Articles by Archie Law

Last week ActionAid Australia held a three day strategy conference which involved our Board, Staff and the Country Director’s from ActionAid italy, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.  We engaged Peter Zoller to conduct some research on what lies around the corner for development issues from an Australian perspective entitled What lies around the corner to help us on this journey.

I also used the research that Alex Evans did for ActionAid International to develop a list of top 10 issues that we need  to consider when planning our work over the next six years.  With apologies to Duncan Green from Oxfam for pinching his top 10 idea this seems a great way of presenting the big issues from Alex and Peter’s research.  Some food for thought and here they are in no particular order.

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I was in Canberra yesterday with Jon Edwards and Emily Mulligan from ActionAid to engage with the budget process. This was a new venture for ActionAid and signals the increasing weight we are attaching to ensuring that the voice of the people we represent is heard in the corridors of power.

Around 5.30PM we entered the budget lock in period and spent a couple of hours with 100 other people from the international development world hearing the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, and AusAID’s Director-General Peter Baxter describe the content of the aid budget and their plans for the next financial year.

At 7.30 we were set loose and headed to Parliament House where I had my chance to participate in the media line up with just about every lobby group from the private sector to charities to religious groups. So after standing in a line with 80 other people you get a couple of minutes to spout your thoughts on the budget to the waiting throng of media from the world of television and radio.

In the wash up it’s encouraging that the Government is holding it’s commitment to increase the budget to .5% of Gross National Income by 2015 in an political environment where a number of other government areas have seen the budgets for their program reduced.

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A recent report in the Canberra Times heavily criticised the Australian Government’s use of the Australian Development Scholarships Scheme. This isn’t surprising as the Australian Development Scholarship Scheme essentially enables the children of ruling elites in developing countries to access a university education in Australian Universities which is funded through the aid budget at an average cost of $105,000 for each scholarship. The reporter, Markus Mannheim, claims that the expenditure on the scholarship program accounts for an incredible $1 in every $9 spent by the Australian Aid Program.

These scholarships enable the children of powerful elites to gain a university education in Australia at the Australian taxpayers expense. This education is provided under the assumption that scholarship recipients will use their education to strengthen governance when they return to their own country.

Unfortunately there has never been an independent evaluation of the impact that this program has had on the lives of poor and excluded people and its contribution to lasting social change.

The result is that no one has any idea of whether this program actually impacts on the poor and excluded people of the world or whether it’s an expensive white elephant that makes Australia’s political leaders feel good.

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