Australian Aid Program a World Leader

MEDIA RELEASE

Released By:
Downer

Australia's aid program has received high praise in a recent review by the OECD. The review concluded that since the Howard Government came to office, our aid program has undergone impressive restructuring and renewal, putting Australia in the vanguard of the international donor community.

The review highlighted Australia's increased focus on poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and improvements to the quality and impact of our development programs. Australia's assistance to development and stability in the Asia Pacific region was also recognised.

The quality and impact of our aid program has improved because we are focussing on areas where Australia has a real capacity to assist, and where there will be the most chance of impact, such as governance, health, gender and education, rural development and infrastructure.

The OECD review, conducted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), also applauded the strong policy coherence between Australia's aid, foreign and trade policies. It was also noted that the Simons review, which I commissioned in 1996, had thoroughly and independently reviewed the aid program. The Government's response to the Simons review has underpinned the refocus and restructure of the aid program and its renewed emphasis on quality.

The DAC review's conclusions demonstrate that the Government is delivering better aid for the taxpayers' dollar. In addition, the level of aid will increase this financial year to over $1.6 billion, and our ODA/GNP ratio looks set to increase from the previously estimated 0.25 per cent to 0.28 per cent.

As noted in my statement to Parliament today, this has been a year of strong achievements with the aid program playing a practical and positive role in Australia's contribution to the stability and development of our region. Australia is playing our part in partnership with our neighbours, to help them reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. The way we do that is to continue to make our aid program professional, driven by quality and focussed on real impact.