Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of any effective government program.
I am proud to announce the launch of AusDevPortal — a new, online transparency portal dedicated to Australia’s international development work.
This transparency uplift is part of the Government’s commitment to ensuring that every dollar of development funding contributes to the outcomes that Australia and our partners want to achieve.
By making information on our investments, results and performance more accessible than ever before, we seek not just to enhance public trust but to provide our partners and the public with the data they need to see the impact of Australian aid.
Transparency in international development is more than just sharing numbers. It’s about building trust with Australian citizens, partner governments and communities across the region.
In the new international development policy, which Foreign Minister Penny Wong and I released last year, we committed to increase the transparency of Australia’s international development program.
We were well aware of the fact that the transparency of Australia’s international development program had been falling for a long time. Under the previous Government, Australia stopped reporting its international development investments to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in 2019.
The effect of that decision carried a long lag. The IATI results that came out in mid-2024 saw our rankings fall away. We are determined to turn this situation around.
From this week, Australia will again be reporting our international development data to IATI.
Alongside the recommencement of our IATI reporting, the launch of AusDevPortal represents a significant increase in transparency for Australia’s aid program.
Through the portal, users can now more easily access information on Australia’s overseas development projects, from infrastructure to health and education initiatives. Users can see firsthand how we are contributing to regional stability and sustainable growth.
For Australians, the portal brings to life how our international development efforts help communities — by fostering resilience against climate impacts, supporting gender equality and reducing poverty.
For governments, communities and civil society around the region, the portal helps demonstrate our openness as a partner.
It’s also a reflection of the values we hold dear as a nation, aligning our global contributions with a sense of shared responsibility and humanity.
For the first time, the portal gives access to Official Development Assistance (ODA) project, financial and performance data, all in one place.
It allows anyone — from students to NGOs to researchers to our partner governments — to view Australia’s international development commitments and see how our efforts are being monitored and evaluated.
Put simply, the portal will show what we’re spending, where it’s being spent, and importantly, what it’s achieving.
From responses to humanitarian crises to long-term health and education investments, AusDevPortal is designed to be an intuitive, accessible way to explore Australia’s role in development.
The development of this portal, and our broader transparency uplift efforts, reflect the collaborative spirit that defines Australia’s approach to our international development program and how we work with the region.
These are critical to demonstrating who we are as a country and partner, what we value, and what we are doing to advance a more peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
Throughout the design process, we consulted with stakeholders — from Australian NGOs to partner governments — whose feedback helped shape a platform that meets diverse needs while staying true to our transparency goals.
This was key to creating a tool that not only informs but also connects development partners and policymakers.
AusDevPortal is being developed in a phased approach, with the first release version intended to be a beta product that will be built over time as user needs evolve, more data and documentation becomes available, and stakeholder feedback is collected.
This portal is just one element of our commitment to rebuilding transparency.
You can see this through the architecture of the international development program flowing from our 2023 policy, including the new Performance and Delivery Framework, the new annual Performance of Australian Development Cooperation report, the creation of Development Partnership Plans (such as for Indonesia and PNG) — and the deep, broad and open consultations that underpin all these elements.
These measures represent a level of transparency that will give Australians and our international partners more visibility of and confidence in our development efforts — marking the beginning of a new chapter in how we communicate the value and impact of Australian aid.
As Minister for International Development and the Pacific, I look forward to using this transparency uplift to foster more open dialogue about the importance of development in our region.
Transparency is essential to building confidence in our development program, and supporting better, deeper relationships with our partners across the region.
Access the beta version of the AusDevPortal.
The AusDevPortal was launched at the Australasian AID Conference on 3 December. The livestream is available on Devpolicy YouTube.
As a P.S to the above, I’ve now had a chance to read Masood Ahmed’s thoughtful 2024 Mitchell Oration and note this significant qualifier somewhat hidden away in his address:
https://devpolicy.org/development-cooperation-in-a-contested-world-20241206/
“Third, development assistance providers must rebuild domestic support through frank discussions about both moral imperatives and self-interest in addressing global challenges. ”
Governments of all persuasions struggle with sufficient tax collections to satisfy voters’ domestic preferences and demands in straitened times. Not least of all – during the many years of Australia’s foreign aid programs.
In my decades of experience with persuading Governments that targeting our aid to reduce overseas poverty is “a good thing”, I suggest that this would have been made easier by the respective Minister of the time making regular announcements on the results from our aid dollars.
Thus having those frank discussions to gain that domestic support for the poorest of the world’s poor and help to reverse that “shift in many wealthy nations toward inward-focused policies.”
Thank you, Minister.
Especially for this worthwhile comment: “Put simply, the portal will show what we’re spending, where it’s being spent, and importantly, what it’s achieving.”
That third element in our program “what it’s achieving” is extremely important. Does this have anything to with Treasury’s welcome initiative, the Australian Centre for Evaluation being utilised now by DFAT?
I used to teach a course for 3 years to students at the University of Papua New Guinea: “Policy Monitoring and Evaluation” between 2021 and 2023. Those three elements are the essence of effective govenment that can demonstrate delivering effective programs to citizens.
Can I therefore ask that you proceed beyond the relative passivity of such an information portal and take pride in making public Ministerial announcements of the demonstrated achievements from our aid program ? I cannot remember any government Minister, Foreign or Development Assistance, telling the Australian people what has been achieved in reducing world poverty. On the contrary, there are continuing elements of Australian society who advocate ending aid until Australian poverty has been eliminated.
According to the World Bank: “8.5 percent of the global population – almost 700 million people – live today on less than (US) $2.15 per day, the extreme poverty line for low-income countries. Three-quarters of all people in extreme poverty live in Sub-Saharan Africa or in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
44 percent of the global population – around 3.5 billion people – live today on less than (US) $6.85 per day,” (Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview).
Much can be done in addressing the Australian people by Ministers, to say how and where – over the long-term of decades – Australia has played its part in reducing those poverty levels and improving the lives of those people. Our aid and tax dollars save lives.