The 2024 Australasian Aid Conference (AAC) was held at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University from December 3-5. Development Pathways was a proud sponsor of this year’s conference.
Bringing together key thought leaders, practitioners, advocates, academics, government officials and students, the conference looked at the evolving landscape of international development and social policy.
Like many similar organisations, we at Development Pathways were pleased to be a part of numerous conversations on improving localisation practices, strengthening global partnerships and a rights-based approach to social policy.
Throughout the conference, many conversations centred on the critical issues shaping our region – climate change, increasing geo-strategic competition, growing global conflict, and an erosion of trust in the international system.
To address these concerns, we must move away from traditional aid programming to focus on strengthening institutions and systems. This will allow us to work together to better navigate this increasingly complex world – a world that many in the global community didn’t create.
Focusing on the impacts of climate change, Development Pathways CEO Stephen Kidd, looked at how to build social security systems to better support communities. His presentation from the AAC can be found here.
Stephen was joined by Ruth Honculada-Georget, Social Policy and Programme Coordinator at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Dr Melanie Pill, Research Fellow at the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute. This session was chaired by Joanne Pickles, Assistant Director, Economic Policy and Partnerships Section Pacific Economic and Trade Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
When looking at the impacts of climate change in Asia and the Pacific, we need to consider existential threat, not just environmental shocks. By building comprehensive social security systems, we can address underlying vulnerabilities by ensuring that families have regular access to income support – so they can prepare and protect their families the way they need.
A universal system, which includes support for children, older persons, mothers, and people living with sickness or disability among others, is able to reach a high proportion of the population through regular income transfers. In addition to building resilience in communities, the system can be used to rapidly respond to climate shocks by getting more money, to more people, faster.
However, these systems would be expensive if a State implemented everything all at once. As an alternative solution, States could introduce schemes gradually based on the community’s most immediate needs. As more people receive money, the more they can spend in the economy, and the more tax support there will be for these systems. When everyone is able to contribute, everyone can benefit.
In his presentation at the AAC, Jesse Doyle, Senior Social Protection Specialist for Development Pathways’ P4SP, explored how the Pacific Islands and Timor Leste can sustainably finance these types of social security systems moving forward. Leveraging domestic financing sources, such as domestic revenue mobilisation, reallocating existing expenditure from other sectors, or expanding sources of sovereign rent, are all ways to avoid an over-reliance on ODA. Jesse’s presentation can be found here.
Universal social security is not a short-term solution. But climate change isn’t a short-term problem. By building institutions, policy, and capacity now, we can protect our communities in the future (when it will probably be too late).
Written by Grace Corcoran, Project Manager, Development Pathways Asia-Pacific