Update: more budget, credit where due, and NZers’ views on aid

terence

Hello and welcome to another NZADDs update,

The Budget Again
As promised, Jo and I now have more budget analysis up on the Devpolicy Blog. The aid budget has also been covered on Radio New Zealand.

Credit where Credit is Due
Having complained about Minister McCully’s impacts on New Zealand aid spending, fairness requires giving him credit where it’s due. And it definitely seems due for the recently announced increase in the humanitarian aid that New Zealand is giving to assist NGOs working to help assuage the suffering associated with the Syrian crisis. Well done.

What do New Zealander’s think about Aid
It has been a long time since anyone asked New Zealanders what they think about aid. So the Development Policy Centre recently funded a series of questions about aid in a UMR omnibus survey (with a sample size of 1124 people).

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An Unprecedented Aid Increase (or not)

terence

Welcome to another NZADDs update,

Budget time in Aotearoa. And the news from our first-cut-analysis of the aid budget is startling: a massive increase in New Zealand aid.

The aid budget will leap up from NZ$589 million the 2015/16 financial year to NZ$659 in 2016/17. A hefty 12% rise. (These numbers are nominal and don’t take inflation into account; but inflation is very low in New Zealand at present.) As I said – startling. Although before you pop out the champaign and start calling your Australian friends to gloat about being the sole remaining regional power you should take a look at this chart.

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