1. To resource Australia’s foreign policy including the 2023 International Development Policy, the government should accelerate efforts to increase ODA from its current low base, and:
ensure that ODA and non-ODA flows reinforce partner countries’ development priorities and are working towards common objectives
continue to invest in strengthening public and parliamentary support for Australia’s global engagement, including by informing public debate with tailored communications and facilitating greater dialogue between parliamentarians and experts.
2. To incentivise development effectiveness and impact for partner countries, DFAT should:
ensure oversight and steering mechanisms promote critical challenge in decision making around development investments, including in the choice of delivery partners
fully embed risk-based management, including by improving staff capability to apply risk policies in a proportionate and flexible way
reinvest in strategic evaluations and synthesis work, ensuring alignment with policy and decision-making cycles.
3. To strengthen effectiveness, DFAT should increase the capability of its systems and staff to drive strategic engagement in programmes delivered through managing contractors, and consider delivery models further upstream to identify the best mechanism to meet objectives and reduce unnecessary project complexity and layering.
4. To advance Australia’s commitment to an effective multilateral system, the government should protect and seek to increase core funding to key multilateral partners and ensure alignment between Australia’s engagement in multilateral headquarters and in partner countries.
5. To be fit to steer and lead a more ambitious development programme, DFAT should:
continue embedding development capability across the department, including through strengthened pre-posting training for staff to enable them to perform in difficult contexts
follow through on efforts to address challenges around well-being and workplace culture, including further incentivising diversity and innovation at all levels
make greater use of locally engaged staff through access to senior roles in programme design, management and evaluation
better structure the department’s conflict prevention knowledge and analysis to maximise the contributions of development investments to building stability and security.
6. Building on Australia’s leadership on gender equality, disability and social inclusion, DFAT should continue championing gender equality while also stepping up efforts to support partners in addressing intersecting forms of inequalities, including economic inequality.
7. DFAT should further embed its locally led development commitments through continued, effective use of budget support in SIDS and through increased incentives for delivery partners to equitably fund local partner organisations.
8. Building on Australia’s growing portfolio of infrastructure investments, DFAT should continue to prioritise access to procurement opportunities for local actors, manage for debt distress and ensure that poverty reduction is at the heart of the theory of change of all infrastructure investments.
9. As Australia expands its innovative finance tools, including through greater engagement with the private sector, DFAT should implement its commitments to transparency and reporting, continue to invest in relevant expertise and further reflect on the most effective architecture to deliver its innovative finance work.
10. To improve coherence across Australia’s policy objectives, the government should include transboundary impacts on developing countries in regulatory impact assessments and maintain active dialogue with partners on incoherence issues such as climate change and the regional processing of asylum seekers.