Australia hikes aid despite slowdown

Australia boosted development assistance to Bangladesh for 2009-10 by nearly 10 million Australian dollars despite its own economy's plunge to a 27-year low amid a global recession. The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) will now funnel Au$61.2 million to be spent mainly on education, health and poverty eradication programmes. It provided Au$52 million in 2008-09, and was planning to raise the amount further before the economic downturn set in. "Our plan was to double the aid. But, for now, it is to stay as it was for the recession," Elaine Ward, AusAID director for South Asia, told The Daily Star in Canberra recently. "Our commitment for Bangladesh remains high despite the fact recession is there." Australia has maintained a healthy aid flow in order to help a developing country like Bangladesh tackle the impact of global recession. Bangladesh is AusAID's largest programme, run through a number of partner organisations including the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), Brac--the largest NGO in the country--and the International Centre for Health and Population at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B). During the last four years, AusAID contributed Au$48 million for development of education and over Au$44 million for the health sector. The huge education programme of Brac thrived on its Au$22 million aid. Unicef too backed up significantly the government's primary education programme (phase 2) by use of Aussie funding. The Australian contribution here aims to improve the quality of teacher training, promote inclusive education, and strengthen curriculum development, local level planning and training. Around 68,000 teachers and 4,500 instructors have already been trained, leading to a heightened quality in primary education. Nearly 10 lakh children, who dropped out of public education system, got non-formal primary education. Though Australia is involved in numerous development programmes across South Asia, the AusAID top brass rates highly those in Bangladesh. "Every single programme in Bangladesh achieved high-quality performance," Lorelle Bakker told this correspondent at the AusAID headquarters in Canberra. "Story is so good in Bangladesh...what's being achieved is just world class. Best stories are coming out from Bangladesh." Regular aid programmes apart, Australia provided over Au$10 million to assist people affected by Cyclone Sidr, which devastated the southern coast of Bangladesh in November 2007. The success story in Bangladesh is also inspiring AusAID to contemplate a switch from its current region-based strategy to country-wise approach. At the same time, the economic slump prompts it to keep a watch on how its aids are being utilised. "In view of the recession, AusAID plans to set up a taskforce to monitor projects and find financial vulnerabilities," said Elaine Ward. AusAID brackets social safety net programmes as its next major target, said Ward. It has been working through Brac since 2002 to better the livelihood in the northwest region, providing income-generating opportunities through credit and savings services to 40,000 households. The programme seeks to enable the poor women to become small-scale entrepreneurs by investing in businesses such as poultry and livestock rearing, rice processing, fish farming and transport services.