E&OE
4 February 2009
Remarks at the launch of the OECD's review of Australia's aid program
OECD review of Australia's aid program by Eckhard Deutscher, Chairman, Development Assistance Committee of the OECD
Well, Eckhard, firstly on behalf of the Australian Government, can I thank you very much as Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD for your report, for your remarks and for your visit.
Eckhard, to you, to Bruce Davis the Director-General of AusAID and to AusAID officers here, to members of the Diplomatic Corps, and here I might just make a special mention of his Royal Highness, the High Commissioner from Tonga, one of our Pacific Partnership for Development partners who's here today, Parliamentary colleagues and other distinguished guests.
We're very pleased to have had the OECD do the review. Can I start by congratulating AusAID and its officers over a significant period of time for the good work that it has done and for the very positive review that we've received.
There were a number of aspects that you, Eckhard, highlighted in a positive way which were particularly pleasing to the Government.
Firstly, the recognition of the Government's very strong commitment to increase Australia's development assistance contribution to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015. As the Prime Minister and I have made clear, this remains our very strong commitment, irrespective of international financial and economic difficulties.
We were pleased to see that that strong commitment, one of the Government's key election promises to increase our overseas development assistance to 0.5 per cent of GNI, has been recognised by the OECD.
The second thing which pleased me very much was the acknowledgement that the Asia Pacific is core business for Australia, core business for AusAID, core business for Australia's overseas development assistance program.
I was also pleased that the assessment found that the work we do in the Asia Pacific, particularly in fragile nation states, is very much appreciated; not just appreciated by those nation states, but appreciated by our peers and by the OECD for its effectiveness.
At any time, taxpayers, governments, nation states, will be very concerned to ensure that in any government program you get value for money, value for effort and that we judge outcomes that we can measure and judge the improvements that we make.
This is particularly the case in times of economic difficulty, but it's always the case so far as government programs are concerned.
In addition to the recognition that our work in the Asia Pacific has been our priority, what is pleasing is the effectiveness of that work.
Our commitment to helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, that acknowledgement and recognition is also welcome. The work that's been done in recent years to improve very many of our programs so far as gender equality or gender equity is concerned is also pleasing to see officially recognised by the OECD assessment.
Having just come last week from a meeting of the African Union Executive Council, which is effectively the African Union Foreign Ministers, can I say I was personally very pleased to see an acknowledgement of the Government's decision to enhance our contribution and engagement in Africa. I made this point to a number of my African Union Foreign Ministerial colleagues in Addis Ababa last week. So, it's pleasing to see this aspect of the Government's proposed action for the future being recognised.
Pleasing to us also was the acknowledgement that our program and the Government wants to work very closely with international institutions, particularly the UN and other international institutions so closely and heavily involved in development assistance, such as the World Food Programme.
Acknowledgment of the Government's very strong commitment to working regionally, to working multilaterally to achieve our foreign policy objectives and to achieve our development assistance objectives, is pleasing from our perspective.
Importantly, I think as well, was the recognition that in our own case we have of course instituted our own review of effectiveness and in 2006 AusAID enthusiastically supported the establishment of the Office of Development Effectiveness where we measure our own effectiveness. So we have a domestic measure of our effectiveness and we also have the assessment of effectiveness by the OECD and our peers.
I think that was a very important step.
Unfortunately Bob McMullan, the Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Development Assistance, wasn't able to make it here today. But can I make this point publicly, I very much appreciate the value of the work that Bob is doing in the effectiveness area. He's been very assiduous and very active and he, as well as I, are very pleased with the results of the review.
Whenever you open yourself up to a review by a third party, particularly a third party of standing like the OECD, in addition of course to paying attention to those areas where we're marked up, we also pay very careful attention to those areas where our peers think we can either do more, do better or where they ring an alarm bell for the future.
Given the Government's desire to expand our program in a range of areas, I value very much the recommendation which says we had a White Paper a few years ago which then was a very good overarching strategic framework but given some of the new areas we're going into, whether they're geographic in the case of Africa or whether they're in terms of program implementation like the Pacific Partnerships for Development, it is important to ensure that we don't get fragmented and that we continue to have an overarching strategic basis from which we are proceeding.
We are, of course, giving that very careful attention and you've reinforced our efforts in that respect.
In the course of your remarks, Eckhard, you made a very important point and I've often expressed it in this way: that the best form of development assistance is economic growth. At times of economic difficulty and economic hardship often the question is asked: why would we be doing this overseas? I think there are a number of very important reasons, some social, some philosophical, some economic.
I think Australians want a nation which is regarded as a good international citizen.
We are a well-developed and prosperous nation and that's the case even in times of economic difficulty. There's a great Australian tradition which is if we see someone who's not as well off as we are, we have a responsibility to try and lend a helping hand, whether it's an individual who lives in our community or whether it's a nation state within the international community.
So there is a very strong desire on the part of the Australian people to act as a good international citizen, which is why our NGOs and the Australian Government are so strongly supported by Australians when we come to deliver humanitarian assistance, whether it's in the face of a terrible cyclone or terrible floods or for a food famine.
Australians individually and collectively respond generously and very well in those circumstances.
When it comes to development assistance, very much a focus of all our programs is capacity building to leave a long-term benefit. This is reflected in the review. It's also reflected very much, Eckhard, in your remarks which is why very often in our development assistance programs we're always looking to things where Australia brings a comparative advantage or a particular expertise where we can leave behind a long-term enduring benefit, whether it's enhancing agricultural production, whether it's improving maternal or child health care, whether it's enhancing water and sanitation, whether it is improving education or other expertise through the use or application of scholarships or the building of schools.
Leaving behind an enhanced capacity to enable a nation state to manage its own affairs to improve the lot of its own citizens is very much front and centre of our approach.
So, Eckhard, can I say we're very pleased to see you here. I know your travel program is very onerous so we welcome very much your review. We welcome of course that overwhelmingly it's a very positive review and I congratulate again Bruce and his officers for many years of hard work to get it to that state.
We value very much your recommendations in those areas where we can do things better or differently. We look forward to more years of ongoing contact with you and with our peers as we ensure that our program is effective and meets that high standards Australians want to see, which is Australia conducting itself effectively as a good international citizen.
Thanks very much.
[Ends]
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