New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues

Yesterday was budget day, and you will be pleased to know that here in the NZADDs admin division we’ve taken time out from our hectic schedule of log-frames and high level meetings to provide you with some budget analysis.

It is preliminary, done quickly, and somewhat provisional. We’re still hoping to get proper GNI figures from Treasury for example.

To read this email properly you will need to click ‘show images’ in your email browser. Or you can read it as a pdf here.

If you’re looking for a handy way of putting the New Zealand aid budget into perspective here’s a thought. The increase in Australia’s aid next financial year is going to be larger than the entire New Zealand aid Budget.

Of course, the Australian economy is much larger than New Zealand’s but even when taking this into account, the increases in Australian aid stand in stark contrast to a New Zealand aid budget that is barely growing. New Zealand’s budgeted ODA spend for the 2013/14 financial year is $567 million NZD. That is an increase on the estimated spend of $558 million NZD for this financial year, but as an increase it is less than expected inflation (so actually a small aid cut in real terms), and less than anticipated GNI growth, meaning New Zealand’s aid to GNI ratio will fall. Figure 1 below illustrates this. (Note that future GNI figures are our estimates based on numbers from the last budget adjusted for changed GDP growth; we are awaiting official GNI data from Treasury and will update this post when we have it. We do not anticipate major adjustments.) [Update: we now have official GNI projections from Treasury (thank you!). These are reflected in the updated figure 1 below. Note that the only change is that Aid/GNI in 2014/15 is 0.25% not 0.26%).]

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Welcome to our April email update. Information on the updates and subscription options can be found at the bottom of this email.

The Bouncing Balls of New Zealand Aid
Most of you will be familiar with the charts of Gap Minder, in which moving data balls illustrate changing human development trends. Here at NZADDs Labs we’ve emulated this, creating charts that show New Zealand aid volumes to different countries and sectors over time. Once you’ve got the hang of the charts they do a pretty good job of showing aid volatility in action, the power of circumstance (Iraq, Afghanistan and natural disasters) and the waxing and waning fortunes of various sectors of interest. You can play and adjust the charts here.

If you have any problems or questions please let us know.

First Ever NZADDs OIA about Cows!
In our February update we reported on a New Zealand government aid project in Burma which sounded very dubious: aid for a herd of incredibly expensive cows. We subsequently OIAed the scoping documents on it. And these have now been provided to us (thank you!). You can read them here. Our preliminary based on a skim read is as despondent as our original assessment. If you have time to read, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

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