Sector News

Sector News

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

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News from sector

  • Urgent Medical Treatment Bill | NGO Donations Fall | Navigating Ethics Approvals

    ACFID | 08 Feb, 2019

    This week, ACFID joins with a coalition of organisations to support the ‘Urgent Medical Treatment’ amendment moved and accepted in the Senate last year - if this Bill succeeds any offshore patient requiring further medical treatment will be moved to Australia at the behest of a panel of Australian doctors. In the news, Senator Anne Ruston flags militarisation fears in the Pacific, as the government “steps up” engagement, chipping away at its promise to step up its engagement in the Pacific following a series of revelations last year about the increasing reach of Chinese influence. The final four children held on Nauru are to be resettled with their families int eh US, and West Papuan leaders declare a commitment to “war” against Indonesia.

  • Federal Budget Submission | Australia's Emissions Condemned | Military Exports to Saudi Arabia

    ACFID | 01 Feb, 2019

    ACFID has published its submission to the Australian Government ahead of the 2019-20 Federal Budget which is due to be handed down on 2 April 2019. In the news, Australia’s record on emissions and sustainability is condemned by OECD review - Australia is not on track to meet its 2030 emissions targets under the Paris agreement and needs to bring its environment policies into line with the “scale of the challenge” the country is facing. Dr Helen Clark warns us on Devex that global agendas are set to fail unless something changes, and US spy agencies warn over China’s efforts to undermine the west, including the “bullying” of Pacific island nations in Australia’s backyard.

  • Applying Quality Principle 1 | Pacific Paternalism | Global Economic Growth and Australia’s Vulnerability | ACFID recruitment

    ACFID | 25 Jan, 2019

    On the blog this week, Response Manager for the Australian Red Cross’ International Program, Jess Letch, tells how the Australian Red Cross promotes the rights, protection and inclusion of all people in humanitarian operations. In the news, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has again managed to suggest to her Pacific neighbours that they can’t manage their own affairs, and also in the Pacific, there are questions being asked about the Australian government's recent announcement of a multi-million dollar plan to fund Australian television content in the region.

  • Morrison's Pacific Tour | Australia-Fiji relations | Shaping Research and Policy

    ACFID | 18 Jan, 2019

    Now available on ACFID’s YouTube channel are highlights from concurrent sessions during ACFID’s National Conference in October 2018, including the Preventing Sexual Misconduct and Safeguarding Human Rights session, which showcases examples of good practice and leadership from the ANGO sector and beyond. Scott Morrison’s historic Pacific Tour dominates aid and development news this week, with Australia and Fiji announcing a new partnership, and the PM announcing $500,000 in security and policing aid for Vanuatu.

  • Faith and the Code of Conduct | Infrastructure Financing in South Asia | Pacific battered by strong winds

    11 Jan, 2019

    As part of ACFID's Spotlight on the Code series, Director, Programs and Institutional Relations for Islamic Relief Australia Simon Eccleshall discusses the relevance of rights-based approaches to development on the ACFID blog this week. Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who is in New Delhi for a regional geopolitical conference, entrenches the Coalition’s turn toward challenging Chinese funding by using its aid program to help build roads and bridges abroad. In the Pacific, authorities assess the damage as different weather systems have battered several countries, including PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Marshall Islands.

  • Spotlight on Quality Principle 1 | Call for Labour to increase Foreign Aid | Mid-year Outlook

    ACFID | 14 Dec, 2018

    In the last sector news for 2018, ACFID highlights the Spotlight on the Code series with an interview with Sport Matters, an organisation actively embedding human rights, protection & inclusion into their international development activities. ACFID CEO Marc Purcell tells the Guardian Australia that calls for a Labor commitment on aid just before its national conference were essential, with former ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans urging the party’s national conference to commit to target of 0.7% of gross national income. Also headlining, Australia turns back on allies as it refuses to cut emissions above Paris pledge.

  • DFAT to run Pacific Bank | Climate Change Inaction | Foreign Influence Bill passes

    ACFID | 06 Dec, 2018

    ACFID’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, Bridi Rice, comments this week on news that the $2 billion Pacific infrastructure facility will be run out of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Government intends to have the facility up and running by July. In other aid and development news, Australian government aid, worth $20 million over the next three years will help people living with the aftermath of Islamic State's occupation of Iraq rebuild their lives. Meanwhile, Crossbench MPs ‘flex political muscle’ to pressure the Government to remove refugee children from Nauru and Manus Island. In the ACFID blog this week, CBM Australia’s Advocacy and Communications Officer, Gemma Muir discusses the common experience of underestimation in advance of International Day of People with Disabilities.

  • Rights, Inclusion & Protection | Yemen Can't Wait | Australian Business Squandering Pacific Opportunities

    ACFID | 30 Nov, 2018

    ACFID's member and engagement lead, Raewyn Lans - organiser of this year's ACFID Conference on Human Rights - introduces the latest part in our series on ACFID's Code of Conduct. The devastating conflict in Yemen continues, and pressure is mounting on key players to come to the negotiating table. The next federal election has been confirmed for May after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced he would hand down an early budget in April 2 and then go to the polls, and the debate continues about which countries should be providing financial assistance to the Pacific, and how.

  • Final Report, Prevention of Sexual Misconduct Review | Australian Aid in the Pacific

    ACFID | 23 Nov, 2018

    Headlining ACFID news this week is the ACFID Board response to the findings and recommendations of the independent review to improve practice and response of ACFID’s 119 members in the prevention of sexual misconduct. The independent review team at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) spent 5 months reviewing ACFID members’ practice and culture through interviews, surveys, focus groups and a field trip to consult with members’ partners and stakeholders. APEC 2018 is also hits the news, with Australia joining a global alliance to 'power up PNG'.

  • Pacific Pivot | Indigenous Procurement Strategy | Foreign Donations Ban

    ACFID | 16 Nov, 2018

    ACFID and the RDI Network have published an Outcomes Statement with the key takeaways from their ‘Demonstrating Outcomes and Impact across Scales’ National Workshop, and the RDI network also launces it’s latest guide in their ‘partnerships’ series offering highly practical tips and advice on working with Church-based organisations. Across to the Pacific Pivot, Morrison is warned against adding to ‘the growing chorus of Pacific, African and Indian Ocean discontent with concrete pouring Belt-and Road projects’.

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