15 May 2003
Papua New Guinea and the countries of the South Pacific are some of
Australia's most important development partners. While it is true that many
countries in the Pacific are experiencing problems, critics of Australia's aid
program fail to acknowledge that without our on-going assistance the situation
would be far worse.
It is in Australia's national interest to promote regional security,
stability and economic growth in the Pacific. Suggestions that Australia should
withdraw from the region are missing the point.
The aid program is a central and practical part of our national interest
engagement in the region. In PNG–and many other Pacific countries–it has
played a critical role in supporting both stability and the legitimacy of
national government, as well as the country's viability as a democratic nation.
The aid program recognises the many development constraints faced by the
region, including the enormous challenges faced by Pacific countries in
maintaining viable economies at a time of rapid global economic and
technological change.
But even in the face of these challenges, significant progress has been made.
In PNG, basic social indicators, such as life expectancy, illiteracy rates,
infant mortality and school enrolments have improved steadily since Independence
and at a rate comparable to other low-income countries. Australian assistance
has contributed to these outcomes. Social indicators have also improved steadily
in many parts of the Pacific, and these real improvements to the quality of
peoples' lives should not be ignored when considering development outcomes.
Progress is being made in the Pacific, and Australia's aid program is playing
an important role in moving the region forward. However, the serious effect of
recent internal conflicts, especially in Melanesian countries, are not just
putting substantial and sustainable development achievements at risk -
instability in the region is a direct threat to Australia's security. Close
relationships with partner countries through the aid program safeguard
Australian interests.
As AusAID Director General, Bruce Davis, recently said in a statement to the
Senate Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee Inquiry into PNG and the Island
States of the South Pacific, 'while it is true that a few countries have and
continue to experience problems, others are moving forward. We need to
acknowledge the progress as well as the challenges that remain'.
How best to facilitate long-term development and change in the Pacific
remains at the forefront of the Australian Government's development thinking. In
his recent statement to the Parliament on development assistance,
Australian
Aid, Investing in Growth, Stability, and Prosperity
, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer reiterated that Australia is committed to long-term engagement
in the region.
Development is a process requiring long-term investment in people and
institutions. Development does not happen overnight.
The Pacific: a difficult development context
Any serious assessment of the effectiveness of Australia's aid to the Pacific
must begin with an analysis of the development context. Many of the challenges
confronting the region are unique: widely dispersed islands; small and narrow
economies, and isolation from the mainstream of global economic activity;
vulnerability to conflict and natural disasters; and the greatest concentration
of cultural and linguistic diversity on Earth. PNG is perhaps the most
ethnically fragmented nation in the world.
Those who argue that aid to the Pacific has failed because the region is not
an overwhelming development success story base their argument on an incorrect
premise that aid is the critical factor in pursuing development. Aid can play an
important supporting role but it is not sufficient to ensure that development
occurs.
It is important to keep in mind that outsiders cannot 'fix' countries–but
they can help local people overcome some of the constraints and achieve their
own objectives. Suggestions to the contrary are both simplistic in their
analysis and insulting to Pacific Islanders. Australia is not a neo-colonial
power and the countries of the Pacific are independent sovereign states.
Australian aid–supporting development progress in the Pacific
Australia's aid and development approach to individual countries is grounded
in rigorous analysis and shaped by extensive consultation. Australia's Pacific
aid programs are agreed during robust and frank discussions with partner
governments, where specific country strategies are discussed, priorities are
agreed, and program outcomes are evaluated.
For example, Australia is vitally engaged in supporting Pacific partner
countries in their reform efforts to support public sector reform and strengthen
the operation of central economic ministries.
In PNG for example, we engage directly with PNG's central agencies to tackle
governance issues such as weak public expenditure management. Australia is
supporting a flexible program of technical assistance aimed at helping PNG
address corruption, macroeconomic forecasting, cash management, debt management,
budget formulation processes and tax policy.
Through its positive policy action, Samoa has demonstrated what can be
achieved through economic and public sector reform. The main thrust of the
Australian aid program to Samoa is to help the government to implement key
elements of its economic and public sector reform strategy and move towards
economic independence.
Australia has also played a leading role supporting conflict resolution in
the region. In the Solomon Islands one of our key programs is the Community
Peace and Restoration Fund (CPRF). The CPRF has played a crucial role in
progressing the peace process, supporting rehabilitation and reconstruction, and
is providing a catalyst for economic and social development at the provincial
and village level.
The ability of government's to deliver education, health and infrastructure
services to their people is also critical for development. Australia works in
cooperation with partner governments to support service delivery in the Pacific.
In Vanuatu for example, the Village Health Workers Project has supported
effective and appropriate health service delivery at the village level.
The common denominator that can be drawn from all these examples is that
Australian aid is not just about providing money. It is about transferring
skills, catalysing reform, and leveraging countries' own resources to maximise
development impact. It is also important to be realistic about what aid can
achieve. It does facilitate development, but at the end of the day the sovereign
nations of the Pacific are in charge of their own future.
Development in the Pacific is difficult, but by no means impossible. We don't
have the luxury of walking away. Pacific countries are on our doorstep and our
national interests are inextricably linked to stability and peaceful development
in the region.
Australian aid can–and is–helping them move forward.
See also country information for: