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Donate nowWhat is aid?
Aid is referred to as Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is the amount of money any government gives that can be considered as ‘official aid’.
Flint Duxfield/AID/WATCH
ODA is not limited to funds spent by Australia’s aid agency, AusAID, but includes any form of expenditure that follows the guidelines set out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
This section outlines how the guidelines set by the OECD allows donors to artificially inflate the amount of aid they provide by counting non-development related foreign policy expenditure as aid. It also provides a critique of the Australian government’s own practices in relation to inflating aid figures.
You will also find a brief history of aid, info about new bilateral aid donors and philanthropists as well as a discussion of recent additions to aid-speak, including the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Declaration Principles.
This section also takes a look at differing perspectives as to what aid priorities should be according to various interest groups, including AusAID, the current Rudd Labor government, civil society organisations and NGOs.
