Hi and welcome to an NZADDs update.

The latest OECD data on aid have just been released. The data are only preliminary, but according to the OECD, New Zealand government aid fell from NZ$642M in the 2016 calendar year to NZ$614M in 2017.

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Hello and welcome to another NZADDs update,

Events
Where is New Zealand aid going? Where could it go? Where should it go? How should it reflect the SDGs? On 5 July NZADDs will he holding a public workshop to look at these questions. We’re still in the planning stages, but please put the date in your diary.
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Welcome to the first ever NZADDs update not written during the previous government’s 9 year reign.

A new government. What does this mean for New Zealand aid? What should it mean for New Zealand aid? For those of you who haven’t already done so, read Jo’s piece on how New Zealand aid can be renewed. You’ll also be interested in her blog post on what NZ’s political parties were promising prior to the election. (Note that NZ First removed their aid policy statement from their website sometime after Jo conducted her review.)

I’ve just written a post on what needs to change. You can read and comment on it at the Devpolicy blog.

There is a lot that could be done to improve New Zealand’s government aid programme. There’s also no guarantee that the current coalition, with domestic priorities, and three different parties, will do this. Now, more than ever, we need to be pushing for change.

Terence

Would you like to know where NZ’s political parties stand on development issues? Jo Spratt has done the groundwork for you. Her analysis is below. It has also been published on the Devpolicy blog. You can read it and comment on it there. Jo’s also blogged her take on what a responsive agenda for New Zealand’s development efforts would look like. You can read this here.

Hi and welcome to another NZADDs update,

Have you ever wondered what causes high-level aid policy to change in New Zealand? If you have, Jo Spratt has kindly blogged some answers for you, all based on her soon to be finished PhD. Read about the importance of individuals in driving change here, the importance of ideas based networks here, and the role of the rules of the game here.

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Hi, welcome to another NZADDs update.

First, in one of those coordination failures that the aid world is infamous for, we managed to publish the last NZADDs update moments before Peter Adams, a former head of the New Zealand Government Aid Programme, published his assessment of the McCully years on Stuff.co.nz. Peter was head of the aid programme when McCully first became foreign minister and his vantage point has afforded him considerable insight. You can read his take here. Highly recommended.

Second, last week was budget week in New Zealand. That meant hours of my life lost to spreadsheets — all in the name of finding out what budget 2017 meant for New Zealand aid. What follows is my take. This was first published on the Devpolicy Blog. Please read it, and comment on it, there.

Up, down and nowhere: New Zealand aid in budget 2017

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In the last update I promised more on Murray McCully’s legacy. I’ve written about this now on the excellent NZ foreign policy blog Incline. There’s lessons for all of us from McCully’s tenure. Here’s the Incline post.

The end of an error, or two: Murray McCully and New Zealand aid

Murray McCully’s time as New Zealand’s foreign minister is at an end. On 1 May he’ll be replaced by Gerry Brownlee. It’s hard to know what Mr. Brownlee will mean for New Zealand’s aid, but it’s easy to assess Mr. McCully’s legacy. He brought change, and he claims to have brought development when before there was only pseudo-expertise and waste. But the changes he made were either unneeded or harmful, and the development achievements he claims either haven’t occurred or can’t be attributed to him.

Read the rest on Incline.