Comments

Just further on your point, Garth, the 2005 survey you mention has household giving to international development NGOs at $758 million (13.3% of $5.7 billion) for 2004, excluding the Tsunami response. But reported donations by Australian international development NGOs prior to the Tsunami are about $400 million (see our first blog: https://devpolicy.org/the-other-scale-up-australian-public-donations-for-development-over-the-last-decade-20130829/), including donations from business. This does suggest a lot of over-reporting of our generosity in that 2005 survey.

Indeed sanctions do not necessarily work, or if they do, they mostly harm the best interest of the ordinary people. Though sanctions are imposed on elites, those very elites live in luxury in their respective states, like the case of Fiji, while the ordinary citizens are denied the benefits of international cooperation. It is therefore important and more strategic to lift sanctions on Fiji and constructively engage the government on the basis of good governance, accountability, transparency and respect for human rights. These will bring benefits to the people of Fiji as opposed to sanctions that work in the best interest of elites and compromise the interest of the masses.

Thanks Garth. I wasn't aware of that report. You are right, 40% does seem high and $2 billion low. I'm sure part of the explanation is the difference between asking people how much they give as part of a much broader survey of their spending patterns, and asking people how much they give as part of a survey of giving. In the latter, respondents might exaggerate how much they gave; in the former, they might give more accurate answers, or perhaps they forget how generous they are?

I think it is unlikely that 40% of private charitable donations are going to international aid, given the wide range of other types of charity and the understandable priority of giving close to home. The 2005 Giving Australia report, probably the most comprehensive analysis to date of Australian charitable giving, <a href="http://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2012/givingaustraliareport.pdf" rel="nofollow">estimated</a> [pdf] that donations to international aid made up around 13% of total private giving - that seems more likely to me. That report also said that $5.7 bn was contributed by individuals to charities (including religious groups) in that year. While one cause of this higher total is the inclusion of religious groups, I suspect that there are significant differences in methodology between the Household Expenditure Survey and the Giving Australia survey. While the ubiquity of large screen TVs, BMWs, pricey schools and overseas holidays amongst Australians suggest that we are probably not as generous as we think we are, I can't believe we are so stingy we only give $2 bn a year to all charities.

Serena, Daughter - great vision,great passion & heart for the PNG Youth. I am proud of you & team, including your support from organizations like the US Embassy. May GOD be your guiding light.

The Voice’s activities within PNG’s institutions is important. PNG can build on that to have a national youth empowerment program under the Dept of Youth and Welfare, branching out more to the rural areas and the ghettos as these are places where most of these issues identified stem from. I've been working with youths and school kids conducting mentoring sessions over the last four years in the villages of Highlands, PNG. With some of these issues, the causes are not so much the lack of education but the lack of empowerment opportunities i.e. skills training for the youths etc. Many international donors and government programs, from the heights of the ivory tower, continue to miss the point.

These aid management changes are perfectly sensible considered in isolation. There's no question that deregulation was needed. But, in their context, the changes carry some risks that will need to be watched. They coincide with the integration of AusAID into DFAT and the likely (still unquantified) loss of many experienced and skilled aid professionals. There must be some risk that the lifting of quality controls for all activities under $10 million, which is a fairly high threshold for grant-funded activities, will lead to two, linked outcomes. First, we could see increased program fragmentation as people face incentives to keep activities under the threshold. And second, we could see poor attention to activity quality on the part of people whose resource allocation decisions are influenced primarily by other factors. The changes will be a good thing if they result in greater attention to the quality of large or high-risk activities, but not such a good thing if they result in a proliferation of small, low-quality activities.

Stakeholders have acknowledged that a number of recent infrastructure projects have not delivered the outcomes required by Government, potentially as a result of lack of oversight by an IDA type organisation which suggests that current infrastructure projects should be overseen by an IDA type organisation in 2013 which suggests that the IDA needs to be established in early 2014. A number of strategic infrastructure projects have been identified for specific oversight by the IDA. Stakeholders have also acknowledged that funding of current strategic infrastructure projects comes from a number of sources including the Government of PNG including the Tax Credit Program, funds from Esso Highlands and Oil Search and a combination of Grants and Loans from a number of international development partners including Australia, Asian Development Bank, China, JICA and World Bank. Funding from the SWF will only be one source of funding of future strategic infrastructure projects, albeit an important source. Potential funding of strategic infrastructure projects from the SWF is scheduled to commence in 2015. To establish an IDA by early 2014 the following key actions need to be undertaken: - NEC to direct the formal drafting of a Bill for the IDA (Certificate of Necessity has been requested from the State Solicitor); - First Legislative Counsel, with advice and support to formally draft a Bill for the IDA and to issue a Certificate of Compliance; - Parliament to pass an IDA Act; and - Establish the IDA. As the establishment of the IDA approaches, the following steps are planned for early 2014: - Identification of the IDA Board (including Chair), design of initial Board briefings and training and planning for the initial Board Meeting; - Continuation of Stakeholder Meetings; - Development of an IDA Corporate Plan; and - Development of IDA operating procedures, specifically re. Planning, Procurement, Implementation and Governance Procedures. The design, establishment and operation of an effective and efficient Infrastructure Development Authority can have a very significant impact on the economic and social development of PNG. This is a ‘strategic’ PNG government initiative.

The PNG Department of Petroleum and Energy with the support and participation of key development partners recently hosted a workshop to consult on the National Electricity Roll-out Plan and its delivery. The PNG IDA Project Office under the Department of Works was represented. The IDA Project Office is specifically interested in the development of a ‘Power Sector Infrastructure Strategy’ as envisaged in the Draft IDA Bill (Part IV, Division 1 refers) and a ‘5 Year Power Infrastructure Plan’ (Part IV, Division 2 refers). The IDA Project Office notes that under the 2014 Budget, PNG Power Limited (PPL) has two ‘strategic’ infrastructure being the PNG Towns' Electricity Investment Project at K75.8 million and Upgrading the Power Distribution System of Ramu Grid at K28 million.

I agree 100%, I established a tuna processing industry on a small atoll in the Maldives that is owned and operated by the locals and sells their product to the top buyers in the EEC. I described how we did this in a book AKU History of Fishing in Hawaii and the Western Pacific available from Amazon. Our government MUST work with independent tuna industry personnel to plan, build, train and operate ALL aspects of a successful tuna industry or let the asians take all the tuna away from the islanders local tuna resources - the biggest and most important in the world...Peter Wilson

Another perspective on the same point. A donor responsible for the implementation of a project which is public sector based, for example, one involving policy or regulatory reform, will be dependent on having senior project staff who are familiar with the way the public sector works and the key people within it. Such people are not likely to be found in the private sector. While it is true that extracting competent civil servants from their role within the public sector diminishes the capability of that sector, the issue should be judged as one of net benefit, not just whether any costs are incurred. And it is reasonable to argue that, if those civil servants who are hired for project implementation work alongside expatriate staff with appropriate international experience, they will return to their public sector careers with enhanced skills and knowledge.

Thank you for this commentary Wesley. Mostly, I agree with your assertions but make some disagreement with the particular Quarantine case that you bring to light and would like to join you in highlighting that capacity needs to be built on the developing country side to address some of these issues. Firstly, as a plant pathologist with a particular interest in plant biosecurity I believe it is important to realise that not all injunctions brought against an Import Risk Analysis are solely to protect an industry without any scientific basis, which I hope is not implied here. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but I think a soil-grown crop which could easily be transferred from market to garden is not the best example to use. Soil-borne pathogens are particularly difficult to control and manage for. I note that Tess mentions above that New Zealand allows in many more imports, but they also lack the environmental and cropping diversity that we have here in Australia. In some cases I believe that any potential contaminants would be restricted in spreading in a country such as New Zealand just through hostile climatic conditions. As I don't know the full details of the case I feel uncomfortable commenting too much further - suffice to say that I would like to see a little more agricultural technical expertise taken into account when making broad-sweeping policy recommendations of this sort. Ginger may also not be a good example when you are also (and I fervently agree with you here) recommending that smallholders focus on differentiated products that command premium prices (as also recommended in the reference of Ron Duncan). Difficulties with slow IRAs could be addressed in part through a committed long-term capacity building effort in areas of plant pathology, entomology and agronomy which would allow for countries such as Fiji to have the intellectual and technical capacity to address the speed of such applications on their own side, while having the added bonus of helping to reduce pre- and post-harvest losses to pests and disease before they leave the farm gate and hopefully improving farmer incomes. "Low technology" skills in these areas are still sorely lacking in developed countries and sustained commitments from funding agencies (be they sovereign nations or NGOs) could begin to address these issues. Similar commitments to succession planning and adequate and appropriate staffing of Australian agencies may also go a long way to dealing with the backlog of IRAs that need addressing.