Page 22 - IB January 2023

Australia and the Pacific Australia and the Pacific

Australia Foreign Minister, Penny Wong and Palau President, Surangel Whipps Jr. (R)

PACIFIC LITERACY, NOT PERVERSE

INCENTIVES

By Samantha Magick is not delivering for Australia or the Pacific to the extent it
could.”
A group of prominent Pacific Islanders and Australians has They say this has created a “perverse incentive” to pri-
recommended that an independent advisory group be formed oritise relationships with Australia’s Department of Foreign
to shift Australia’s development assistance away from a com- Affairs, and that successful intermediaries set the agenda and
mercial model “toward one of partnership, in which risk, design, implement and evaluate programs, “while (critical)
reward and power are shared more equally.” beneficiary voices and perspectives are either absent or wa-
It is one of four recommendations made in response to a tered down via filtering through such intermediaries.”
call for submissions as Australia prepares a new International The group recommends that Australia’s international devel-
Development Policy. The group’s members include former Pa- opment policy support home-grown Pacific initiatives such as
cific Islands Forum Secretary Generals, Dame Meg Taylor and the Pacific Resilience Facility, noting that “there is no short-
Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Pacific academics Professor Transform age of local agency, ideas and initiatives.”
Aqorau and Professor Katerina Teaiwa, Principal and President It writes that that “the impact of the last five decades of
of the Pacific Theological College, Reverend Professor Upolu Australian development assistance is negligible and the Pacific
Luma Vaao, and Australian Senator David Pocock, amongst remains the most aid dependent region in the world,” noting
other leaders. that the integration of AusAID into the Department of Foreign
The group notes: “Australian development assistance has Affairs in 2013-14 worsened development effectiveness.” The
become a commercial industry in the Pacific in which control, group recommends that Australia establish a mechanism with
power and significant finance sits with intermediaries who Pacific stakeholders to assess the impact an quality of devel-
compete for the aid dollar – multilateral funds, international opment assistance, “and account mutually to the citizens of
NGOs, UN agencies and private managing contractors. While Australia - including Indigenous Australians and the Pacific
some of these intermediaries play critical roles, the system diaspora - and the Blue Pacific.”

22 Islands Business, January 2023