NEWS & EVENTS
Troubled Australian aid project to restart in Cambodia: AusAID dodging transparency
17th July 2012 Troubled Australian aid project to restart in Cambodia: AusAID dodging transparency AID/WATCH condemns the restarting of the troubled Cambodian Railways Project just months after Toll Royal Railways suspended it, without any...
AID/WATCH media release: AusAID dodging transparency
In February AID/WATCH released a report on the Cambodian Railways Project that detailed these problems including a botched resettlement process that had put families in danger and landed many others in debt. Civil society organizations that had raised issues with the...
AID/WATCH event: After RIO+20 and Copenhagen: Advancing Environmental Justice
The recent failure of the Rio+20 conference to agree on a real and just framework to reverse the environmental crises we face was the latest in a series of unsuccessful UN conferences, including the yearly international climate talks. Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends...
AID/WATCH at the One Just World Forum
Are we making a difference?The successes and challenges of international aidThe world’s poorest face a constant battle to survive. They have inadequate access to health, education and other services. They face problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease. They...
Sustainable Mining? Pull The Other One!
While the Australian media were in a frenzy over mining magnate Gina Rinenhart’s attempts to take control of Fairfax, many of the world’s leaders, corporations and NGOs were at the RIO+20 summit discussing how to work together towards a sustainable...
As long as the rich can speculate on food, the world’s poor go hungry
WHEN we think of overseas aid, we think of helping people who need it. The government says aid helps people overcome poverty. But does it? Obviously, to overcome poverty we have to overcome the causes of poverty, and the big causes of poverty today are untouched by...
AID/WATCH in the news: ‘NGOs worry new Australian aid Framework may hamper independence’
Australia has just released the AusAID Civil Society Engagement Framework.It is advocates a sustainable approach to overcoming poverty through better service delivery, improved governance and stronger local systems.Aidwatch is generally happy with the Framework, but...
NSW Minerals Council’s misguided response to AID/WATCH protest
AID/WATCH and Friends of the Earth together argued that the RIO+20 summit had a real potential to chart a sustainable agenda for the next two decades but that this was being undermined by the approach of the Australian Government.Read the response from the NSW...
AIDWATCH in the news: Clowns in Sydney anti-mining protest
AID/WATCH in the news: ‘Planning Failures Derail Aid Project’
It also reveals that workers on the project endure unsafe working conditions without proper accommodation, clean water or hygienic toilets.The disruption is exposed in a report by the international consortium funding the $143 million project - Australia's...
Annual Report 2011
Read about all the great things AID/WATCH did in 2011 here.
AID/WATCH open letter to Bob Carr
The Rio+20 is the United Nations conference on sustainable development. It brings together world leaders, government officials, the private sector, NGOs and other civil society groups with the aim of talking about poverty reduction, how to advance social equity,...
As Myanmar opens, donor exit at border puts dreams in peril
Migrant children aiming at a better life through a Thai education are seeing their dreams evaporate as international aid dries up with organisations abandoning them in favour of initiatives inside the country Article originally appeared in the Bangkok Post. By Ko Htwe...
AID/WATCH in the news: Beyond aid numbers: accountability for human rights abuses
From the popular #dontcutaid Twitter hashtag, to the letter to the Prime Minister from over 100 prominent Australians including Geoffrey Rush, the debate over the delay has focused on the important issue of the quantity of aid spending.But beyond the headline numbers,...
Foreign aid delay to save $2.9b
The decision, revealed in Tuesday night's budget, will save the Government $2.9 billion over four years.The Government had committed to increases in the foreign aid budget so it would reach 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015-16.But Foreign Minister...
Australian aid to PNG training ‘private armies’
Dr Andrew Lattas has done extensive field in PNG says these links with Malaysian logging companies are undermining the legitimacy of the state and will lead to a general collapse in state structures.Presenter:Geraldine CouttsSpeaker:Dr Andrew Lattas, Department of...
Evictions and Human Rights Abuses Continue under AusAID Railways Project
AusAID and the Asian Development Bank have been co-funding a project to rehabilitate the railway lines since 2009. The project has been described as a defacto privatisation project for the benefit of an Australian-linked consortium, which includes Toll Holdings and a...
MEDIA RELEASE – Suspension of Cambodian Railway Project Welcomed by AID/WATCH: Carr must visit resettlement sites for himself
‘We welcome the suspension but the Asian Development Bank, the Government of Cambodia and AusAID must stop relocations and use this time to fully investigate the problems of resettlement with the project’ said Co-Director of AID/WATCH Liz...