By Jack Corbett and Sinclair Dinnen

The reabsorption of autonomous or semi-autonomous aid agencies into departments of foreign affairs in New Zealand (2009), Canada (2013) and Australia (2013) has sent ripples across the international development community. Following a persistent two-decade trend towards greater autonomy and independence of aid policy in these countries, but also in places like the United Kingdom, this shift appears to represent a significant change to the status-quo.

Two pressing questions have arisen from the trend toward reabsorption:

• Will it radically change the focus of aid policy, and if so how?
• How will it change the nature of development administration?

Reforming politicians have been quick to proclaim an era of radical policy change, with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop heralding the emergence of a new ‘aid paradigm’ that is encapsulated in the following:

\”The world has changed – and our aid program must change too. Today, many developing countries are growing rapidly, with aid representing an increasingly small proportion of development finance. To be effective in this new context, our aid needs to be more innovative and catalytic, leveraging other drivers of development such as private sector investment and domestic finance. Our aid needs to support economic growth as the most sustainable way to reduce poverty and lift living standards. We need to recast our aid paradigm in light of this new development paradigm.\”

For Bishop, aid is a form of \’economic diplomacy\’ that serves Australia’s foreign policy and commercial interests by promoting prosperity among its regional neighbours. And, the new integrated aid program will be structured to achieve this despite a drastically reduced budget, reflecting cuts of more than 6 billion US dollars over five years from 2014.

In Canada, the narrative around administrative change has been more circumspect, playing down the radical nature of the reform and instead positing that these changes reflect a desire to align objectives and produce efficiencies. In 2013, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade absorbed the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and was renamed the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development under the government led by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. That occurred several months before the changes were announced in Australia.

The changes to Australia\’s aid administration are, however, potentially much more significant. In the early 1970s, the founders of the Australian Development Assistance Agency (ADAA) believed that for the aid program to thrive, it needed a powerful lobby in the capital, Canberra, which would safeguard its interests against populist or merely thrifty politicians. To that end, the then-Whitlam Government sought to create a professional and autonomous aid agency staffed by development experts with its own career structure and recruitment patterns. ADAA was in fact abolished by the incoming Fraser government in 1976 and later reabsorbed into the then Department of Foreign Affairs, but the ideal of a professional and autonomous aid agency retained currency.

In contrast, from 2013 Australia\’s preeminent aid bureaucrat is now the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Peter Varghese, a career diplomat and former head of the Office of National Assessments, with day-to-day administration undertaken by that department’s desk officers. This move is reminiscent of the way the Australian aid program was organised in the 1960s.

The specifics of how this decision was reached and whose advice it was made on – officials or political staff – remains a mystery to even those at the highest echelons of the former AusAID. Abolition was not part of the conservative Liberal Party-led Coalition\’s election platform. Indeed, as shadow foreign minister before the Sept. 2013 election, Julie Bishop had indicated that a junior Minister for International Development would be appointed in her portfolio. In this sense, the move was entirely unheralded.

While the changes may appear dramatic and profoundly transformative when viewed from the inside of the bureaucracy, they appear less so when placed in the context of more than half a century of development thinking, both at home and abroad. From this perspective, while the administrative change is potentially profound, the new policy settings do not to constitute a paradigmatic change. The emphasis on growth and private sector investment, and recognition that aid is only a small part of a much bigger development finance picture, is hardly new.

The administrative changes, however, effectively herald the end of an era that began in earnest in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the merits of a professional and autonomous aid agency were first canvassed by Australia’s policy elite. Certainly, in making these changes the government hoped to affect not just the policy settings but also the management of the program. The implication being, of course, that AusAID\’s staff would not have been sufficiently responsive to the government of the day. We will never know whether that would have been the case. There is a certain irony embedded in this assessment, however, given that AusAID\’s crimes were said to include increasing aid to Africa and the Caribbean, both of which were at least in part a response to the Australian Government’s campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2013-2014.

What we do know is that a substantial cohort of practitioners, along with years of experience and expertise, has left the Australian Public Service as a result of this decision. They are not all gone – we certainly acknowledge that DFAT retains a level of policy expertise in this area – but it is hard not to argue that the value placed on their skillset has now been diminished by the abolition of AusAID. If anything about the new arrangements hints at a paradigm shift, this is it.

The Authors:

Jack Corbett is a Research Fellow at the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

Sinclair Dinnen is an Associate Professor at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University, Canberra

ASAP now has fifteen Chapters launched or in development in Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Oceania, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Africa. With more than 1,200 ASAP members working and studying in universities, research centers, and NGOs worldwide, the ASAP Chapter Network is growing rapidly. Chapters are exploring new ways of collaborating to contribute to the eradication of severe poverty. We’d like to share some of the Chapter accomplishments and help you get connected.

ASAP Romania is exploring a possible research initiative on the welfare of elderly people in Romania, along with projects on poverty measurement aimed at influencing the Romanian development agency and on increasing coverage of poverty-related issues in the Romanian media.

ASAP Oceania published a response to the 2014-2015 Australian federal budget and its impact on the poor and marginalized; their report focuses particularly on foreign aid, indigenous communities, and welfare programs.

ASAP Germany is playing a key leadership role in the Global Colleagues project and recently held an event for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. They are also developing a research project on responsible investment and a group on economics and philosophy.

ASAP Austria is co-organizing a conference focused on absolute poverty with ASAP Germany, has recently completed a book on poverty in Austria, and has developed a mentoring program pairing up disadvantaged young people and college students.

ASAP USA is interested in initiating projects on integrating the study of poverty into college curriculums and will hold a launch conference at Michigan State University in 2015. In New Haven, ASAP Global Headquarters, ASAP co-sponsored two public events on the Sustainable Development Goals and global justice in development, which featured scholars like Jeffrey Sachs, James Hansen, and Amartya Sen.

ASAP Brazil is researching the impact of Millennium Development Goal 2 – Achieve Universal Primary Education – in Brazil, and is negotiating with the Brazilian Ministry of Public Affairs for formal inclusion in its activities.

ASAP Canada recently held a very successful event titled \”Rethinking Sustainability Beyond 2015: An Agenda for Citizen Action\”, which was attended by over 150 people and featured a presentation by Stephen Lewis.

ASAP Italy is planning to promote the debate over intellectual property rights and access to medicines among the main academic and institutional players in Italy.

ASAP Cambodia is planning a launch event in December and is interested in taking the Global Colleagues initiative forward.

ASAP Spain is planning a contest for the design of a universal flag of humanity and is developing a set of standards for ethical purchasing at
universities.

ASAP West Africa is planning a launch conference, to take place in Lagos in 2015, and is looking to conduct projects to improve quality of education across primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

ASAP India is ASAP’s biggest Chapter, with roughly 125 members. They are currently working on the Know your Rights India and Global Colleagues projects, and have applied for a grant to initiate a project connecting university students with young people living in slums.

ASAP UK is developing a poverty audit, while concurrently conducting research projects comparing poverty in New Delhi and East London, and analyzing the role of the City of London in facilitating illicit financial flows.

Recently, the entire Chapter network was mobilized for the stop tax abuse petition. Chapter members were instrumental in the petition’s success.

Recognizing the importance of collaboration in addressing global poverty, we hope that the Chapter Network will continue to work closely and grow, uniting academics worldwide. New guidelines for chapters will be published on the website in the first quarter of 2015. Given the successes achieved thus far, we are excited about what the future holds for the Chapter Network.

The Chapters have recently redone their web pages – please see the ASAP website for further information and updates. If you would like to get involved with the Chapters, or any of the exciting projects outlined above, please reach out to the contact person listed below.

ASAP Austria: Gottfried Schweiger – gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at

ASAP Brazil: Thana Campos – thana_campos@yahoo.com.br

ASAP Cambodia: Pahlaj Moolio – pahlaj@puc.edu.kh

ASAP Canada: Mitu Sengupta – sengupta@ryerson.ca

ASAP Germany: Robert Lepenies – robert.lepenies@eui.eu

ASAP Greece: Gabriel Amistis – amitsis@otenet.gr

ASAP India: Bijayalaxmi Nanda – bijayalaxmi@yahoo.com

ASAP Italy: Mario Ascolese – mario.ascolese@gmail.com

ASAP Mexico: David Aleman Mena – david.mena@ibero.mx

ASAP Oceania: Keith Horton – khorton@uow.edu.au

ASAP Romania: Diana Velica – diana.velica@gmail.com

ASAP Spain: David Rodríguez-Arias – rodavailg@gmail.com

ASAP United Kingdom: Steph Eldridge – academicsstanduk@gmail.com

ASAP United States: Mladjo Ivanovic – mivanovi@msu.edu

ASAP West Africa: Oluwaseun Olanrewaju – oluwaseunolanrewaju@asapwestafrica.org

The Oslo Principles were featured in The Guardian. Read the article here.

It may seem that, in the absence of explicit treaties, states have no legal obligations to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, if emissions continue on their present trajectory, the harms they cause will reach catastrophic proportions, putting the human rights of billions of people in jeopardy. International human rights law is legally binding on states, which are, therefore, not free to continue business as usual. But how much do human rights and other sources of law, in particular tort law, require each state to do to reduce emissions, even in the absence of a specific treaty? A group of legal experts from around the world has answered this question, producing the Oslo Principles, setting out existing obligations regarding the climate, along with a detailed legal Commentary. These documents may help judges decide whether particular governments are in compliance with their legal obligations to address climate change. The principles may also serve many other purposes, for example they may strengthen the bargaining position of poor countries by pointing to far-reaching obligations of wealthy countries.

Click here to download the Oslo Principles and here to download the commentary.

The Tax Dodging Bill, an ActionAid campaign that calls for the next UK government to confront tax abuse, continues to gain support from academics and economists. Thus far, approximately 27,000 people have supported the bill by signing an online petition.

ASAP President Thomas Pogge has signed onto the campaign and encourages members to do the same.

Tax abuse remains a central focus for ASAP because it is so harmful for developing countries. For instance, tax abuse results in significant loss of public revenues that could otherwise be used to combat extreme poverty. Developing countries are much more affected by this issue than wealthier countries because they are more dependent on corporate taxes. Considering that governments play a role in perpetuating tax abuse, the Tax Dodging Bill is pushing the UK government to address the issue by introducing new legislation and reforming existing laws that contribute to the problem.

More signatures and support for the campaign will put pressure on the UK to tackle this urgent issue, which in turn can influence other governments to take a similar stand.

Earlier this month, over 200 NGOs including ASAP presented a submission to a working group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The submission calls for human rights protections to be incorporated into the international climate agreement to be negotiated in Paris later this year. Furthermore, it argues that a safe climate is essential for the realization of many human rights, including rights to life, health, food, water, housing, and self-determination. Climate change and some policies meant to bring it under control threaten to infringe on these rights. The submission expresses concern that although parties to the UNFCCC agreed in 2010 that human rights should be protected, this commitment has not been put into practice. They argue that now is the time to fully integrate human rights protections into the climate regime with talks on the Paris agreement already underway.

The full submission presented to the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is available here.

BINGHAMTON, NY – Billions of dollars have been spent on developing drugs and supplying them around the world, but which companies\’ drugs are actually making an impact? The Global Health Impact Index, headed by Binghamton University Associate Professor Nicole Hassoun, addresses this issue by ranking pharmaceutical companies based on their drugs\’ impact on global health. ASAP has supported the project since 2011.

Launched on Jan. 23 at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, the Global Health Impact Index considers how companies drugs measure up on the basis of their impact on the “big three” infectious diseases: malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. While previous indexes have measured the need for different drugs worldwide, the Global Health Impact Index is the first to measure the actual impact of these drugs.

\”People have focused on measuring the need for different drugs…but we’re looking at the impact that they’re actually having,\” said Hassoun. \”This is important for setting goals, evaluating performance — trying to have a bigger impact on global health and saving millions of lives.\”

The index looks at three things: the need for several important drugs for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria; the drugs\’ effectiveness; and the number of people who can access the drugs. Each company\’s score is the sum of its drugs\’ impacts.

According to the index, the companies whose drugs having the most impact on the \”big three\” diseases are:

• Sanofi
• Novartis
• Pfizer

The following companies\’ drugs had the lowest drug impact scores on the index:

• Eli Lilly
• Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co.
• Bayer Healthcare

\”We are looking at the outcomes of the drugs that the companies hold, so the actual impact on death and disability,\” said Hassoun. \”We\’re looking at the amount of death and disability that the company\’s drugs are alleviating.\”

Hassoun hopes to motivate pharmaceutical companies to meet the health needs of impoverished people around the world.

According to Hassoun and ASAP, one third of all deaths globally, about 18 million per year, are linked to poverty, because people living in poverty cannot afford medicines and pharmaceutical companies do not have the financial incentive to develop treatments for diseases that primarily affect impoverished people.

By better understanding the impacts of companies\’ products on the burden of disease, said Hassoun, researchers can have a tool for measuring impact; governments, donors, etc. can better target their efforts; and companies can be incentivized to focus on impact.

Visit the Global Health Impact Index website or contact Nicole Hassoun for more information.

ASAP Austria\’s research headquarters, The Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research at the University of Salzburg, is one of several nonprofit organizations that recently received the Rose for Human Rights. The Platform for Human Rights awards this prize annually to organizations that make an exceptional contribution to the maintenance and defense of civil and human rights.

The publication of the book titled The Social Exclusion Reader was one notable activity of the research center in 2014. The book, edited by ASAP Austria, features 24 short essays written by experts that offer new and unusual perspectives on poverty and social exclusion. The Social Exclusion Reader is written in the German language and is currently available to read online.

ASAP Austria was founded in 2012 in Vienna. The primary focus of the chapter is on poverty alleviation at the regional and local level. For information related to the Social Exclusion Reader, write to Gottfried Schweiger at gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at.

2014 was a pivotal year for ASAP, full of growth and change. Major accomplishments included:

• Advocating for reform of global institutions and development practice, by canvassing experts on how to reform the global financial system, by petitioning UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to push for solutions to tax abuse, and by publishing a comprehensive proposal to strengthen the Sustainable Development Goals framework.
• Commissioning and disseminating impact-oriented reports on crucial poverty-related issues, including papers on intellectual property and access to medicines and illicit trade-related flows. We supported new research on illicit financial flows by launching the Amartya Sen Prize contest in partnership with Global Financial Integrity and the Yale Global Justice Program. In addition, we profiled academics who\’ve had an extraordinary impact on poverty with their research through the Impact: Global Poverty project.
• Growing the network of ASAP Country and Regional Chapters. Development of new chapters in Romania, Greece, West Africa, and Cambodia began in 2014. This year we created a forum for chapters to collaborate, exchange ideas, and advise on the strategic direction of ASAP Global. A notable highlight among the chapters\’ many accomplishments is the publication of the first ASAP book, The Social Exclusion Reader, by ASAP Austria.
• Adding key players to the core ASAP Global team and launching a dynamic three-year strategic plan. We wrote a new strategic plan that will guide our work through 2017; it is a living document that will evolve to meet new opportunities and challenges. We brought on talented academics and practitioners to serve as new ASAP Board Members and Officers: Web Director Miles Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University; Web Deputy Director Oskar Macgregor, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Skövde; Fundraising Director Helen Yanacopulos, Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development at the Open University; Communications Director Ellen Szarleta, Director for the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence at Indiana University Northwest; Projects and Membership Director Jason Hickel, Lecturer in Anthropology at the London School of Economics; and Director of Research on Financial Transparency Zorka Milin, Legal Adviser at Global Witness. And we enlarged our staff from one to two–we are excited to have Boston University graduate Chelsea Papa join Rachel Payne on the ASAP operations team.

These accomplishments would not have been possible without the support of members like you, who have donated money and time to help academics make a greater impact on poverty. Expert volunteers gave thousands of hours to ASAP in 2014. Their commitment allows us to advocate for big change on a small budget.

We are particularly grateful for the support of the Frederick Mulder Foundation, which has been essential to ASAP\’s growth and success. Dr. Mulder is one of the world\’s foremost dealers in the prints of Pablo Picasso, and it is profoundly moving and inspiring to know that Picasso\’s productive genius is speeding us along.

Zorka Milin, Legal Adviser to Global Witness, has volunteered to serve as ASAP\’s Director of Research for Financial Transparency. In this role, she will seek to identify opportunities for ASAP, as thinkers and researchers, to influence and intervene in policy debates and advocacy campaigns related to financial transparency and illicit financial flows.

Milin is an international tax lawyer, and at Global Witness she works to improve accountability for grand corruption and to advance tax and revenue transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors. She is a member of the BEPS Monitoring Group of tax experts and represents civil society stakeholders on the tax working group in the US Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. She is also serving as a visiting fellow at Yale University, with the Global Justice Program and with the Information Society Project at the law school. She is originally from Serbia and has practiced international tax law for six years with two major global law firms.

Academics Stand Against Poverty is proud to announce the publication of the organization\’s first book, titled The Social Exclusion Reader. The book, edited by ASAP Austria, features 24 short essays written by experts that offer new and unusual perspectives on poverty and social exclusion.

In the realm of global poverty the common discourse often centers on the same few concepts. These reoccurring narrowly-focused conversations and arguments enhance the risk of public numbness to poverty. Therefore, the primary aim of the The Social Exclusion Reader is to circulate deep poverty knowledge beyond the academic world to raise global awareness of the harsh, complex living conditions of the world’s poor. The book confronts and expands upon common knowledge of poverty by providing in-depth information and new, under-discussed viewpoints on poverty-related topics including poverty and noise, social exclusion and leisure, and poverty and disgust.

The Social Exclusion Reader is written in the German language and is currently available to read online.

ASAP Austria was founded in 2012 in Vienna. The primary focus of the chapter is on poverty alleviation at the regional and local level. For information related to the Social Exclusion Reader, write to Gottfried Schweiger at gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at.

Photo credit: Dragan Brankovic/Flickr