Comments

That is a valid point but it implies that a failure in one system or one part of the system means that everything is flawed to the same degree and that is not the case in Vanuatu.

Hi Tess, Good that the advertising money hasn't been spent! My point relating to the cyclone was that if you call on donors to use your systems, you need to be able to demonstrate that those systems work, or at least that they don't fail spectacularly and in very important ways, as they have in the case of the runway. Regards, Stephen.

https://polisci.unm.edu/common/documents/htun_apsa-article.pdf MALA HTUN and S. LAUREL WELDON (2012). The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence against Women in Global Perspective, 1975–2005. American Political Science Review,106, pp 548­569 doi:10.1017/ S0003055412000226

Somali, could you please provide a link to the research you refer to on the most important factor in the implementation of gender equality policies. Thanks.

God has chosen Sam Koim and no one will let him down. We prayed that one day Papua New Guinea would be a better place. Let's all work together and fight corruption. We hope that our tears will be wiped one day.

I got introduced to Robyn through Anton Van Engeles who is my advisor here in Afghanistan in an ARTF funded project works under the umbrella of Ministry of Agriculture. I am an active player for poultry sector development where women economic empowerment is the core objective. Poultry is often overlooked by the bigger agricultural players, yet they are still vital for women. They provide the “mark revolution” and the glue to keep the system going. More than 35000 women got benefit from this project in poultry production. Supporting this work as she does, is therefore vital for developing practical approaches to empowering women across the world. She is a well-deserved recognition.

Thanks Garth and Bob We do need new taxes for the 21st century, as the additional revenue paying for the services we expect of Government. Like the three main "cares": child; health care; aged. Or foreign aid. An alternative is a new (Tobin) Tax of about 0.01% applied to high-frequency foreign exchange transactions. A year ago, the Chairman of ASIC claimed that “Australia is being picked off by highly-leveraged, online foreign exchange brokers”. http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/currencies/asics-greg-medcraft-says-foreign-exchange-brokers-are-picking-off-australia-20150322-1m499a.html] The Reserve Bank calculated FOREX trades in April 2013 averaged US$182 billion each day. By contrast, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported Australia’s two-way trade in 2012 was $623.8 billion, or about 4 days FOREX trading. This suggests over 90 per cent of these trades are speculative. A Tobin Tax would mean a possible extra $18 million each day in Government revenue. Taxing the speculators would provide the extra revenue for Australia’s aid budget, e.g. child immunisation, clean water and education.

I have had the pleasure of working with Robyn since 1999 in one form or another and she has been a true inspiration to me. Her focus on achieving a sustainable Newcastle disease vaccine supply for village chickens is amazing and through sheer determination she has succeeded where many would have given up. The support that ACIAR and DFAT have provided over the years to keep this activity going has been great and it is a true credit to Australian Aid that the outcomes of this work are providing such tremendous benefits to the "last mile" poorest of the poor.

Thank you Logea for this important article. I agree that domestic funding is not enough and because of the lack of political commitment it is likely that this will continue to be limited. Also, funding from international partners is important but often targeted towards small - good - projects and with unpredictable funding. When project funding is cut the excellent services decline. These funding limitations also make it hard for some important lessons at project or community levels to be up-scaled into a national policy. These also mean communities cannot rely on large scale state funded programmes - at least not at this stage. I wonder if there are strong social work, mental health, and community support programmes in place in PNG universities and training institutions to train a cadre of young Papua New Guineans to work as professionals and engage in this policy space in the future?

Hi David, Good point. The previous question we commissioned (different wording so perhaps question wording effects) is covered here: https://devpolicy.org/who-opposed-the-aid-cuts-20151119/ As you can see in the previous question there majority support for the last round of cuts. We used Essential Media for the survey experiments. The essential media poll at the following link asked a similar question, and the results suggest some change over time: http://www.essentialvision.com.au/foreign-aid-spending-2 Terence

Hi Terence, Good stuff as always. It'd be really great to see or know / be reminded of the figures from the similar questions that were asked over the past few years to graphically (literally and metaphorically) show how Australians’ enthusiasm for aid cuts has waned. Is that possible? Cheers, David

Hi Stephen, the following may be of use to you in response to the issues you have raised. The advertising campaign you have referred to has been deferred until such time as it can be more effective, i.e. when the first tranche of repairs (now underway) has been completed. Australia is among the development partners contributing to the exercise. Your second point strikes me as something of a non-sequitur, as the issue of using government systems for disaster response and relief is entirely separate and the stumbling block here has been failure to allow the relevant agency to make appropriate technical decisions free from political influence not a failure to use resources appropriately through government systems. In addition, as the article outlines, the policy positions in this regard have changed over recent years, with decisions made by one government overturned by the next. This demonstrates the importance of policy stability rather than political stability.