Updated: 5:30pm
Australian aid agencies and anti-poverty advocates have welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to set aside one-off support of almost $A305 million for the COVID-19 response and recovery in Pacific nations and Timor Leste as part of its Federal Budget but say the amount given to aid foreign nations doesn’t go far enough.
Tim Costello*, executive director at Micah Australia – a coalition of Australian churches and Christian NGOs, said in a statement that the increased one-off support was “good news for our closest neighbours whose economies and livelihoods are reeling from the pandemic”.
But Costello, who is also spokesperson for the #EndCOVIDforAllCampaign, added that it came “at the cost of cuts to other programs, including aid to South and West Asia, Afghanistan, Africa and the World Food Programme” and noted that the “aid budget does not go far enough to address the greatest threat to global progress on poverty we have seen in our lifetime”.
“We’ve seen promising signs of Australia’s generosity and leadership in the region – such as the $A123 million committed for the COVAX initiative – but we are still to see an overall repair of the aid budget.”
Graham Strong, acting CEO of World Vision Australia, also welcomed the fresh funding but urged the Federal Government to inject further funds into the Asia-Pacific region, saying it was time for Australia to dig deep and respond as it had after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
“John Howard said at the time it was ‘a human tragedy on a scale that none of us in our lifetime have seen, and it does require a response above the ordinary’,” he said in a statement. “COVID-19 marks a new era in human tragedy – once again ‘a response above the ordinary’ is urgently needed.”
Oxfam Australia‘s CEO Lyn Morgain, while welcoming news of the new funding, said the scale of the crisis “requires a permanent and long-term increase in funding for Australia’s aid and development response”.
“Without it, countries in our region and around the world won’t be able to get back on their feet, recent development gains will be lost and poverty and inequality will deepen.”
She quoted Oxfam figures showing half a billion people will be pushed into poverty as a result of the pandemic including 240 million in East Asia and the Pacific and almost 130 million in South Asia.
“These impacts will last years, if not decades.”
The concerns were also echoed by the Australian Council for International Development – the peak body for Australia’s international development NGOs.
CEO Marc Purcell said the government was “rightfully investing an additional $304.7 million in the Pacific and Timor-Leste to help ward-off the worst social and economic costs of COVID-19” and welcomed investments in regional vaccine procurement and health security.
But he added that the organisation was “deeply disappointed by the declines in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, as well as reductions in some global humanitarian partnerships and disability programs.”
“The COVID-19 Recovery Fund is a welcome one-off investment at this time of crisis. But we continue to hold the view that Australia’s overall Official Development Assistance budget should increase so we can maintain the hard-won development gains which are now at risk due to the pandemic.”
* Tim Costello is a Sight Advisory Board member.
