Australian aid
At the 30th Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum, the two governments noted PNG’s budget repair efforts and committed to examine other ways, beyond budget support loans, to assist PNG’s fiscal reforms. Ministers highlighted the importance of PNG’s meeting its International Monetary Fund-backed debt sustainability commitments “when considering the large pipeline of infrastructure financing proposals”.
Alongside new bilateral policing, law and justice and security initiatives, the communique also outlines the priorities under Australia’s new development partnership plan (2024-29) with PNG — “health, education, climate, inclusion and protection of marginalised groups, embedding of First Nations perspectives, and empowerment of women and girls”. Australia will allocate a further $2.2 million to ongoing landslide relief efforts in Mulitaka.
During a visit by Solomon Islands’ new Prime Minister, Jeremiah Manele, it was agreed that officials will consider how Australia might best support the country’s ambition to double the size of its police force, from 1,500 to 3,000 officers, over the next decade. There were no references in the joint statement to additional budget support, despite reports suggesting this would be raised by Manele.
The government will allocate $24 million from its five-year $620 million Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative to expand a partnership with CSIRO aimed at improving pandemic prevention, preparedness and response capability in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. It has earmarked a further $32 million to support animal health, combat antimicrobial resistance, and develop new treatments for neglected tropical diseases by working with a range of partners.
The government will allocate $29 million in humanitarian funding to multiple protracted crises in the Horn of Africa, as millions across the region face record levels of displacement and the prospect of an historic famine. One recent assessment suggests that excess mortality in Sudan could reach as high as 2.5 million deaths by September.
At an international conference in Jordan, the government announced an allocation of $10 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Gaza, bringing its total commitment since the beginning of the crisis to $72.5 million.
Speaking at Senate Estimates, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said government will consider whether to publicly release an assessment of the Netanyahu government’s response to the killing of Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, by the Israeli Defence Forces once it receives the report. Defence officials said the government is still considering a US request for international support for a troubled temporary humanitarian pier anchored off Gaza’s shore.
At an international peace summit for Ukraine, Australia announced that it would allocate further assistance to support the country’s energy needs ($20 million), provide humanitarian relief ($10 million), and improve services to persons with disabilities ($1 million). Following the summit, G7 leaders agreed to mobilise around US$50 billion in revenues from frozen Russian assets as loans to help meet Ukraine’s defence, budget and reconstruction needs.
DFAT has released a Guidance Note on “locally-led development”, a key theme of the government’s 2023 International Development Strategy. The note is “a living document that will be updated periodically to capture lessons, evolving taxonomy, good practice case studies and performance measurement”.
Regional/global aid
While Pacific aid is likely to be protected, the New Zealand government’s foreign policy “reset” will see it join Australia near the bottom of the OECD’s aid generosity ranking in the coming years.
The junta in Myanmar is reportedly pursuing plans to revive the controversial Myitsone Dam, a China-backed project in conflict-affected Kachin State. The project was suspended in 2011 by the reformist military-backed government led by President Thein Sein.
Reuters has reported on a secret US Defence Department campaign of digital disinformation in 2020 and 2021 designed to undermine confidence in Chinese-produced COVID-19 vaccines which targeted populations in countries like the Philippines. The program reportedly ceased in mid-2021 and has been condemned by health experts and former US officials.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power has said that the Biden administration will work with Congress to provide at least US$1.58 billion over five years to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to help save more than eight million lives through scaled-up vaccination manufacture and coverage. Gavi is seeking US$9 billion from donors for its next replenishment and has launched a new US$1 billion African vaccine manufacturing accelerator.
At the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its detailed “investment case” for 2025-28 which aims to save 40 million lives through the mobilisation of US$7.1 billion in voluntary contributions from donors.
House Republicans have again called for large cuts to President Biden’s development assistance budget for financial year 2025, including prohibitions on funding for the Green Climate Fund, the Clean Technology Fund, the Loss and Damage Fund, UN Women, the UN Population Fund, and WHO. These are expected to be rejected by the Senate and budget negotiations are likely to be protracted in an election year.
In the lead-up to the final International Development Association (IDA) replenishment meeting in December, the World Bank hosted a preparatory meeting with Nepal focused on its promise “to position IDA to do more, better and faster for client countries”. Ahead of the meeting, the Bank released its new gender strategy (2024-2030) and its latest data on global poverty and inequality.
An international climate change meeting in Bonn has ended in a stalemate over a new global climate finance target, with disagreement between developed and developing countries over the funding quantum and whether contributors should include high emissions emerging economies like China and the Arab oil-producing states. A draft decision needs to be finalised before COP29 in November.
A former OECD official has savaged the body’s ODA accounting rules for private sector investments, accusing its donor members of “short-changing developing countries, and destroying researchers’ ability to assess the cost-benefit of aid activities, and thereby improve their quality and effectiveness”.
Books, articles, reports, blogs, podcasts etc.
UNHCR’s latest report on global displacement estimates that at the end of 2023, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide rose to 117.3 million (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Global displacement trends, 2014-2023
Source: UNHCR, Global trends: forced displacement in 2023, May 2024.
The ANU’s Maria Tanyag has published a new book, The global politics of sexual and reproductive health which aims to demonstrate “why sexual and reproductive health matters for contemporary approaches to peace, security, and political economy”.
Duncan Green has released an updated edition of his groundbreaking 2016 book, How change happens which grapples with the subsequent rise of digital technology in activism, populism and shrinking civic space.
Dan Honig’s new book Mission driven bureaucrats argues that governments perform better when they “employ management strategies that empower employees, cultivate competence, and foster a commitment to the mission”.
A group of environmental scientists and economists have written for the journal Nature about what extending the Sustainable Development Goals to 2050 could look like.
The Australian-based Institute of Economics and Peace has released its 2024 Global Peace Index, reporting that the world is currently facing 56 conflicts, the highest number recorded since World War Two.
Disclosure
Material for this update has been collected by Devpol staff; editorial responsibility lies with Cameron Hill. Devpol’s work on Australian aid is supported by the Gates Foundation. The views represent those of Centre staff only.
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