By Nick Mann | 7 May 2013
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has urged Australia to follow through its plan to increase aid spending to 0.5% of gross national income by 2016/17.
In a report published yesterday, the OECD's development assistance committee said the country's recent increases in aid spending and strong economy meant the goal was ‘feasible’.
Last year, Australia was the eighth largest aid donor among the 25 members of the committee, spending US$5.44bn on official development assistance. This was equal to 0.36% of its GNI, above the OECD average of 0.29%. It also increased its aid spending by 29% between 2008 and 2011, the report noted.
‘Australia is in a very strong position to deliver a growing aid budget effectively and efficiently. In line with its commitment to punch at or above its weight in international development, Australia should achieve its stated aid goal of 0.5% ODA/GNI by 2016/17,’ it said.
The OECD noted, however, that Australia had already pushed back its timetable for meeting the 0.5% goal by one year.
And it raised concerns over recent moves to cover new ODA-eligible spending from existing aid budget allocations, rather than by increasing the overall ODA budget.
In December, Australia decided to cover AUS$375m for in-country refugee costs from its 2012/13 aid budget, which led to a AUS$225m decrease in the budget of the country’s overseas aid programme AusAID.
These kinds of changes risked undermining the ‘predictability’ of Australia’s aid spending, the report said. ‘The government aims to minimise the impact of this reprioritisation by ensuring that programmes are delayed rather than cut, but significant in-year budget re-allocations put at risk Australia’s commitments to its partners as well as achieving the expected results of its development co-operation programmes,’ it warned.
Australia should state clearly which refugee costs would be counted as ODA over the next few years and explain how the costs are calculated, the report added.
The OECD’s findings on Australia were published as reports claimed the UK government was set to abandon its pledge to legally enshrine its goal of spending 0.7% of its GNI on overseas aid by 2015.
On Sunday, the Observer quoted a senior government official who said Prime Minister David Cameron had decided not to introduce the legislation in the current Parliament, which runs until 2015.
