ideas about development
On 12 April, the World Bank hosted a panel discussion to consider a number of pressing questions relating to development effectiveness on the back of the Australian Aid Review, as Australia looks to scale up its its aid budget. Does aid work? Does it reach the poorest people? What are the most effective channels for delivering aid? And how do we make it work better? This is part of the Praxis Discussion Series, 2012. (Recorded on April [...] Read more »
One third of the people in the region are living below the poverty line. Poverty is a growing problem for many countries in the Pacific, with approximately 2.7 million people, not having the income or access to subsistence production to meet their basic human needs. Matthew Morris from the Australian National University is the Deputy Director of the Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Economics and Government at the ANU. He has published a paper [...] Read more »
A conference in Canberra has heard that the pace of political and economic change in Papua New Guinea has never been faster. PNG is grappling with a new government let by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, along with court challenges, a mining boom and the nations elections set for 2012. Two experts on PNG are taking part in the conference today. One of them is a former economic advisor to the PNG Government, Matt Morris who’s [...] Read more »
A new study by the World Bank Group’s infoDev program shows that virtual online currencies and digital work now provide real income opportunities to poor and unskilled workers in developing countries. infoDev is a global technology and innovation-led development finance program of the World Bank and IFC. The new study, Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy, finds that more than 100,000 people in countries such as China and India earn a living through online games [...] Read more »
I’m a big fan of infographics–such a powerful way to communicate–and especially liked these ones on Twitter’s stellar growth. Read more »
Simplicity is something that is rarely associated with aid, yet DFID have done an excellent job of summarising their aid review onto a single page. Many donors talk about focusing on results, this aid review identifies specific results for UK aid to deliver. And sets out how DFID will make UK aid work better. Read more »
Kevin Rudd used his first press conference as Foreign Minister to emphasise Australia’s commitment to global poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs include seven development goals for poor countries to be achieved by 2015: halving extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, reversing the spread of deadly diseases and environmental sustainability. This set of essential development outcomes are supported by an additional [...] Read more »
There has been a lot of attention on the aid program in recent months – much of it well intentioned, some of it ill informed. We need a better debate and it was good to join a discussion at the Crawford School on the review of Australian aid to Papua New Guinea. Professor Stephen Howes delivered a riveting talk on the findings and recommendations of the review of the Australia-PNG Aid Cooperation Treaty. Delivering aid [...] Read more »
Here’s a rapid round-up of what we’re been reading on the web and tweeting about (@mattpdmorris). Congratulations Kevin Rudd – Australia’s new foreign minister and long time supporter of MDGs. He has the big job of doubling Australian aid. Here’s a great set of MDG success stories from Asia and the Pacific that show how aid can work. And with the UN Summit taking place next week here’s the latest MDG data to see where countries stand. [...] Read more »
Getting reliable and up to date information on humanitarian emergencies and conflicts is a major challenge for development agencies. Often, global crises are met by too little, too late. News of events on the ground become lost and we are left learning lessons for the future rather than tackling the causes of the crisis. The rights of those in the centre of crisis and conflicts are often pushed aside and innocent people are killed or [...] Read more »
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