The objective of Australia’s aid program is to promote the sustainable economic and social advancement of the peoples of developing countries in response to Australia’s humanitarian concerns, as well as Australia’s foreign policy and commercial interests.
The Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB), under the direction of the Minister for Development Cooperation and Pacific Island Affairs, administers the bulk of Australia’s Official Development Assistance for developing countries, which in 1993-94 totalled $1410.7 million.
As an agency with management autonomy within the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio, AIDAB has the capacity to implement government policy in a coordinated, strategic and responsive fashion.
The aid program comprises three sub-programs, Country Programs, Global Programs and Corporate Services. Responsibility for administering each of these sub-programs is distributed among branches of the Bureau as follows:
Country Programs are managed by the Papua New Guinea Branch, the South Pacific and Training Branch, the South East Asia Branch and the Asia, Africa and Food Branch;
Global Programs are managed by the International Organisations and Public Affairs Branch, the Asia, Africa and Food Branch and the Community, Commercial and Refugee Programs Branch; and
the Corporate Services program is managed by the Financial and Resource Management Branch.
Cross-program support is provided by the Development Issues and Corporate Policy Branch, the Sectoral Policy and Review Branch, two Program Support sections, an Audit and Risk Management section, overseas posts and regional offices.
Social justice impact
By providing an appropriate mix of assistance aimed at promoting economic development, developing human resources and meeting immediate needs, the aid program furthers, in developing countries, the social justice objectives of equity, equality, access and participation. As such, the aid program represents the extension to developing countries, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region, of the Government’s social justice strategy. A particular achievement in this regard in 1993-94, was the introduction of a human rights training course for AIDAB staff held in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Total expenditure on overseas aid in 1993-94 was $1410.7 million, a real decrease of 0.4 per cent over the previous year. AIDAB administered $1328 million of this amount. The balance ($82.7 million) was expenditure by other government bodies on activities that are regarded as official development assistance (ODA).
Aid initiatives announced in the 1993-94 Budget included:
a trebling of funding for population related activities to around $30 million;
further increases in the Vietnam bilateral program of $19 million and the Cambodia bilateral program of $5 million;
a $5 million technical assistance and training initiative to boost the wool processing and income- earning capabilities of developing countries and thereby increase both their exports and the demand for Australian wool;
increased funding for development cooperation with countries of the South Pacific, including a new and additional $2.5 million development cooperation program with Nauru which will concentrate on assisting Nauru in the process of land and environmental rehabilitation; and
a $2 million funding increase for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), building on successive real increases in the previous two years.