“Aid Talks” is a webinar series discussing the most pressing issues on aid and development cooperation today and the critical issues surrounding it. Co-hosted by Aid/Watch Australia and the Reality of Aid – Asia Pacific (RoA-AP), “Aid Talks” aims to inform the public on how the Official Development Assistance (ODA), commonly known as aid, provided by donor countries to developing nations and fragile states, is being utilized as ‘aid investment’ redirected to support private sector players and narrow security priorities over reducing inequality and poverty.
Just a month after the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), we dive into the Compromiso de Sevilla. With debt crises, austerity, inequality, and rising military spending on the table, civil society voices are pushing back. What was compromised—or committed to? In this episode, we speak with guests from civil society and UNESCAP to unpack the hits and misses of the outcome document, and explore what real structural transformation could look like.
27 Jun 2024
[EP. 8] Navigating a changing landscape: Is aid off-track?
The changing landscape of development cooperation influences aid effectiveness and governance. Poverty eradication, as well as addressing other cross-cutting issues, has become tougher as multiple crises such as climate and conflicts exacerbate the existing conditions of developing countries. The instrumentalization and “inflation” of aid have impact on the broader financial architecture that shapes global development financing. This Aid Talks episode gathers guests from civil society and the OECD-DAC to discuss the state of aid today—its current structure, trends, purpose, and the bleak future it's heading towards.
8 Dec 2023
[EP. 7] #LocalizationCan
The localization agenda has become a buzzword in the development cooperation arena in recent years. Particularly, the localization of aid is being forwarded by CSOs, communities, and other development actors as a way to ensure that humanitarian and development decisions are people-centered. However, gaps in implementation still remain and global South voices are largely left unheard. Together with guests from Southern CSOs and the OECD-DAC, this new Aid Talks episode unpacks how #LocalizationCan truly address the needs of communities in the global South amidst multiple crises.
22 May 2023
[EP. 6] Going back to basics: The ABCs of ODA
Official Development Assistance (ODA), simply known as foreign aid, is a form of assistance provided by global North countries that promotes and targets the economic development and welfare of global South countries or developing countries. In this Aid Talks episode, Haje Schütte from the OECD-DAC, Susan Engel from the University of Wollongong, Australia & Jiten Yumnam from the Centre for Research and Advocacy - Manipur talk about the origins of ODA, some relevant issues surrounding it, and best practices fostered by development actors and civil society. Follow Aid Talks for future updates and episodes!
In time for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last November, the fifth Aid Talks, “Reparations & Resilience: Decolonising Climate Finance” focused on discussing how climate finance must be democratically owned by the marginalized in the global South to achieve climate justice. Particularly, the decolonization process must be geared towards the proper funding of adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage measures.
This podcast critically tackles questions on the current aid structure/s that perpetuate colonialism and neoliberalism, how climate finance can effectively contribute to adaptation, mitigation, and loss damage measures, and how climate finance can be reimagined to address climate emergencies and promote sustainable development for all.
Join our panelists from different CSOs in Asia Pacific in further understanding what are at stake in calling for genuine and people-centered climate finance!
Aid Talks is brought to you by Aid/Watch Australia and The Reality of Aid - Asia Pacific.
10 Feb 2022
[EP. 4] Re-imagining Aid: Ending Structural Racism in the Modern-Day Aid System
The strength of Black Lives Matter protests that echoed around the world in 2020 shone a light onto the workings of humanitarian and development organisations - organisations generally seen as committed to the greater good and staffed by altruistic heroes who put others before themselves. Hence it is not surprising that many western INGO leaders finally have been forced into engaging in discussions to ensure their organisations are anti-racist.
This Aid Talks webinar seeks to examine why aid must be decolonised and the long overdue need for honest reflection, acknowledgement, and remedy for colonisation across all facets of modern life, including within the aid sector. The webinar will unpack language and terminology like: What is structural racism? What is decolonisation? What is decoloniality? What is White Gaze? And explore how colonialisation in the region has had an enduring legacy both on poverty and the development of racial hierarchies.
Our speakers will talk to their different contexts and address the barriers which stop or serve to act as disincentives for a more equal, anti-racist aid and development program and open the conversation on ways forward as part of building a reimagined aid sector.
MODERATOR
RODOLFO LAHOY JR. is the current Head of the Policy, Communications, and Training Team at IBON International, a Southern-based, capacity development organisation working with movements and CSOs for people's rights and democracy.
SPEAKERS
CAROL SHERMAN is a former co-founder of Aid/watch. She then went on to work with a variety of INGOs around the world, mainly in the position of Country Director. She is currently working as an independent humanitarian and development consultant.
EMELINE SIALE ILOLAHIA is the Executive Director of the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO) and formerly Executive Director of the Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT). PIANGO is a regional platform of national umbrella CSOs in 24 Countries and Territories in the Pacific. One of its focuses is advocating for the recognition of Civil Society as a critical development partner in our own rights and should be engaged in public policy decision making that impacts the life of our people.
FIRAS JABER is the co-founder of the Social and Economic Policies Monitor- Al-Marsad. Al-Marsad is an initiative to monitor policies in order to ensure the protection of the economic, social and civil rights of Palestinians. Its vision is a free Palestinian society where social justice is realized through critical development approaches.
KRISTER HOLM is the Regional Director for Asia of Diakonia. Diakonia is a faith-based Swedish development organization that works with local partner organizations, with a vision of a just, equal and sustainable world.
Aid Talks dives deep into how women and gender diverse peoples from the Asia Pacific region embrace, advocate and are ushering in feminist, just and rights-based solutions for lives, livelihoods and development justice.
Amid the long history of women’s and gender justice struggles and movements, we are now at a crucial junction and opportune moment for liberation through self-determination by pushing the gender justice agenda out of the margins and asserting its place in local, national, regional and global policy arenas
Women and gender diverse peoples are serving at the frontlines, the impacts of the crises on them are a stark reality of ongoing injustices and inequality.
Join our panellists, from Karen Peace Support Network and Centre for Research and Advocacy, Manipur to answer key questions including: How do we define gender justice? How is it situated in the gamut of development, economic, social, racial and environmental injustices in the Asia Pacific region? What feminist perspectives and gender-just organising are being embraced? How can we further foster solidarity for the liberation of women and all gender identities?
Women and gender diverse peoples are at the core of the fight against the multiple crises we face.
25 Mar 2021
[EP. 2] Cancel Debt in Asia Pacific to Tackle Covid-19 Health and Economic Crisis
With potential impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic on sovereign debt for the poorest countries in the Asia Pacific region there is a growing regional and international call for the cancellation of all external debt payments due to be made in 2020.
Many of these countries are already in debt distress, or risk thereof. They lack vital societal functions such as health infrastructure, welfare and education whilst also struggling to meet the financial demands from the impacts of climate change. Those that will be hardest hit will be the most vulnerable and marginalised, particularly women.
With cuts to aid budgets and the debt crisis already prevalent in many countries in the Asia Pacific the COVID crisis has revealed that both low income and middle income countries are at risk. The financing needed to prevent both a COVID-related health and an economic catastrophe will be immense.
The outbreak of COVID-19 shows that a rapid response is essential. Governments need to have resources for decisive action today. Any delay will make a post-COVID world more difficult to control and late repair of economic damage more costly, especially for borrower countries.
Join our panelists, from EURODAD, Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organisation (PIANGO), IBON International and Jubilee Australia who will present and discuss on the need to cancel all external debts.
25 Mar 2021
[EP. 1] The Fragile Case of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency crisis. How much more vulnerable is it going to be for conflict-affected, fragile states where refugees, migrants and the poor tolerate cramped spaces, have very limited access to basic social services, and have inadequate livelihood to protect them from the shock of the outbreak? What are the opportunities for social movements that may come out of this crisis?
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