AidWatch Annual Report
The year 2025 saw the world plunge deeper into a multi-pronged geopolitical crisis, propelled by the dangerous actions of the leaders of global economic powers and the deeply entrenched Western imperialism which supports those actions. We saw a year marked by ongoing wars, genocides, and increasing environmental and climate chaos.
Throughout this, Aid/Watch’s small team has continued to be staunchly committed to justice, and we have remained vocal and unapologetic in our solidarity with oppressed and occupied peoples – from West Papua to Sudan to Palestine. We stand unequivocally with Palestinians in their ongoing struggle for justice, land, and liberation. The Israeli state’s genocidal assault on Gaza, supported and shielded by Western powers including Australia, continues to expose the deep entanglements between militarism, extractivism, and imperialism.
As part of our ongoing Just Transition Beyond Mining thematic focus, Liz Downes has continued to maintain the Transition and Critical Minerals Tracker, which serves as a foundation for our advocacy and solidarity work with communities resisting mining across the globe. AidWatch has continued to participate actively in forums, workshops and solidarity exchanges, ensuring the lived experiences and demands of affected communities are brought to the centre of the debate.
We have continued to collaborate with the Yes to Life No to Mining (YLNM) solidarity network, of which AidWatch is a member. Through 2025 we contributed to several major position papers on themes including Just Transition and Militarisation and Mining. In November 2025 co-chairs Liz Downes and Nat Lowrey went to the COP30 in Belém do Pará, Brazil, to attend the grassroots convergence surrounding the summit. Read below for the report of what we achieved.
Our call remains clear: Australia must end its complicity, cut military and aid ties that serve oppressive regimes, and reorient its foreign policy towards one grounded in human rights, international law, and global solidarity.
As we enter an increasingly unstable geopolitical era, with Trumpist foreign policy thinking already shaping Australian security and aid frameworks, we are reminded why AidWatch exists. We are here to resist the subordination of aid to military agendas, to challenge extractive development imposed under the guise of progress, and to amplify the voices of those too often ignored.
In Solidarity
Liz Downes & Nat Lowrey
Co-Chairs, AidWatch