An Effective Aid Program for Australia

Under the new policy AusAID is working to ensure equitable access to health and education services, particularly for adolescent girls. Photo: UNICEF/Sabah Arar

Australia's aid policy

The Government has announced a new policy for Australia’s aid program, An Effective Aid Program for Australia: Making a real difference—Delivering real results. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd released the policy in July 2011 in response to the Government-commissioned Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness. The policy centres on delivering real results for poor people in developing countries by maximising the effectiveness of Australia’s aid.

The Government is committed to scaling up our aid effort so that it reaches 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015–16. This will, subject to future levels of economic growth, see the aid budget almost double to around $8 billion by 2015–16. An Effective Aid Program for Australia is helping to deliver a larger, more effective aid program with real, measurable results in reducing poverty.

AusAID’s Director General Peter Baxter provided an opening statement [external PDF, 1.21mb] overview of An Effective Aid Program for Australia to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee at the Senate Estimates hearing on 20 October 2011. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd also updated Parliament on implementation on 23 November 2011.

Purpose of Australian aid

The fundamental purpose of Australian aid is to help people in developing countries overcome poverty. This also serves Australia’s national interests by promoting stability and prosperity in our region and beyond. We focus our effort in areas where Australia can make a difference and where our resources can most effectively and efficiently be deployed.

Focus of Australian aid

Consistent with the Millennium Development Goals, Australia’s aid program is guided by five core strategic goals, reinforced by 10 individual development objectives:

The core strategic goal ‘Saving Lives’ focuses Australia’s aid program on improving public health. Photo: Rocky Roe/AusAID

Saving lives

Improving public health.
Improving the lives of women and children through greater access to quality services.

Promoting opportunities for all

Enabling more children, particularly girls to attend school.
Empowering women.
Enhancing the lives of people with disabilities.

Sustainable economic development

Improving food security.
Improving incomes, employment and enterprise opportunities for poor people.
Reducing negative impacts of climate change and environmental factors on poor people.

Effective governance

Improving governance to deliver services, improve security and enhance justice and human rights for poor people.

Humanitarian and disaster response

Enhancing disaster preparedness and delivering faster and more effective responses to humanitarian crises.

Geographically, as recommended in the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness, the Asia–Pacific region, including our nearest neighbours, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor, remain the primary focus of Australia’s efforts. This is where we have strong ties and experience, and where the international community expects us to play a lead role. It is also where our own economic and security interests are most closely engaged.

At the same time, we will increase aid to South Asia and Africa—as a growing middle power, we cannot pretend to be tackling global poverty without increasing our investment in the world’s two most impoverished regions. The aid program will continue to play its part in international efforts to bring development to Afghanistan and Pakistan. We will also provide targeted support elsewhere.

Partnerships

Working through partners extends the reach and impact of Australia’s aid—both within our region and beyond. We will increase support for multilateral organisations such as the World Bank and the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI), and United Nations development agencies that we assess as being efficient and effective, that are consistent with Australian priorities, and that deliver value for money through the Australian Multilateral Assessment.

AusAID will make greater use of the talents available in Australia’s non-government sector, academic and research institutions and business, as well as members of the wider Australian community. This will include increasing funding and partnerships with NGOs, developing stronger links with Australian business and increasing volunteer numbers.

Evaluation and Performance Oversight

AusAID will continue to refine and strengthen our internal oversight and quality reporting systems. Consistent with the findings of the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness, we will undertake a smaller number of high quality independent evaluations and draw on external advice, targeting areas where effectiveness can be improved. The Government has committed to establish an Independent Evaluation Committee in 2012, to oversee these evaluations and an annual synthesis and quality assurance report.

Making Australian aid more effective

Under the new aid policy, the Australian Government is focused on delivering an aid program that is world-leading in its effectiveness and delivers real and measurable results in reducing poverty on the ground.

Enhanced effectiveness is the cornerstone of Australia’s aid program, and to achieve this AusAID is:

developing a rolling four-year whole-of-government aid budget strategy, covering for the first time, the aid efforts of all relevant Australian Government agencies under one coherent plan that outlines the results we aim to achieve
analysing annually progress against the results outlined in the four-year budget strategy to make clear what is working and what is not
abolishing any programs that are not delivering on their objectives or undertake immediate changes to make sure they are
applying the Government’s Transparency Charter to all the programs it delivers, to provide more accessible information on what we fund and the results we achieve
further strengthening our existing robust fraud and risk management systems and capabilities
involving more Australians in the aid program including by increasing volunteer numbers and improving links with Australian business.

More information

Last reviewed: 23 November, 2011