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How does the quality of Australian aid compare to international best practice?

The quality of Australian aid – an international perspective draws on Brookings Institution analysis of the performance of Australia's aid program based on the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) index and three other global assessments of donor aid performance.

Overall, Australia achieves at or near the international average in three QuODA dimensions of good aid practice; maximising efficiency; fostering institutions; and reducing burden on partners. These are good results:

But the aggregate scores mask a far more complex story at the indicator level. Australia is not an average donor, rather the analysis identifies:

• Australia scores above average on six of the eight indicators of transparency and learning, ranking ninth overall and fifth among bilateral donors.
• Fragile states are a defining feature of Australia's aid program with Australia's proportionate share higher than almost every other donor.
• Compared to other countries that devote 50 per cent or more of their aid to fragile states, Australia is second only to the UK when measured on the QuODA dimensions of aid quality.
• These results support the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness' finding that Australia is an ‘effective performer by global donor standards’, but also indicates that the aid program holds its own against much larger bilateral and multilateral donors, especially in its primary regions of focus.

Although Australia's adherence to best practice rules cannot guarantee that Australia's aid will always deliver its intended results, it increases the likelihood that those results will be achieved. Ongoing efforts to benchmark progress against comparable donors both highlight Australia's achievements and identify opportunities for improvement, ultimately helping bolster Australia's impact on the lives of the world's poor.

Full report

• The quality of Australian aid—an international perspective [PDF 820kb]
• The quality of Australian aid—an international perspective [Word 4.03mb]

ODE Brief: Effective Aid in Fragile States

• ODE Brief: Effective Aid in Fragile States [PDF 480kb]
• ODE Brief: Effective Aid in Fragile States [Word 437kb]

 

Last reviewed: 12 December, 2011