Established in 1987, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) is the federal department responsible for delivering Official Development Assistance (ODA), often under the branding of Australian Aid. Originally, Australia Aid had a wider remit and a far larger budget, but now works in a reduced capacity and primarily with nations in the Southeastern Asia and Pacific region.
Since 2020, the government of Australia has narrowed its focus to climate resilience and mitigation and humanitarian aid, expanding the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility (PALM) program designed to increase the number of Australian businesses hiring foreign workers from nine Pacific island nations, and “reducing fiscal distress” in Pacific region countries in the form of financial assistance for their economic recovery from measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
The official budget for ODA spending in 2023-2024 is $4.77 billion AUD ($3.19 billion USD), a sizable increase from 2020 when it spent just $2.6 billion USD, but only a modest increase from 2022 when it spent $3 billion USD. Much of these changes are subsequent to the Labour Party coming to power in May 2022 and abolishing the previous government’s $4 billion AUD ($2.8 billion USD) budget cap on ODA spend.
Notable changes in the 2023-2024 strategy for ODA include a plan to establish a “government-to-government” partnership program with several countries in Southeast Asia and a vow to “embed” the perspectives of First Nations Australians into DFAT’s development efforts. Furthermore, all ODA investments valued at $3 million AUD or more are now required to have a gender equality objective.
In terms of global rankings, Australia is the 13th most generous spender of ODA, leaving it just behind Switzerland and Spain and just ahead of Denmark. However, the current government in Australia has committed to a 2.5% indexation of ODA budget every year, starting in 2026, with a forecasted budget of $6 billion USD by 2028.
Australian ODA Projects in 2023-2024
Some of the key ODA projects that DFAT is engaged with or plans to begin in the 2023-24 fiscal year include:
- Providing climate financing to Pacific nations, including through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP – began in 2019) to focus on decarbonization and climate adaptation needs.
- Lifting the financial cap on Australia’s Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund (EMIIF) from $40 million AUD to $250 million AUD in order to “mobilize” private financing
- Assisting Laos in developing non-hydro renewable energy sources
- Assisting Vietnam and Indonesia to develop “energy transition” strategies
- Assisting Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand to assess the potential of green hydrogen
- Funding Palau’s national solar project
- Investing an additional $36 million AUD over the next two years in the Water for Women program across 15 nations
- Investing $3.5 million AUD into the Inclusion and Equality Fund to support LGBTQIA+ organizations in “catalyzing change” in their communities
Multilateral commitments for the 2023-24 ODA budget include:
- $27.5 million AUD for the International Committee of the Red Cross
- $11 million AUD for the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund
- $25 million AUD for the UNHCR
- $10 million AUD for the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- $20 million AUD for the UNRWA
- $40 million AUD for the WFP
- $7.8 million AUD for UN WOMEN
- $19 million AUD for UNICEF
- $13 million AUD for the UNDP
- $9.5 million AUD for the UNFPA
- $5 million AUD for UNAIDS
- $15 million AUD for the WHO
Notable humanitarian projects that DFAT funded in 2022:
- $6 million AUD to Sudan in humanitarian assistance
- $18 million AUD to Turkey and Syria in response to the earthquake
- $10.2 million AUD to Pakistan following the floods
- $35 million AUD to the Horn of Africa and Yemen to address food insecurity
- $135 million AUD to Myanmar and Bangladesh in humanitarian assistance
- $15 million AUD to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan to assist people affected by the conflict in Syria
- $12.8 million AUD to Vanuatu in emergency supplies following two tropical cyclones
- $2.7 million AUD to Kiribati in drought assistance
- $0.5 million AUD to Tuvalu in drought assistance
ODA by Country and Sector in 2023-2024
The projected ODA spend by Australia by Pacific country in 2023-2024:
- Fiji – $44 million AUD (up from $40 million in 2022)
- Kiribati – $26.1 million AUD (up from $24.2 million)
- Nauru – $25.9 million AUD ($25.5 million in 2022)
- Niue – $1.9 million AUD ($1.8 million in 2022)
- North Pacific – $6.3 million AUD ($3.6 million in 2022)
- Papua New Guinea – $500 million AUD ($479 million in 2022)
- Samoa – $29 million AUD ($27 million in 2022)
- Solomon Islands – $103.6 million AUD ($103.1 million in 2022)
- Tonga – $22.1 million AUD ($20.1 million in 2022)
- Tuvalu – $11.4 million AUD ($8.4 million in 2022)
- Vanuatu – $50 million AUD ($46 million in 2022)
- Pacific Regional $613.2 million USD ($609.2 million in 2022)
In total, country spending programs for the entire Pacific region is budgeted at $1.4 billion AUD, up from $1.3 billion AUD in 2022.
Projected ODA spend by Australia in Southeast Asia by country in 2023-2024:
- Cambodia – $47.9 million AUD ($46.7 million in 2022)
- Indonesia – $285.7 million AUD (265.7 million in 2022)
- Laos – $23.1 million AUD ($22.6 million in 2022)
- Myanmar – $42.1 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Philippines – $69.4 million AUD ($68 million in in 2022)
- Timor-Leste – $79.1 million AUD ($77.3 million in 2022)
- Vietnam – $63.2 million AUD ($61.7 million in 2022)
- Southeast Asia Regional – $62.5 million AUD ($46.6 million in 2022)
In total, country spending programs for the Southeast Asia region is budgeted at $775.4 million AUD, up from $719.5 million AUD in 2022.
Other ODA spend on countries by Australia in 2023-2024:
- Mongolia – $5.6 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Afghanistan – $50 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Bangladesh – $30.8 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Bhutan – $2.1 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Maldives – $1.8 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Nepal – $9.1 million AUD (unchanged from 2022)
- Sri Lanka – $16 million AUD (down from $23 million in 2022)
Projected ODA spend by Australia in 2023-2024, by sector:
- Governance – $1.01 billion AUD
- Health – $840 million AUD
- Multisector and General Development – $680 million AUD
- Humanitarian – $643 million AUD
- Education – $577 million AUD
- Economic infrastructure and services – $539 million AUD
- Agriculture, Trade, and Production – $389 million AUD
Currently, the Australian government is still in the process of preparing a new policy to shape its development strategy in the years to come and to help Australia achieve its UN 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
