Rudd announces foreign aid overhaul

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a sweeping overhaul of Australia's foreign aid program, promising more transparency and the phasing out of direct aid to India and China.

Mr Rudd says the Government will accept all but one of the recommendations of a major independent review of foreign aid, including doubling the AusAID cooperation program with non-government organisations and increasing the reliance on volunteers.He says the Government will continue to direct around 75 per cent of the budget to nearby countries including Papua New Guinea and East Timor, with 11 per cent going to Africa.And he is promising that Australia will phase out direct aid to India and China and impose tougher mechanisms to make sure that aid money is not wasted.The Federal Government currently spends about $5 billion a year on aid but that is expected to jump to more than $8 billion by 2016.Mr Rudd has acknowledged some Australians think that is "very generous" but he has mounted a fierce defence of boosting the aid budget."We believe it is right to do what we can to help our fellow human beings out of poverty because as Australians it is not in our nature to be indifferent to the suffering of others," he said."Our belief in a fair go for all does not stop at the Australian continental shelf. It goes beyond."The Government has been plagued by persistent allegations that foreign aid fraud has been ballooning along with the aid budget.Mr Rudd says of every $1,000 spent on aid, only 21 cents is skimmed off - a rate well below that experienced by Centrelink.

More scrutiny

But Mr Rudd says as the Government spends more money on aid, it must also boost scrutiny.There will be a new transparency charter, publishing more information about the performance of every aid program and an independent evaluation committee to run a ruler over the aid budget.The aid program has also been criticised for relying too much on so-called "technical advisers" - highly paid consultants who help poorer governments in Asia or the Pacific.Many non-government aid organisations have argued this does not build any expertise on the ground and funnels too much money into the private sector.Mr Rudd says the Government has already slashed the money spent on technical advisers and wants NGOs to play a bigger role.Direct aid to India and China will also be phased out.Marc Purcell from the Australian Council for International Development says the decision highlights a paradox of the modern global economy - that while India and China are booming, many of their citizens are still languishing below the poverty line.He says NGOs are not going to leave India any time soon."In India particularly you still have 600 million people living in extreme poverty and no matter the pace of growth in the Indian economy, it's still going to be a very long time before you lift those people out of that extreme poverty," Mr Purcell said.The Government has also adopted a new rationale which states unambiguously that the main purpose of aid is to cut poverty, rather than building Australia's national interest through helping the poor.Meanwhile, the Federal Opposition has questioned the amount of aid directed to Africa after the major review.Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop says she remains concerned about Australia's aid investment in African nations."I certainly want to see our aid program targeted towards the Asia-Pacific and I'll continue to criticise the Government and particularly Kevin Rudd for using our aid budget to pursue his campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council," she said.Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-06/rudd-announces-foreign-aid-overhaul/2784526