Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced reforms to her country's aid policy saying it needs to be more innovative and work more creatively with the main drivers of economic development to reduce poverty.
Transcript
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced reforms to her country's aid policy saying it needs to be more innovative and work more creatively with the main drivers of economic development to reduce poverty.
She says Australia will continue to be one of the world's most generous aid donors and the government has stabilised the aid budget at nearly 5 billion US dollars per year.
Jenny Meyer reports:
Julie Bishop says the purpose of the revamped programme known as 'aid for trade' is to promote Australia's national interests by contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. She says the focus will be on both supporting private sector development and strengthening human development.
JULIE BISHOP: We recognise the role trade plays in development. So we will use our aid to strengthen the private sector in ways that expand trading opportunities, creates jobs and grows the economies in our region.
Julie Bishop says the aid programme will have a sharper geographic focus on South East Asia and the Pacific with most of the aid spent in the region from this year. The Director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University says the Government's 'aid for trade' agenda will put more emphasis on the private sector and innovation but he thinks the restructure is more a reform than a revolution. He says this includes an innovation fund of 130 million US dollars over four years, specifically to trial new approaches to aid spending. Stephen Howes says there will be a requirement to assess every project to see if the private sector can be involved in the delivery of aid. He says this will be positive so long as the term 'private sector' is interpreted broadly to include non government organisations, and churches as well as for-profit companies.
STEPHEN HOWES: They'll want to marry that desire to see more innovation with the other desire to see more involvement by the private sector. So not only is there meant to a be focus on activities that will help private sector development but the private sector's actually meant to be involved in delivering the aid programme.
However the Australian Greens say the Government's aid plans are reminiscent of the discredited aid policies of the 1980s with Australian companies set to profit at the expense of impoverished communities in the Asia Pacific region. Spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon says 'aid for trade' and massive spending on large scale infrastructure projects represents a far reaching realignment of the aid programme towards Australia's interests over that of the aid recipient countries and communities. She says most of the nations that receive Australian aid do not have a strong private sector
LEE RHIANNON: If you look at most low income countries they don't have large companies that can tender for projects to build big road projects or bridge projects. Clearly what we're seeing here is that the successful tenderers will more than likely come from Australia.
Senator Rhiannon says corporatised aid opens the door to increased corruption as aid money can be used to fast track projects particularly in the extractive industries. But Julie Bishop says a robust approach to safeguarding the aid money from fraud and corruption risks will continue.
JULIE BISHOP: A new performance framework with ten high level targets will drive the changes required in the aid programme, and ensure that it is effectively delivered. Funding will be directed to projects that make a real and measureable difference. Where projects don't deliver the results we expect, we'll cease funding them.
Julie Bishop says, what she calls a paradigm shift in the aid programme will both project and protect Australia's interests by promoting economic development to reduce poverty and lift living standards in the region.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.