Australia’s development assistance to reach P5.7 B in 2013-14

MANILA, Philippines - In 2013-2014, the Australian government will provide an es- timated P5.7B (A$141 million) in official development assistance to the Philippines.

“Australia remains strongly committed to helping the Phil- ippines overcome poverty, as demonstrated by the increase in funding of A$12 million from last year,” said Australian Am- bassador to the Philippines Bill Tweddell.

This is part of the govern- ment’s overall commitment to increase the size of the Austra- lian aid program to A$5.7 billion, up from A$5.2 billion in 2012- 2013. This will increase Austra- lia’s Official Development Assis- tance (ODA) to 0.37 percent of its Gross National Income.

Australia remains commit- ted to increasing its ODA to 0.5 percent of GNI; however, the government has decided to de- fer this scale-up by one year to 2017-18.

“Australia places high impor- tance on delivering real results to help improve the lives of the poorest Filipinos. Managed by the Australian Agency for In- ternational Development (Au- sAID), Australia’s aid program in the Philippines is focused on strengthening basic services for the poor and reducing vulner-abilities arising from climate change and conflict,” Tweddell said.

“Australia will support the largest and most significant re- form in the Philippines educa- tion system in more than 20 years – introduction of a Kinder- garten to Year 12 education pro- gram, which President Aquino recently signed into law. Austra- lian assistance will train teachers and decision-makers, provide advice on curriculum develop- ment and help develop informa- tion technology systems.”

Australia is providing support to the Philippine government’s public-private partnerships re- form agenda by investing in infra- structure development, including in classroom construction, health services and transport. Invest- ment in these areas is critical to fostering sustainable economic growth in the Philippines.

Australia will also continue to work with the Philippine gov- ernment to deliver an innovative program that uses provincial road maintenance funding as an incentive for local governance reforms. Australia is also assist- ing the government to automate its public financial management system to improve the efficien- cy and transparency of public spending.

“Australia has made a sub- stantial contribution to peace in Mindanao through our aid program. We will continue to support the peace process in Mindanao by introducing edu- cation for youth in remote com- munities and providing new op- portunities for youth formerly involved with armed groups,” Tweddell said.

“With our Philippine part- ners, Australia will work to make Filipinos safer and more resilient to the threats from nat- ural disasters and the changing climate, which drive people into poverty and threaten sustain- able economic development.”

The 2013-14 budget contin-ues to implement the govern-ment’s Comprehensive Aid Pol- icy Framework, which enables the Australian government to work together with the Philip- pine government to better plan and implement aid investments more effectively, delivering bet- ter results for the people.

The 2011-12 Annual Review of Aid Effectiveness, which was re- leased in January, demonstrated that Australian aid is effective and represents value for money. It also showed that Australia is making real progress towards the targets announced in the 2012-2013 budget.