The Government’s new budget has given reason for a reserved smile from the humanitarian sector. While it is certainly welcome that increases in essential sectors such as Water and Sanitation, infrastructure and climate change have been included, it could perhaps be categorised as a tentative step in the right direction.

The Labour government has upheld its pre-election promises to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) focused on climate change, sanitation and preventable blindness. Overall the Aid Program Budget will increase by 4.9% in real terms (excluding debt relief to Iraq, which when included increases the total to 9%).

This is a positive development, as are the projections that total ODA will increase every year as a percentage ratio of Gross National Income (GNI). However, the projected increases leave Australia struggling to reach its commitment of 0.50% of GNI by 2015 and far behind the global commitment of 0.7% by the same year.

This aside, the current budget shows an emphasis on the Millennium Development Goals and a balance of multilateral and bilateral funding commitments. It also paves the way for more robust changes in the 2009-10 budget for which the government is seeking sectoral input.

Ian Wishart
National Executive Director