Sector News

Sector News

Read the top aid and development news from Australia and around the world.

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News from sector

  • Reactions to Scott Morrison’s Pacific ‘Step-Up’

    ACFID | 09 Nov, 2018

    This weeks’ news is headlined by the Prime Minister’s Pacific ‘Step-Up’ announcement, a ‘seismic shift’ in Pacific policy that will reverberate through the region for decades. ACFID’s CEO makes comment, welcoming the push to deepen Australia’s ties in the Pacific, but cautioning against loans which could create greater debt distress. Over to Yemen, where hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in escalating fighting.

  • Conference Special

    ACFID | 05 Nov, 2018

    This week we’ve prepared a wrap up from ACFID’s annual conference – Human Rights in the 21st Century. Highlights include members’ resolution to get #KidsOffNauru, the sector moving to put the spotlight on safeguarding, and journalist and Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani, who is detained on Manus Island, receiving the Sir Ronald Wilson Human Rights Award. ACFID welcomes Labour’s Pacific focus, and Jose Ramos-Horta says Australia aid 'emasculation' is pushing the Pacific closer to China

  • Trump and Xi go toe-to-toe on Development Financing | Welcome Sanctions on Abusive Generals | Front Line Human Rights Defenders

    ACFID | 26 Oct, 2018

    ACFID welcomes the decision by Minister Payne to impose targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against five Myanmar military officers responsible for human rights violations committed by units under their command. On the blog, CEO of CBM, and ACFID Board member, Jane Edge, explains the importance of giving the stage to those on the frontline of defending human rights ahead of ACFID’s national Conference.

  • Myanmar Sanctions | Morrison Government Foreign Affairs Team

    ACFID | 31 Aug, 2018

    This week in the news sees the release of the UN’s Report from the International Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar with findings that crimes against humanity with ‘genocidal intent’ including murder, imprisonment, rape and sexual slavery had been committed by the Tatmadaw in Rakhine state. Meanwhile, Scott Morrison appoints the new foreign affairs team, and the government faces criticism for jeopardising Australia's influence in the Pacific region at a time when China is wooing island nations with infrastructure and loans.

  • Kids Off Nauru | Scott Morrison PM-Elect

    ACFID | 24 Aug, 2018

    The election of Scott Morrison as Australia’s Prime Minister dominates the headlines this week. On the ACFID blog, ACFID’s Learning and Innovation Advisor asks some big questions on the value of international development, and Save the Children's Emergency Health Unit Director, Dr Unni Krishnan, reminds us that what we do today depends a lot on what we do with others in his piece on compassion and collaboration. This week also sees ACFID joining a coalition of more than 30 of Australia’s leading humanitarian and human rights organisations to press the Federal Government to get all asylum seeker and refugee children off Nauru by Universal Children’s Day on 20 November.

  • Soft Power Review| Pacific Nations Expand Security Definitions | Pacific Loans from China

    ACFID | 17 Aug, 2018

    Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announces this week the first review of the nation's soft power diplomacy, saying she wanted Australia to remain a "persuasive voice" among neighbouring countries. Pacific foreign ministers toughen their language on security in the region and on climate change, whilst Tonga urges Pacific nations to press China to forgive debts saying his and other small nations in the region are suffering "serious" debt distress.

  • Prevention Of Sexual Misconduct Report | ACFID Conference Registration | Aid To Indonesia

    ACFID | 10 Aug, 2018

    This week sees the releases of the publication of the interim report of the independent review to improve practice and response of ACFID’s members in the prevention of sexual misconduct. Registrations for ACFID’s national conference in Sydney on 30-31 October officially open, Pacific Beat outlines surprising statistics on aid to the Pacific, and Australian aid arrives in areas of Indonesia ravaged by recent earthquakes.

  • Sustainability in practice | UK IDC Report | Endemic sexual abuse

    ACFID | 03 Aug, 2018

    In the news this week, ACFID member NTA East Indonesia Aid talks sustainability in practice as part of ACFID’s Spotlight on the Code series, and ACFID responds to the publication of the UK Parliament’s International Development Committee report into sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. Australia joins a push by the US and Japan to significantly boost infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific region, and flooding in Myanmar forces more than 130,000 people from their homes.

  • 2018 ACFID Conference Awards | Sustainable Change | US-Australia Alliance

    ACFID | 27 Jul, 2018

    This week, ACFID calls for nominations for three major awards to be presented at the 2018 ACFID National Conference, and we learn how localising development efforts lead to sustainable change in the ACFID blog. Sector news highlights include new revelations surrounding Julie Bishop’s axing of $10 million in annual direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, and the Guardian wraps up two days of Ausmin talks.

  • Ethics and research | Sustainability and the Code | Investment in the Pacific

    ACFID | 20 Jul, 2018

    This week sees the launch of the Research and Development Impact Network’s publication on Ethics Requirements for Research, and WWF’s CEO discusses sustainability and the Code on the ACFID blog. Aid and development news centres on wining hearts and minds in an increasingly contested Pacific.

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