Aid budget 2015
It was probably the most important budget ever for aid. Certainly the biggest cuts, and the biggest restructuring of the aid program in a single budget.
It certainly gave us a lot to talk about at our livestreamed annual breakfast aid forum the morning after the budget. If you missed it and want to catch up, the video is available here, presentations here and a podcast here.
You can read all our analysis here: the way the cuts fell across countries and organisations; the logic of the cuts, and its limits; the end of aid to Africa; the macroeconomic context; and the implications for equity.
2015 Pacific Update: call for papers
The Development Policy Centre, Asian Development Bank, and University of the South Pacific (School of Economics) are pleased to announce that the 2015 Pacific Update will be held on 15-17 July 2015, at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji.
A call for papers [pdf] is currently open, with abstracts due by 31 May.
Dr Martin Ravallion on global inequality and poverty
Dr Martin Ravallion, formerly World Bank Research Director and now at Georgetown University, will be speaking on the topic of ‘Global inequality: are the world’s poorest being left behind?’ in an event on 9 June (5.30pm-6.30pm, Crawford School). In his lecture, he will show there has been remarkably little progress in raising the world’s consumption floor over the last 30 years, despite economic growth and greater social safety net coverage. Register here.
Dr Ravallion will also be speaking at the 5th ACFID University Network Conference and at the Australasian Development Economics Workshop, both at Monash University next month.
Upcoming events
Global inequality: are the world’s poorest being left behind?
Dr Martin Ravallion. Tuesday 9 June, 5.30pm – 6.30pm. Register here.
2015 PNG Update
18-19 June, University of Papua New Guinea. Details here.
2015 Pacific Update
15-17 July, University of the South Pacific, Suva. Details here.
Blog highlights
A round-up of our budget coverage
Anthony Clunies-Ross: a remarkable Australian
Was DFAT the only winner in last week’s aid budget?
On the blog
PNG’s foreign workforce is increasingly blue-collar by Carmen Voigt-Graf
Anthony Clunies-Ross: contributor to the common good by Ross Garnaut and John Langmore
Financing for development: this year’s big debate by Matthew Morris
The mysterious case of the vanishing budget emergency by Anthony Swan
Beyond country programs in the 2015-16 aid budget: losers, non-losers, and a winner by Jonathan Pryke, Camilla Burkot and Stephen Howes
Flaws in the glass: allocation quirks in the 2015-16 Australian aid budget by Robin Davies
Requiem for Australia’s aid program in Africa by Joel Negin
Australian aid: the way we were by Stephen Howes
The same, the bad, and the ugly: country allocations in the 2015-16 budget by Matthew Dornan
PNG’s March monetary statement: the good, the bad, and the unclear by Paul Flanagan
Aid to PNG: a long game by Stuart Schaefer
In brief
Violence in South Pacific has intergenerational impact: UNICEF report
Julie Bishop on the aid cuts: “fair and appropriate”
Powerful talk on family violence in Timor-Leste
Australian aid budget forum and coverage
Executions haven’t changed opinions on Indonesia aid: poll
This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, published every second Friday.
