The Weekly
Marc Purcell, what is at the top of your mind this week?
This week, ACFID released our analysis of the 2024-2025 Federal Budget concerning Australia’s development and humanitarian assistance.
While there’s a slight increase in development funding of $193m to $4.961 billion, it remains insufficient to address pressing development and humanitarian needs. Aid as a proportion of Gross National Income (GNI) is stagnating at 0.19% GNI, well below the OECD average of 3.7% GNI and the Australian Labor Party’s goal of 0.5%. The Asia-Pacific region lags in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and there are many humanitarian crisis around the world that are dramatically underfunded in responses. Australia’s development efforts need more drive and a ‘plan and a pathway’ to increase ODA as per the ALP resolution passed at their National Conference last August.
There is some new funding for climate initiatives – the Green Climate Fund and Pacific Resilience Facility, which is welcome, but the failure to inject funds into the Humanitarian Emergency Fund is disappointing. The budget allocates a significant boost to Tuvalu for a deep-sea cable infrastructure, but other countries are minimal.
Also, this week marks the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, an important day to advocate and take action for LGBTQIA+ human rights worldwide. The Australian Government has an important role to play in the promotion and protection of LGBTQIA+ human rights through its foreign affairs, international development, and humanitarian programming, which is why ACFID has called for increased funding to Australia’s Inclusion and Equality Fund and increased assessment of LGBTQIA+ people in all DFAT-led designs and programs by 2025, extending this to partner-led programs by 2027.
Read ACFID’s recommendations to the Government on its LGBTQIA+ Human Rights and Engagement and find more information below.Â
To Attend
Budget Night – ACFID Analysis
On 14 May, the federal budget for the 2024-25 financial year will be introduced to Parliament. ACFID will scour the budget papers on the night and produce an analysis of all things international development for our members. If you are interested in receiving a copy of our analysis, please register yourself for our new Policy and Advocacy mailing list. The sign-up link for the list is here – please tick the Policy and Advocacy box to register.
To Attend
Introduction to LGBTQIA+ inclusion in development practice
Today, IDAHOBIT Day, is a significant occasion dedicated to championing and defending LGBTQIA+ human rights globally. Recently, anti-rights movements have been gaining traction, and new discriminatory laws in countries like Ghana, Uganda, and Iraq have been introduced, imposing severe punishments on LGBTQIA+ individuals, ranging from imprisonment to the death penalty.
If you are interested in learning more about LGBTQIA+ inclusion in development, please join us for an introductory ACFID Connect session on Tuesday, 25 June 2024, 10-11:30 am. The session will introduce participants to LGBTQIA+ rights and inclusion and include presentations on the issues facing LGBTQIA+ communities in our region, decolonising LGBTQIA+ language and entry points organisations can take in this area, followed by a Q&A session.
Register here
To Attend
Climate Policy Writeshop
Please join ACFID and UTS-ISF for this Climate Policy Writeshop series. Participants will be guided through a collaborative process to help plan, write or revise your organisational documents to embed commitments to climate action. The Writeshop will delve into why organisations need to integrate climate action into their policies and practices and will incorporate the recent revisions to ACFID’s Code of Conduct related to Climate Change.
When: This Writeshop occurs over 2 sessions, and we ask you to attend both – Monday 30th May and Monday 6th June from 9:30-11am. You may choose to do some writing/revising of your policy or other documents between sessions to bring to the second session.
Who should attend: Any interested staff of ACFID members. The writeshop may be of particular interest to Code Compliance Contacts, participants in the ACFID Climate Action Peer Learning Program, and staff who are engaged with climate action and/or policy writing. We recommend that if you have multiple people joining from your organisation that you coordinate internally on the documents you will bring to the Writeshop and how you work on them between sessions.
Please note, this Writeshop is aimed at ACFID members who are at the early stages of considering climate action in their organisations. We understand that members at a more mature stage of climate action may already have climate well-integrated through their organisational documents and therefore may choose not to attend.
What do we need to bring: Bring along any existing or draft organisational documents that have reference to climate action, or could potentially be entry points to documenting commitments to climate action. These documents may be Environmental Sustainability Policies, Climate Change Guidance Notes, Position Statements, Program Management Manuals, Office Management Guidelines etc.
Register here
To Read
Africa DPP – invitation for written submissions
DFAT is inviting written submissions of a maximum of 2 pages from ACFID members for the Africa Regional DPP by 30 May 2024.
In particular, DFAT seeks input on the objectives that will frame the Africa Regional DPP. The objectives will cover broad, high-level areas of development cooperation, and the DPP will have a maximum of three objectives.
For further information about how to make a submission, please reach out to [email protected]
To Action
Vanuatu DPP
There is still opportunity to register for the Vanuatu DPP as a re-scheduling of the consultation has been proposed by DFAT for Tuesday 28 May from 10:30 am – 1:30 pm. Register hereÂ
To Action
Call for ACFID Conference Images
As you know, each year we love to use a member’s image for our primary ACFID Conference branding. We are urgently looking for images that represent solidarity, collective action, support for civil society, and advocacy.
If you have a photo that you believe encapsulates these values and would like it to be considered for our conference’s main branding, we would love to see it! Please reach out to [email protected]
To Action
ACFID is on Instagram:Â follow us!
ACFID is now present on Instagram. Follow us at @ACFID.AUS to stay updated on our latest news, projects and events.
Upcoming Events:
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Date |
Event |
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30 May |
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10-12 July |
Development Studies Association of Australia (DSAA) 2024 Conference |
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23-24 October |
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To Note