Australian Aid Tracker

Ashlee

Launched in January 2016, the Australian Aid Tracker website draws on a range of data and Devpolicy analysis, and uses a variety of visualisation and charting tools to help bring the numbers on Australian aid to life. It’s an independent, user-friendly and up-to-date look at Australian aid.

Ashlee Betteridge created and built the aid tracker site, with support from colleagues (particularly Terence Wood).

The aid tracker had a hugely positive response, attracting interest from media, aid stakeholders and the general public. It was widely shared on social media on its launch.

Related Devpolicy Blog posts:

Introducing the Australian Aid Tracker by Ashlee Betteridge
Is Australia a humanitarian scrooge? By Ashlee Betteridge
The rise of global aid in 2015, and the fall of Australia by Robin Davies and Ashlee Betteridge

Multimedia:

Quiz
Infographic

Media coverage:

New independent ‘Tracker’ website for Aussie Aid, Radio Australia, 27 January.
Australian Aid Tracker Shows PNG And Indonesia Receive Most Funds But Pot Is Getting Smaller, Huffington Post, 27 January.
New ANU website tracks changes to Australian Aid, ANU, 28 January.
Devpolicy launches Australian aid tracker, Crawford School, 27 January.

Tweet from the Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University.

Policy brief — Communication post-integration: reloading Australia’s efforts

Ashlee

In August 2016, Ashlee authored a Development Policy Centre policy brief titled ‘Communication post-integration: reloading Australia’s efforts’. The brief looked at why it is important to invest in aid communication, with a focus on web and social media, and gave suggestions for how DFAT can do better. It included qualitative and quantitative analysis of aid communication on the DFAT website and on Twitter, and compared DFAT’s efforts with those of other aid donors.

Download the policy brief [PDF].

Three part blog series
The need to resurrect aid communication efforts
Australian aid communications by the numbers
DFAT and aid communications: how to improve

Debating the point of international volunteering

Ashlee

Ashlee participated in a panel event at the University of Melbourne on 19 November 2015, hosted by the Australian Red Cross, to debate the merits of international volunteering.

The event was titled ‘Dispelling the White Knight Complex’. Panellists included: Marc Purcell, ACFID; Peter Devereux, Curtin University; Ashlee Betteridge, Development Policy Centre; and Chrisanta Muli, Oxfam Australia. The event was chaired by broadcaster Tracee Hutchison.

Summary of discussion here.

Combatting the family and sexual violence epidemic in Papua New Guinea: submission to parliamentary inquiry

Ashlee

Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Julie Bishop MP, asked the human rights subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade to inquire into and report on the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region.

Given the wide scope of the terms of reference for this inquiry, we focused on addressing the family and sexual violence epidemic in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

This submission was prepared by Ms Ashlee Betteridge, Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University, and Dr Kamalini Lokuge, Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University.

Download full submission [pdf].

Read summary of recommendations.

Policy brief: A parliamentary committee on aid? Issues and options

Development Policy Centre

Parliamentary committee inquiries into the Australian aid program over the last decade have been few and far between, even as the aid program has grown massively. A parliamentary committee or subcommittee could improve parliamentary oversight of the Australian aid program and deliver a number of benefits.

I co-authored a policy brief with Stephen Howes on this topic for the Development Policy Centre in November 2013.

Download policy brief [pdf].

Read blog post.