wants to ensure the aid goes to the people who really need it.
"We want to make sure that instead of concentrating on the kind of economic development that makes rich people richer in the Pacific, actually it has got to help through being inclusive, because the world is going through a process at the moment where there are increasing inequalities between people who are haves and people who are have nots, and the Pacific is no exception to that and we want to make sure that this is really a helping hand for the people who need the help the most."
Oxfam's executive director, Barry Coates.
