PNG Oxfam welcomes Australian aid shift

Transcript

Oxfam in Papua New Guinea says it welcomes the Australian government's new aid policy framework with its focus on private sector involvement and increased accountability.

The Associate Country Director, Phillippe Allen, says he believes Canberra is aware of the pitfalls of so called boomerang aid and has taken steps to ensure the majority of aid directly benefits local people.

Jenny Meyer asked him how much aid PNG is expecting from Australia this financial year.

PHILLIPPE ALLEN: Well in Papua New Guinea the estimated expenditure is around A$577m from next year, so that's July 1 this year to June 30 next year. That I think is an increase of maybe around 20 to 25 million, I can't be exactly sure, but it's certainly going up. That's a very large amount of money it's the second biggest recipient of Australian aid in the world after Indonesia. So we are talking about increase, not just a notional increase, it is a real increase. And the focus areas for that are largely around; private sector, governance, health and education, and women's economic empowerment. They're the four key areas. So we think that's probably the right balance in terms of the themes. We certainly work in two or three of those areas and many NGOs do. We just wouldn't want to see too much of that 577 million going to eye catching infrastructure such as roads and bridges and so forth and cleaning up market places. Those things are good. But there's no point having a brand new road if women can't walk safely down it. There's no point refurbishing a market place if women can't go to the market place and sell their goods in safety in the evenings. There's a lot of other issues that one has to address if you are to release the potential that infrastructure investment can give you. So it's that whole package of issues we look for. And it seems at least on paper and on what the budget commitments have been and what Minister Bishop has been saying that we are seeing at least an appreciation of that from Canberra.

JENNY MEYER: Ok, so all in all you're pretty happy with how it's panned out so far?

PA: I think we are. I think if you look at the overall trends in world development, the overall amount of foreign aid funding has now begun to fall. So those days of very significant increases that we saw with Tony Blair, with Kevin Rudd and all the rest of it, those days are over. Aid budgets are now falling. And in that context I think for PNG to receive an increase in development assistance in the coming twelve months I think is a good outcome when you look at the global position and the fact that many countries are reducing their aid budgets over time. So we think probably that outcome for PNG is quite good and that's certainly the view I think of most academics and politicians who look closely at the issue.