NEWS & EVENTS
AID/WATCH condemns decision to subsume AusAID into DFAT
MEDIA RELEASE (For immediate release) 18 September 2013 Aid/Watch condemns decision to subsume AusAID into DFAT Australian Aid watchdog AID/WATCH today, came out in condemnation of reports that the Abbott government will ‘absorb’...
Kokoda Track aid projects lose their way
They were the $600,000 worth of Australian taxpayer-funded projects that were supposed to change the lives of poor villagers living along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.But according to veteran Kokoda Track trekking company operator Charlie Lynn, the Sustainable...
AID/WATCH in the news: AusAID
AusAID’s partial funding of the rehabilitation of a country-wide railway system aligns with its aid strategy in Cambodia. The “Australian- Cambodia Joint Aid Program Strategy 2010- 2015” paper identifies five strategic goals, including to build...
AID/WATCH in the news: World Bank will no longer fund coal-fired power stations
ListenMARK COLVIN: In a big policy shift, the World Bank says it'll no longer fund coal fired power stations in poor countries.The board of the World Bank has agreed to a new energy strategy which will limit the financing of coal generation except in 'rare'...
Aid groups worry about future direction of development assistance
Interview appeared on ABC AM Program TONY EASTLEY: Aid groups are concerned about the direction of international development assistance under the Abbott Government. AID/WATCH is an independent aid watchdog. Peter Lloyd is speaking here to Matt Hilton, the chairman of...
Australian aid: are NGOs barking up the wrong tree?
In the lead up to the federal election in Australia, both political parties see a role for foreign aid but neither can commit to reaching normative targets. Recently, the Labor government , under new prime minister Kevin Rudd, deferred Australia's commitment to aid as...
Colonialism, sovereignty and aid: what refugees mean for PNG
In return for housing the boat-arriving asylum seekers and resettling those found to be refugees, PNG receives a package of much-needed assistance, that includes redeveloping its universities, a new hospital, upgrading roads, a new courts complex, and the deployment...
AID/WATCH in the news: What Australia’s new aid minister has in store
Parke, who takes over the first such portfolio since 1996, is poised to run her non-cabinet office amid much belt-tightening in foreign aid spending in recent years that has led to a two-year delay of the government’s pledge to set aside by 2015 0.5 percent of...
Australian aid: it’s just not working
I couldn’t believe my ears. I was in Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby, in 2012 and a local Oxfam employee told me that he wished Australia would again take control of his country. He argued that in the nearly four decades since independence, the...
Peter O’Neill details $787m cost of infrastructure aid deal
PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill revealed for the first time the cost of the projects and the extra aid money to be provided by Australia.The key elements of the aid-for-asylum-seeker deal, which Mr O'Neill signed with his Australian counterpart in Brisbane two...
O’Neill brags of closer grip on aid after refugee deal
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, boasted on Monday that he had achieved a ''realignment'' of the country's aid program from Australia as part of the recently negotiated agreement.Australia has spent billions of dollars in aid in the country and, last...
Australian-Indonesian carbon project abandoned
In a small note on the AusAid website, the Commonwealth government has confirmed a $47 million project to restore 25,000 hectares of peatland on the Indonesian island of Kalimantan will end before most of its major milestones are met.The Kalimantan project was first...