Comments

Thanks Ruth, I found this discussion of a key front-line service delivery issue really interesting.

Thanks Ronan. While you may not think it is a crisis, those in Liberia and Sierra Leone with whom I speak frequently certainly think it is. More than 5000 dead and estimates of up to 10,000 infections a week in December if appropriate action is not taken. And the crisis in the health system is real. Is it a crisis for Australia? No, clearly not at present. And unlikely that it will be. But I hope you managed to get past the word 'crisis' in the title to see that there are lessons for Australia and our immediate region should a more virulent influenza strain emerge. I do hope you are right that "it will die down pretty quickly" but I would expect our government agencies to be prepared should it not.

Presidents are now elected in the LLG General Election by the voters through the electorate. They can be dismissed for neglect of duty. The OLPGLLGE and the LLG Administration Act give different pathways for dismissal. It may be by appeal to the Provincial Governor, or through appeal to the Minister for Inter-Government Relations who may commission an enquiry by the Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs. In this case, Councillors and community leaders counseled by outside expertise appealed to the Minister. Shortly after the President returned to the LLG and called a meeting.

Thanks for this post which I think will be of interest to a number of people. I have been thinking about it for most of the day. It raises some important issues. I find some of the material presented quite problematic which is, I think, a reflection of the problematic nature of capacity development as envisioned and delivered via the aid programme. First of all, I think the term 'capacity development' can and probably should be largely done away with. When staff members from the Australian Treasury or DFAT or anywhere else are given an opportunity to learn something new so that they can do their jobs better, we call it 'professional development' so there is no reason to have a different term for doing it in Solomon Islands or Timor-Leste. Secondly, the material here is informed by a supply side approach to this type of activity, which is probably because that is how it is designed and delivered via the aid programme. For example 'The potential scope of capacity development activities can be very broad, so it is important for advisers to assess the options thoroughly'. I would suggest that it is for the personnel within a given agency to assess options and determine which are most appropriate for them as individuals, units and organisations - they are the ones who know the context in which they are working, where their existing strengths lie and what they need in order to do things better. There may be scope for facilitating the articulation of these things internally and externally. Thirdly, there is a presumption that this form of activity can and should be delivered by an individual who has a counterpart. However, what is often more likely is that the 'counterpart' is an entire organisation and that what would be more useful (to the organisation) would be access to a suite of services and inputs tailored to priorities (some of which may change over time) and cognisant of competing calls on resources (sometimes money but mainly time). If and when donors recognise the value of this approach it will open up opportunities to provide support of this type using innovative methods which are likely to provide better value for money, including utilising local resources rather than importing them from elsewhere. This post makes reference to the importance of 'soft' capacities and to that list I would add items such as analysis, influencing, negotiation, coaching and mentoring. I have had a number of discussions about innovative ways in which the aid programme can assist in responding to these needs and value add to investments that are already in place. There is more to say and do in this space.

Sorry but the whole "crisis" has been blown out of all proportion like Avain flu and all the others. The world has known about Ebola for 25 years. It freaked me out reading how fast it spread when i read a book on it 20+ years ago. I am sure like all the other superbugs, avian flu etc it will die down pretty quickly. Ronan

Great blog and very clear lessons. I thought one missing piece is how advisers are managed, A dual and mixed reporting line to civil service line manangers and funding agency heads can be a part of the problem,

Priyanka, Your post raises an important question about the role of China and other emerging economies in delivering global public goods such as climate change. Even if China only acts domestically to reduce its domestic greenhouse gas emissions, as the world's largest emitter those actions will deliver global benefits for the world's climate - so it's reasonable to expect that China will continue to devote most of its climate-related resources at home. But there's definitely a case for China and some other emerging economies to step up their international funding as well, not least as an expression of solidarity with poorer countries. Having said that, I think it's important to put in perspective the magnitude of current flows. China's pledges at New York were, as you say, somewhat unclear. The only concrete dollar figure mentioned was US$6 million 'to support the UN secretary general in advancing South- South cooperation on climate change' (). A recent article in Foreign Policy magazine described the sum, correctly in my view, as 'paltry' (). The other financing pledge that China made at New York was the one you mentioned - doubling South-South cooperation on adaptation. But the announcement made no mention of the baseline from which funding would be doubled. As far as I can tell (), China pledged at the Rio+20 summit about RMB 200 million (around US$33 million) for the fund. Pledging the same amount again is quite a bit more substantial than the $6 million figure featured at the summit, but still very small compared to the size of China's overall development cooperation budget. It's perhaps also worth recalling that while China has contributed to the Global Environment Facility for many years, in the most recent GEF replenishment this year it chipped in around half of one per cent of total funding (about US$20 million) (). By contrast, even if the Green Climate Fund may not meet the expectations of many - let alone the funding needs of developing countries - it has already attracted over $2 billion in funding (), and is likely to generate considerably more in a formal pledging session in November. While some emerging economies - notably Korea, Mexico and Indonesia - have started to make pledges to the Fund, the lion's share has come from industrialised countries. So I agree that it's fair to expect some emerging economies to do more on international climate funding. But the big challenge will be to boost this funding beyond token levels, and I'm not sure that there are clear signs that this is happening yet. Finally, whether or not China earmarks more funding specifically for climate change, another challenge looms large - climate-proofing its existing development cooperation program.

No worries, Robert. With precedent activities across the region (e.g., G2P Fiji and PFIP's other work), I would be surprised if it is not feasible, particularly if you are looking at partnering with organisations like Nationwide Microbank or BSP with good penetration. If DFAT further funds such work, it would be great to see them properly evaluated with rigorous techniques and household survey panel data, a useful complement the ongoing (or perhaps complete) household diaries research.

Thanks Joel, great blog, it hits many of the the important issues squarely on the head. Particularly: GF is very problematic in small fragile states - heavily verticalised, distorting and over-complex processes and transaction costs. The GF TERG recently <a href="http://www.aidspan.org//node/2408" rel="nofollow">produced </a>some guidelines on how to adapt and be flexible, but it seems little action is being taken. It is high time we rationalise some of these funding streams into a Global Health Fund aimed at strenghtening systems, based on the <a href="http://www.odi.org/comment/4157-accra-high-level-forum-accountability-before-aspiration" rel="nofollow">principles </a> of IHP+ and JANS, that we seem to have all forgotten. There is no reason we can't still track progress and impact through specific health indicators, but we need to move away from short-term, donor-attributable verticalised results focus for the resources. And <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61345-3/fulltext" rel="nofollow">do we need another new fund</a>? There are so many already, adding to chaotic architecture and transaction costs. Lets rationalise and make more simple and effective the ones we have already constructed - and add more to it. Scholarships spending could be reoriented towards building in-country training and education, not just providing career-enhancing opportunities to a few lucky nationals. E.g. better twinning arrangements to offer International standard courses and qualifications through local education institutions. On the route to UHC, health insurance schemes have often been expensive and elitist - they rarely cover the whole population or the poorest. I found this to be a <a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/field/field_document/20140521HealthFinancing.pdf" rel="nofollow">particularly good analysis</a> of how to finance UHC. The weak systems underlying the Ebola outbreak may be the wake up call we need to radically revise and simplify the global health architecture and international development assistance. Let's hope the SDGs capture it effectively, and combine with a focus on reducing inequalities.

All solar is not created equal. At the utility scale where NZ Aid has mostly been operating, it makes sense to import the expertise. The subsequent operations and maintenance, however, should be localised. For commercial/Industrial/household (think rooftop solar), there is a stronger argument for local installation and maintenance with training by international manufacturers plus assistance with the development of grid connection standards and processes. Some of the short to medium term solution for reducing the use of diesel fuel will be about increasing solar and other renewable penetration rates from the generally accepted 20% to greater than 60%. Increasing penetration rates is possible with clever electronics and batteries coupled with the existing diesel gensets. The approach uses batteries for instantaneous power adjustments in the milliseconds to minutes space for grid stability. The diesel gensets are retained to follow load in the minutes to hours space. The diesel gensets come into their own when renewables aren’t available e.g. solar at night. This approach optimises diesel fuel usage and minimises genset maintenance. During the day the gensets are set to operate at their most efficient loading. The solar (renewables) output is varied to follow changes in demand while the diesel genset output varies in a narrow band. The other benefit of the hybrid approach is fuel efficiency and diesel genset longevity. In the past the operation and maintenance regime of diesel gensets on Pacific islands has been poor e.g. never changing the oil just topping it up etc. This is exacerbated by periods of either a) under loading or b) overloading the diesel gensets. This operating regime is fuel inefficient and bad for the gensets. Operating the diesel gensets continuously at 60-80% of nameplate rating is more ideal for longevity and fuel efficiency. The economic efficiency of hybrid solar/diesel generation can depend on having a significant daytime load in a reasonable insolation environment. This occurs where there is government/commercial sector air conditioning load, industrial demand or tourism coupled with aircon/refrigeration load that has some inherent storage capability. See also the Irena publication "Renewable Options for Island Tourism" and the "SMA Fuel Save Solution" for details of the solar/diesel fuel saving concept.

Minister Bishop's focus on women in the aid budget is a welcome priority. Hopefully, our foreign aid for 2010-15 still includes AusAid's microfinance strategy of “Financial Services for the Poor”. One example of its benefits is in Afghanistan, where microfinance aid helps stabilize Afghan livelihoods and stimulate economic development. As an example: one 45 year-old widow with 2 children was able to borrow 10,000 Afghanis ($200), buy a sewing machine and make women’s dresses quickly instead of hand-sewing them. The thirty million people of Afghanistan face immense development challenges in creating their future, next year and in the years afterwards. Yet our foreign aid to Afghanistan is unfortunately decreasing by 10 %, from $149 million to $134 million in 2014-15. It's not yet mission accomplished in that country and more aid to the Afghan poor would be some small credit to Australia.

Thanks for the comment Paddy. Put simply no, I didn't have any other particular mechanism in mind. But I think about the DD as more than just the exchange rate; I might explain this further in a future post. In the documentation on the Alaskan Permanent Fund, I recall there being a mandate to use the fund to intervene when spatial price problems arise. I'm not sure how they do this [well]. However, I think its good to not just think of the effects of a booming sector and a DD at a national level, but also on a within-country basis, where it's more interesting. Cheers Ryan