It’s the right thing to do
Does aid reach those in need?
Is aid effective?
In the time it takes to read this sentence a child will die
from a preventable disease like pneumonia or diarrhoea.
We would not stand for that at home. Why should we
stand for it anywhere else?
Australia’s aid program has comprehensive accountability
mechanisms, is well targeted and is an effective and
cooperative partner with other countries.
Yes! Australians can be proud of the good work our aid
program is doing and what’s being achieved in their name.
They can have confidence their aid dollars are being put
to good use.
We can afford it
Australia is a lucky country. Australians have access to
food, clean water, universal healthcare and education.
The Australian economy has one of the lowest debt levels
in the world compared to other developed countries,
combined with one of the highest incomes per person
in the world. We can afford to help others in our “global
family” without impacting on our own development.
Aid is a hand up, not a hand out
Aid programs today are focused on making sure there is
sustainable, lasting change. In fact, countries such as South
Korea, Brazil, China and Thailand have gone from receiving
aid to giving aid!
Aid is focused on some of the most challenging issues
in the poorest countries – therefore the impact of aid
can sometimes be affected by problems such as poor
governance, vested interests and corruption. Despite this, in
2009-10 the estimated potential losses as a consequence of
fraud equated to just 0.028 percent of Australian aid. In the
same year, Centrelink had a greater rate of fraud.
World Vision estimates that in the last year (2011/12)
Australian aid alone:
• saved the lives of at least 200,000 people;
• helped provide basic education for 500,000 children
and improved education quality for many more;
• helped tens of thousands of farmers improve their
productivity;
• trained thousands of public servants to improve their
•
•
•
The Millennium Development Goals
In 2000, Australia and other member states of the UN
committed to the Millennium Declaration and a set of
ambitious goals to halve hunger and extreme poverty in all
its forms by 2015. Overseas aid has helped progress many
of these goals, although there is still work to be done.
management of budgets and the services they offer
their communities;
maintained thousands of kilometres of roads as well
as other key infrastructure;
assisted at least 10 million people affected by
disasters; and
helped 440,000 people gain access to clean water
and 400,000 people to access adequate sanitation.
If Australia meets its aid commitments over the next four
years Australia’s aid program will:
• prevent the deaths of around 1 million people,
Australian aid means education for
more children
After his mother died when he was four, Kewal of
Darjeeling, India, was forced by poverty to leave school and
take up work to support his family’s income.
A widower and sole guardian of Kewal and his brother,
Kewal’s father explained that “the school was too far, I was
down and out financially and the loss of my wife was too
big a challenge for me to take care of all the need[s] of the
two sons”.
Thanks to funding from Australian Government aid,
World Vision established the Darjeeling Right to Childhood
Project, which has now given 14-year-old Kewal the
opportunity to attend school.
Through aid, Kewal was not only given an education, but
provided with financial support for his school fees, which
was “very helpful”, said his father.
If not for Australian aid, Kewal might still be working as
a child labourer, never studying, and never getting the
opportunity to help him and his family out of poverty. With
the assistance of government aid, children like Kewal can
not only have a healthy childhood, but develop the skills
and strengths needed to realise their full potential.
including 500,000 children;
• will allow another 4 million children to go to
Effective aid works
•
Australians have a long, proud history of helping those in
need; both here in our own communities and among those
who are poor around the world. Our aid program is no
exception.
school; and
will improve the productivity of around 1 million
farmers.
Aid is a proven, critical part of helping to reduce poverty
and build a fairer, more prosperous and secure life for all
people in the small world in which we now live.
In fact, effective aid is one of the most cost-effective and
productive investments that wealthy countries like Australia
can make in the fight against global poverty.
It is vital that Australia continues to provide a generous,
effective and accountable aid program and that our political
leaders commit full bipartisan support to a sustainable
scale-up of overseas aid.
To get involved in World Vision’s work to protect and grow
aid, visit worldvision.com.au/action
Aid Works!
A quick guide to understanding
Australia’s overseas aid contribution
© 2013 World Vision Australia. World Vision Australia ABN 28 004 778 081 is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children,
families and communities to overcome pover ty and injustice. Ref #7080
Australia’s overseas aid
contribution
BILATERAL AID: Aid that is given by one government
to another. Bilateral aid is usually the largest share of the
country’s aid.
MULTILATERAL AID: Aid given by a donor
government through international agencies, such as the
World Bank, World Health Organization or World Food
Programme.
NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION (NGO)
AID: Aid that is raised by organisations like World Vision,
mainly from public donations, and directed to projects
run by their partners working in communities in other
countries. NGOs also receive a small share of the
government’s aid to carry out projects approved by the
funding agreement.
Aid distributed through NGOs is very important as it
often reaches the poorest and most marginalised people;
however it cannot replace government assistance.
Government aid is essential, as the total Australian
Government aid budget is around five times larger than aid
distributed through the Australian NGO sector.
Cross-cutting aid 6%
which covers more than
one sector
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Pacific 25%
40%
Promoting
opportunities for all 21%
(education, scholarships,
disability services, gender programs) ys
East Asia 32%
Source: AusAID Budget Papers 2012-13 and including imputed multilaterals
flows taken from AusAID Comprehensive Aid Policy Framework p18 – ie. this
calculation covers both bilateral and multilateral aid.
Sustainable economic
development 27%
(agriculture, infrastructure,
livelihood programs)
Source: AusAID Budget Papers 2012-13, aid program strategic goals.
NB: The 2012 decision to include refugee support costs in Australia may change these proportions slightly.
Charity begins at home, but it doesn’t have to stop there.
Australians believe in a fair go for all and these values should
not end at our border. Of Australia’s 24 nearest neighbours,
22 are developing countries. Our aid is an investment in a
more prosperous, secure and stable region – and world.
We promised
60%
20%
Effective governance 18%
(economic management,
justice programs, participation
in government)
Why does Australia give aid?
80%
ch
South and
West Asia
18%
Humanitarian and
disaster response 10%
100%
10
Africa and
the Middle East
23%
Latin America
and the Caribbean
2%
Saving lives 18%
(health, water and
sanitation)
oo
2012-13
Summary of global progress
against the MDGs
What is aid spent on?
e
The majority of Australia’s aid money (75%) is spent in
our own neighbourhood – in Asia and the Pacific.
Hu
Where does Australia give aid?
Source: OECD 4 April 2012
*Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
co
m
Over the last decade, Australian aid alone has helped
to save the lives of millions of people and improve the
lives of millions more. It has helped reduce childhood
diseases, train more health workers, educate hundreds
of thousands of children, improve access to safe drinking
water, build roads and infrastructure, provide agricultural
training, and respond to famine and natural disasters.
Aid is given to support both long-term development
programs, as well as emergency relief work and is
delivered in a number of forms, including:
ar
Governments internationally give aid – or Official
Development Assistance (ODA) – in order to lift
poorer nations out of poverty. AusAID is the Australian
Government agency responsible for managing Australia’s
overseas aid program, reporting directly to the Minister
for Foreign Affairs.
TYPES OF AID
In
The good news is there has been significant progress in
poverty reduction in the last decade. Globally, child deaths
have declined from over 12 million in 1990, to less than 7
million in 2011. Overseas aid has played a large part in
this success.
Australia’s contribution to aid currently places us the 13th most generous donor out of 23 OECD* donor countries.
Pr
im
Global poverty is one of the most pressing challenges
facing our world today.
How does this compare with other countries?
Caption: Total progress of developing countries against MDG targets
2010 or later. The percentages above are the proportion of the required
change under each MDG achieved to date. Data from 2011 UN MDG
report or other more up-to-date UN source. Note on indicators used:
Hunger – children less than 5 underweight, gender equality – share of
wage employees that are women, AIDS etc – share of people requiring
ARVs receiving them.
Australia promised to help the poor as part of a worldwide
agreement to halve global poverty by 2015. In signing up to
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we agreed to
“spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children
from conditions of abject and dehumanising poverty”. Aid is
a critical part of this commitment.