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.