30 years!

This year, we celebrate our 30th anniversary. We know we would not be here today without the generosity and support of people like you over the years.

Since it’s founding 30 years ago, Aid/Watch has been dedicated to being the only independent monitor of Australia’s international aid and development.

When we first started out we were just a handful of activists working from a living room in Sydney. We were concerned that Australia’s overseas aid money was making life harder for the very people it was supposed to assist.

Dismissed by the Keating government as “two women and a laptop”, Aid/Watch grew to a band of formidable campaigners confronting dubious aid programs that had more to do with opening low-income countries to corporate interests.

Aid/Watch brought a whole new style to campaigning with local communities and advocated for aid programs to protect the local environment. 

For 30 years we have focused on demanding transparency and accountability for Australia’s foreign aid and trade.

In 2020, we expanded our political mandate beyond the ‘aid lens’ in response to converging and intersecting eco-social issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, enduring crises of climate change, human and collective rights abuses, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste, and development aggressions in the Global South by Australian interests.

Our advocacy and campaigns are now focused on three thematic areas: 

• Re-imagining Aid and Development
• Alternatives to Extractivism
• Solidarity with Peoples’ Struggles

With your support, we hope to continue our ongoing collaboration and solidarity with partners and frontline communities across the Asia Pacific for equality, liberation, and justice to lay foundations for a radically different and better future for all.

You can view our achievements in our Annual Reports.

We write to you today because your donation will allow us to continue this necessary work

While we are proud of what we have achieved over the past three decades, now more than ever we recognise the importance of continuing our advocacy, campaigns, research, and collaboration with partners across the Asia Pacific region so we can work towards the next thirty years for global justice.

We are deeply grateful for your support to our planet and all the people that depend on its health and survival. 

Happy Festive Season

Natalie Lowrey
Coordinator, Aid/Watch