There have been many changes to the aid program over the past decade, and this site illustrates those changes in a clear way that goes beyond the headlines.
The Australian National University (ANU) has launched a new website tracking the changes and trends in Australia's $4 billion a year aid program.
The Australian Aid Tracker website is part of research work looking at Australian aid conducted by the Development Policy Centre at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.
Dr Terence Wood, Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre, said the website uses visualisation and charting tools to help illustrate issues and trends in Australian aid.
"The aid tracker is an independent, user-friendly and up-to-date look at Australian aid," Dr Wood said.
"There have been many changes to the aid program over the past decade, and this site illustrates those changes in a clear way that goes beyond the headlines."
Dr Wood said he hoped the site would be a useful resource for journalists, advocates, policymakers, politicians, academics or members of the public interested in learning about aid.
Content featured on the aid tracker includes:
- Trends: Australian aid over time, aid as a percentage of GNI, aid per capita, how much of the budget we spend on aid, and how much Australians donate to development NGOs.
- Comparisons: how Australia performs (now and in the past) against other aid donors in the OECD DAC.
- Destinations: where Australia's aid goes.
- Commitments: the contributions Australia makes to important international aid organisations and funds like the Global Fund, Gavi and others.
The aid tracker builds on the centre's existing Devpolicy Blog (devpolicy.org), which is a popular resource on Australian aid issues.
The website has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Harold Mitchell Foundation.
Fast facts from the aid tracker:
- Australian aid in 2015-16 is budgeted at $4.052 billion. This represents 0.9 per cent of spending in the Federal Budget.
- Eight per cent of Australia's aid is spent on humanitarian assistance.
- In 2015-16, Australia will spend $169 per Australian on foreign aid.
- Australia's generosity as an aid donor is dropping. In 2013-14, we spent 0.34 per cent of GNI on aid. In 2015-16, Australia will spend 0.25 per cent.
- Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are our largest aid recipients.
