Description
In this paper the Federal Government of Australia outlines plans to double the foreign aid budget to $4 billion by 2010. To reach the $4 billion target by the end of the decade, Australia will have to lift spending by $300 million each year for the next five years.
The white paper keeps the aid focus on Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, Indonesia and Asia.
Australia's overseas aid program aims to help developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development consistent with Australia's national interest.
Australian Aid: Promoting Growth and Stability describes how this objective can best be achieved as part of the global effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
The paper also says “Stability is a critical pre-determinant for growth and poverty reduction. New challenges to stability are emerging, most notably transboundary threats (discussed in Chapter 2). These are not only direct threats to development — they also deter investment, diminish legitimate and stable employment prospects and have spill-over impacts on neighbouring countries. While ensuring stability is a core function of an effective government, the nature of transboundary threats is such that they can only be managed effectively through regional networks and cooperation.”
On the subject of regional responses to transboundary threats, the paper states that “Pandemics, disasters, global warming, access to water, and transnational crime (including people smuggling, illegal fishing, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism) demand not only national but also transnational responses. Increasingly, these threats to development will require effective and close cooperation between countries in the region, including Australia. Institutional and personal networks will therefore need to become an important feature of the Asia–Pacific landscape in the years ahead. Those networks will be particularly important in averting or responding to crises.”
Information
- Author(s)
- AusAID
- Publisher
- AusAID
- Place published
- Canberra
- Date / journal vol no.
- 26 April 2006
- Pages
- 92 pages