New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues

Hello and welcome to an NZADDs email update,

In our last update I analysed what was in this year’s budget for New Zealand aid. I now have GNI data, so I can also calculate how New Zealand performs on the standard measure of aid generosity: ODA/GNI.

You can see the results in this chart:

Next financial year New Zealand aid is set to race up to about 0.34% of GNI. That is more generous than at any time since the 1970s. But it’s not really a reason for celebration unfortunately. Part of the rise is to do with New Zealand’s promised climate finance spending, which is very worthwhile. But part is to do with MFAT struggling to spend its current three year aid allocation on time.

Why is it struggling? What does this mean? Will the aid actually be spent? If so, how? I discuss all the possible ramifications in a post on the Development Policy Centre’s blog.

In another blog post I also look at what the OECD DAC had to say in its recent review of the quality of New Zealand aid. It’s a polite review (DAC reviews always are), but it also did a great job of capturing some of the existing strengths and weaknesses of the New Zealand Government Aid Programme. In the post I look at what the review had to say.

The review offers a real chance for the New Zealand government to learn, and to address the weaknesses and build on the strengths of New Zealand aid. The question now is whether MFAT will chose to act.

Terence for NZADDS admin