Newsletter: 50 papers @ 2014 aid workshop | Does aid really work? | Stakeholder survey results | Pacific learning

Program now available for February aid workshop

The program for our February 13-14th 2014 Australasian Aid and International Development Policy Workshop (@Crawford, ANU) is now available. We have 50 papers spread over some 19 plenary and panel sessions. Session topics include: changing aid frameworks, labour mobility, disaster management, health and aid, fragile states and governance, and much, much more. There is a strong focus on aid to and from Asia, and aid to the Pacific. Participants include senior academics and aid experts from China, India, Korea and Thailand. You can access the draft program here, and register here. (Note that registration costs $275 and $165 for students.)

Does foreign aid really work? What the evidence tells us, what impacts we should expect and how aid can be improved
Roger C Riddell, Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Thursday 13 February @ 10am
Molonglo Theatre, Level 2, JG Crawford Building 132, Lennox Crossing, ANU

Roger Riddell’s 2008 book Does Foreign Aid Really Work? was the first attempt in more than 20 years to survey all the evidence around whether aid actually works. His keynote address to the 2013 Australasian Aid and International Development Policy Workshop will summarise his findings, and provide an update on aid debates and thinking since the publication of his 2008 book.

This lecture is a free component of the 2014 Australasian Aid and International Development Workshop. You can register for workshop here and the lecture only here. (If you are registered for the workshop, you don’t need to register for this lecture.)

There will be two other keynote lectures as part of the Workshop. Frances Seymour, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development, will talk on “Forests for climate and development: what can rich countries do?” and there will be a panel of experts from India, China, and the ANU talking about giving us the latest on aid from Brazil, China and India. These will be advertised in the new year.

Stakeholder survey report

Last week we released our 2013 Australian aid stakeholder survey. From June to August we quizzed the people who partner to deliver the $5 billion Australian aid program. 356 non-government and contractor staff and executives, government and multilateral organisation officials, academics and consultants participated in our survey. The survey asked them what they thought about the Australian aid program, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they thought the future of aid was and what needed to be done to improve our aid.

You can find the full report, summary and an op-ed here, where you will also find a podcast of the launch, which featured responses from the heads of IDC Australia and ACFID.

You can read our first blog in a series about the stakeholder survey, on the good news, here, and the second, on the bad, here.

What we’ve learned in the Pacific

In November 2012 a group of 30 men and women, Pacific island country (PIC) nationals and expatriates, each with long experience of planning, implementation and subsequent evaluation of PIC development, met in Suva to pool the ideas and insights into issues, performance and prospects of the PICs that they had acquired, tested, and accumulated . The three-day ‘What Can We Learn?’ (WCWL) symposium revolved around the presentation of commissioned papers and intensive ‘closed door’ debate. The conclusions are summarised in this first volume of the WCWL report: What we’ve learned about development in Pacific island countries, published by Devpolicy this month. You can read author Tony Hughes’ accompanying blog post here.

Past events

Podcasts from our stakeholder survey launch, Afghanistan, climate change economics in the Pacific, Syria are all available through Feedburner or iTunes.  Jonathan Pryke’s summary of the Afghanistan event is available here.

Happy holidays

The Devpolicy Blog will be taking a break from the 20th of December, and resuming on the 6th of January. We thank you for your support in 2013 and look forward to your continuing engagement in 2014.

Blog summary

You can find a summary of all posts since our last newsletter on December 2 in the list below.

Best of the blog 2013 by Jonathan Pryke and Stephen Howes.

Australian aid

2013 Australian aid stakeholder survey. Part 2: and now the bad news by Stephen Howes and Jonathan Pryke.

2013 Australian aid stakeholder survey. Part 1: the good news by Stephen Howes and Jonathan Pryke.

The pop-up parliamentary aid debate: a theatre review by Robin Davies.

How to cut the multilateral aid budget by Joel Negin.

Global development policy

How to measure results from enterprise challenge funds: five suggestions by Adam Kessler.

The Pacific & PNG

Too many backpackers: working holiday makers and the Australian horticultural industry by Jesse Doyle and Darragh McDonnell.

High value urban land in Honiara for sale – deep, deep discounts available to the right buyer by Marcus Pelto.

Benefits of the Seasonal Worker Program: an employer’s perspective by Susan Jenkin.

Moving beyond the medical for family and sexual violence survivors in PNG by Daisy Plana and Ashlee Betteridge.

What happens next in PNG’s land grab saga? By Colin Filer.

What we’ve learned about development in the Pacific islands — a report by practitioners, and an opportunity for further interaction by Tony Hughes.

Sometimes corruption makes sense: insights from research into Papua New Guinean understandings of corruption by Grant Walton.

Every cloud has a silver lining: Papua New Guinean understandings of corruption and anti-corruption by Grant Walton.

In Brief

Aid on your radio

Parliament creates foreign affairs and aid subcommittee

Aid in the MYEFO

New Ambassador for Women and Girls announced

The 2013 PNG-Australia Ministerial Forum: one step forward, one step back

Afghanistan: what has been achieved?

2013 Australian aid stakeholder survey released

Senate agrees to inquiry into aid cuts

Rising fiscal pressures in the Pacific in 2014, says ADB

‘Really disgraceful’: Australian aid program allegedly used as cover for Timor-Leste spying

PM Abbott talks on aid

Aid and integration grievances get an airing in House of Reps

Australia cools on the Global Fund

Reviewing the development impact of seasonal and temporary migration

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