Newsletter: Australian attitudes on aid | Enterprise challenge funds | PNG report launch | Gender panel

Putting our money where our mouths are? Donations to NGOs and support for ODA in Australia

When they are surveyed, Australians appear to be supportive of aid work. The latest ANU Poll, released this week, showed us that 75 per cent of respondents approve of the aid program. But little is known about the nature of their support for aid, or the types of Australian most favourable to giving. Are aid supporters predominantly wealthy? Or religious? Or educated? Or young? And is support coupled with particular political or ideological beliefs?

A new Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper (and summary blog) by Terence Wood, Alex Cifuentes and Jonathan Pryke aims to answer some of these questions, using data from the ABC’s Vote Compass poll and information on donations to Australian development NGOs. It explores at the electorate level which socioeconomic factors most closely correlate with support for foreign aid and donations to international NGOs.

The authors find that electorates with higher levels of tertiary education are most likely to be supportive of aid, and most likely to make donations to international development NGOs. Support for the Greens is also a relatively strong predictor. If you want to see how your electorate performs, check out the interactive map. You can also listen to a podcast of a recent seminar on this research.

Enterprise Challenge Funds for development: rationales, objectives, approaches

There is much confusion about what international development agencies should be trying to achieve with enterprise challenge funds, and how. This week, we have released a new discussion paper (and summary blog) by Robin Davies and Kerri Elgar that attempts to answer these questions. The paper was informed by discussions within our 2013 working group on enterprise challenge funds and a workshop we hosted last October on lessons learned from Australia’s Enterprise Challenge Fund for the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

The paper is broadly supportive of enterprise challenge funds, but argues that they need to distinguish clearly between ‘enterprise development’ and ‘business modification’ objectives, and the rationales and instruments appropriate to each.

PNG schools and health clinics: Budget Forum and report launch

Only two weeks to go till the launch of our report (jointly with PNG’s National Research Institute) on the state of Papua New Guinea’s schools and health clinics. Which ones are doing better and why? Two years in the making, the report, based on two surveys from 2002 and 2012, will be essential reading for anyone interested in PNG’s development. It will be launched on the morning of Thursday 25 September at NRI in Port Moresby. For further details please contact Colin Wiltshire or Ron Sofe.

Voice and agency: empowering women and girls for shared prosperity

Join us on 25 September (5.30pm, Molonglo Theatre ANU) to hear an all-star panel discuss a new World Bank report titled Voice and agency: empowering women and girls for shared prosperity.

Jeni Klugman, Senior Advisor at the World Bank, will launch the report and discuss its findings. PNG’s Dame Carol Kidu, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick and DFAT Deputy Secretary Ewen McDonald will discuss the wider implications.

We are co-hosting this event with the ANU Gender Institute. Register here.

Upcoming events

Voice and agency: empowering women and girls for shared prosperity

On 25 September, Jeni Klugman, Senior Advisor at the World Bank, will launch a new report on gender equality. PNG’s Dame Carol Kidu, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick and DFAT’s Ewen McDonald will discuss the findings. Register here.

PNG’s lost decade? An assessment of service delivery progress and expenditure reforms

The next PNG budget forum will be held on 25 September at NRI in Port Moresby. It is a free event, open to all. For further details please contact Colin Wiltshire or Ron Sofe.

Asia and the Pacific Policy Society Conference 2014: Confronting the Pacific’s health challenges

Our Crawford School colleagues are hosting a conference on 17-18 September looking at practical policy approaches for addressing Pacific health issues. More details here.

2015 Australasian Aid Conference

Our annual aid conference will be held on 12-13 February 2015. We are now calling for papers and registrations are open, with early bird pricing until 21 November. For details, visit the website.

Blog highlights

Jonathan Pryke asks why there aren’t more Melanesians in Australia

Bal Kama argues that PNG needs an Opposition.

Susan Dodsworth asks whether budget support has a future.

Devpolicy in the media

Grant Walton on PNG corruption.

Jonathan Pryke on Melanesian migrants.

Matthew Dornan on Chinese aid to the Pacific.

On the blog

From road management to migration and malnutrition, catch up on the latest Devpolicy Blog posts.

Road management in Papua New Guinea (part 1): the maintenance challenge by Matthew Dornan

Road management in Papua New Guinea (part 2): the Road Fund and National Road Authority by Matthew Dornan

Giving enterprise challenge funds a fighting chance by Robin Davies

Putting our money where our mouths are? Donations to NGOs and support for ODA in Australia by Terence Wood, Alex Cifuentes and Jonathan Pryke

Can Papua New Guinean democracy really survive without the opposition? by Bal Kama

Is justice the answer? A review of ‘Reforming Justice’ by Tracey Blunck

Pacific islanders in Australia: where are the Melanesians? by Jonathan Pryke

Good economics and the right thing to do: how to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by Shenggen Fan

NZ aid and the New Zealand private sector’s role in Pacific sustainable economic development by Luke Roughton

Budget support: past allocations and future prospects by Susan Dodsworth

In brief

Australians support aid, prefer humanitarian focus: ANU Poll

Nationals call for more aid to Iraq

Making progress in foreign aid research

Violence against women in PNG: how men are getting away with murder

The mess that is DFAT’s aid website

Two-thirds of PNG businesses employ security guards: World Bank

This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, published every second Friday.

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