Yesterday, New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters said: “Budget 2020 will deliver $55.6 million in additional funding for Vote Official Development Assistance.”
Is that true? If it is, it would be a great outcome in tough times.
Is it true? The short answer is no, and yes.
For the longer answer, read on.
Hi and welcome to another NZADDs update.
New Zealand’s aid response to Covid-19
Last Friday, Jonathan Kings, the head of the New Zealand Government Aid Programme, published a piece discussing New Zealand’s aid response to Covid-19. It’s well worth a read. As you’d imagine, it’s fairly upbeat, but it’s also frank and quite detailed. It suggests our aid programme is thoughtfully trying to navigate very tricky times.
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Hi and welcome to an NZADDs update,
New aid policy
Late last year the New Zealand Aid Programme released its new policy statement. There was little fanfare but the policy is — on paper at least — a clear break from the previous era of New Zealand aid. You can download it here.
The policy emphasises the Pacific (which isn’t a change) and sustainable development (which is). Economic development remains a pillar of New Zealand aid, but one amongst others. Social development, the environment and governance are all emphasised. There’s also talk of partnership and values. The new policy signals change.
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Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee is holding an inquiry into New Zealand’s aid to the Pacific.
You can read more about it here. The inquiry sought public submissions. The closing date for submissions was 30 August 2019. All public submissions are now available here.
A number of members of the NZADDs committee made submissions. They are now all on the publications page of the NZADDs website.
Specifically,
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Hi and welcome to an NZADDs update,
It’s budget 2019 and Winston appears to have pulled more aid out of the hat.
Welcome to another NZADDs update,
We give how much?!?
Let’s face it, if you’ve ever had to labour over a journal article, report, or even a blog post, you’re probably pretty envious of Mike Hosking. Forget the hours spent ensuring your writing makes sense. Hosking gets paid to be incoherent.
His recent column on New Zealand aid for the Herald is a case in point. The arguments stumble around growling and banging into each other like drunken fans at a heavy metal concert.
Hi and welcome to an NZADDs email update,
First, a reminder: you’ve only got until 30 September to provide your input into MFAT’s review of New Zealand’s aid and sustainable development policy. More information on how to do this here.
Also, do you interact with the Australian Government Aid Program? Now’s your chance to have your say about the state of Australian aid. The Development Policy Centre’s Australian Aid Stakeholder Survey is open to anyone who knows Australian aid (from NGOs, from the Pacific, from academia, from government…your knowledge is wanted). It only takes 15 minutes to fill out and your responses are confidential. Read more about the survey here. Fill it out online here. The survey closes on 19 October.
Finally, does New Zealand have the world’s best quality aid programme? The Centre for Global Development thinks it does.
Is this a reasonable claim? I explain why it isn’t below. My explanation is drawn from a Devpolicy blog. Read the original blog here. (And comment on it too if you disagree.)
Terence for NZADDs admin.
