Campaign achieves important increase to overseas aid and poverty reduction
TOO OFTEN WE SPEND ENDLESS ENERGY LAMENTING CAMPAIGN LOSSES. SO LET'S CELEBRATE THIS IMPORTANT WIN - AN IMPORTANT INCREASE TO OVERSEAS AID.
I moved to Melbourne in November 2014 to take on the role as Executive Officer of Make Poverty History. We sought to reverse the Coalition government’s overseas aid cuts through the brand of the Campaign for Australian Aid.
The Labor government had increased the aid budget.
But the newly elected Coalition government claimed the “debt and deficit disaster” meant they had to make significant cuts to government expenditure.
When cutting $107 million from the aid budget Foreign Minister Julie Bishop promised no further cuts. She said “from 2014-15 the $5 billion aid budget will grow each year in line with the consumer price index.”
By December that year the Coalition broke its promise.
December aid cuts
In the December 2014 MYEFO, just a few weeks after I moved to Australia, the Coalition announced further savage cuts. The aid budget cut was $1 billion in 2015-16, $1.35 billion in 2016-17, and $1.37 billion in 2017-18.
The Coalition cut aid to its lowest level ever.
Behind the scenes Julie Bishop was said to be furious about the cuts. She encouraged the aid and development community to vigorously lobby her cabinet colleagues.
The cuts kept coming.
It was a challenging campaign environment with waves of disappointment and demoralization for campaign activists.
However, the campaign continued to grow its paid organisational members and individual supporters.
A generation of young activists was trained to fight back.
The aid and development sector united. It consistently and repeatedly made the case for increasing aid through public campaigning and behind the scenes efforts.
When I left my role the aid budget had stabilized, but at rock bottom.
The only hope for a moderate increase aid was a change of government, with the ALP promising $1.6 billion in additional aid in the 2019 federal election.
Pushing against the tide
The Campaign for Australian Aid, under the leadership of Jody Lightfoot, continued to make the case.
In 2020 Campaign for Australian Aid partnered with Micah Australia and ACFID to design and deliver an End COVID For All campaign.
And two weeks ago they had a major win.
The campaign secured more than $1.3 billion in new international development funding – the first increase in eight years.
It’s not permanent funding, but it is still significant. It includes:
$550m for new economic, development and security programs in South-East Asia.
$500 million to assist in the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine to the Pacific and South-East Asia.
$304.7 million for the COVID-19 Recovery Fund for the Pacific and Timor-Leste.
This is an important reversal of the Coalitions downward spiral on aid.
It’s a major achievement in a political environment of a massively larger “debt and deficit” compared to the “debt and deficit” in 2013 that was used to justify the cuts in the first place.
And it provides a precedent for future aid increases.
Most importantly, it will improve people’s lives.
Too often we spend endless energy lamenting campaign losses. So let’s celebrate this important win.
We’ll done Campaign for Australian Aid, Micah, ACFID and the tens of thousands of people who took action over the past several years for a fairer aid budget.
And a special mention to Jody Lightfoot for his compassion and leadership.
