Executive Director of Micah Australia and Director of Ethical Voice, Reverend Tim Costello AO has won this year’s ACFID Outstanding Contribution to the Sector Award.

Rev. Costello is one of Australia’s most respected community leaders and a sought-after voice on social justice issues, leadership and ethics. He is an Australian Baptist minister who was Chief Executive of World Vision Australia (WVA) for 13 years between 2003 and 2016. His formal involvement in the international development sector goes back even later, to the late 1990s, when he served on Tearfund Australia’s board. He has also served on the board of Make Poverty History, the Campaign for Australian Aid. Since his tenure at World Vision Australia, he has been the Director of Micah Australia. He also has served as the co-Chair of the Charities Crisis cabinet, Chair of the Community Council for Australia and a Director for Ethical Voice, among many other roles and positions.  

Tim has been an advocate for the sector for decades, contributing to significant campaigns dating back to his work in promoting Jubilee 2000 debt forgiveness in the late 1990s. His role through his time on the Tearfund Board, as the CEO and Chief Advocate at World Vision, and at Micah Australia has been focused on raising public and government support for international development and justice-related issues such as big global campaigns like the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights and more specifically in Australia about the investment into the aid budget and refugee and asylum seeker rights, amongst other campaigns. 

Presenting the award, President of ACFID, Susan Pascoe AM, said: 

‘Tim has long been a prominent, respected and visionary voice within the aid and development sector. His campaigning has gone above and beyond in aiding the lives of those facing poverty and injustice, and has had proven impacts. An ever-present pillar of strength for the sector and advocate for those in need, Tim is a worthy awardee.’ 

Upon receiving the award, Rev. Costello said:  

‘It is humbling to receive this award because it comes from peers who have themselves been so committed in service to the world’s poor. That is a recognition that goes deep and an honour that has gravitas. “I’ve been lucky to have been able to serve through the good times when we had a wind in our sails with both the Make Poverty History campaign and the MDGs, which helped create optimism that we could indeed make poverty history. Then there have been the bad times, when it has been vital to stick with the same commitment to advocacy, such as when we saw a cut of over a billion dollars from the ODA in the Australian Budget in 2014, when consequently we turned inwards, despite clear need in the overseas communities we had long sought to serve.”  

Rev. Costello would like to dedicate this award to Mohammed El Halabi, a Palestinian aid worker with World Vision International, who was detained by Israel in 2016 and in June 2022 was found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation, financing terrorist activities and having transmitted information to the enemy. “He dared to serve Palestinians, and dared to plead not guilty to trumped up political charges in Israeli courts, when Palestinians are simply required to plead guilty,” said Rev. Costello. 

Other positions Rev. Costello currently holds are Senior Advisor for the Centre for Public Christianity, Chair of the Community Council of Australia; Chief Advocate of the Thriving Communities Partnership, and Chair of Monash University’s Peninsula Campus Community Advisory Committee.

Rev. Costello has also been named as Victoria’s Australian of the Year (2006); an Officer of the Order of Australia (2005); Victorian of the Year (2004); and one of Australia’s 100 National Living Treasures (1997).

His books include:

A Lot with a Little (2019), Faith (2016), Hope (2012), Streets of Hope: Finding God in St Kilda; Tips from a Travelling Soul Searcher; and Wanna Bet? Winners and Losers in Gambling’s Luck Myth (co-written with Royce Millar).

About the Award

ACFID’s Outstanding Contribution to the Sector Award is presented to an individual or organisation that:

• Has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian aid and development NGO sector over an extended period of time.

• Has made a substantial and sustained contribution to the whole sector – more than only within their own agency

• Recognises voluntarism and looks for contribution above and beyond paid employment. 

Previous recipients of the award have included Joanne Crawford, IWDA (2021), Rhonda Chapman, leading Aid & Development practitioner (2018), the Rev John Deane, Executive Director of the Anglican Board of Mission (2016) and former CEO of ADRA Australia, Mark Webster (2017).

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact [email protected].

ENDS