The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) website has some great information online, but you will not find everything you may are looking for, hence the need for this site! The most useful aects of AusAID's website are: information on its funding through the "Business and Tenders" link - make sure you sign up the newsletters here too; AusAID vacancies if you wish to apply to work in AusAID - click on "Careers"; Publications which include policy documents, annual reports and others (link from homepage); and the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) website which is very usefully hosting many evaluation reports and similar documents not too long after they are written. http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/ for ODE, and http://www.ausaid.gov.au/default.cfm for the main AusAID website.
A number of "independent" reviews or surveys have been undertaken of AusAID.They include:
OECD Peer Review of Australia 2008
OECD Peer Review of Australia 2005
OECD Peer Review of Australia 2000
Newspoll 2005, public opinion survey on "Community Attitudes to Overseas Aid"
Newspoll 2001, public opinion survey on Monitoring Public Opinion Towards Overseas Aid
Office of Development Effectiveness (AusAID), 2008, Annual Review of Development Effectiveness
Office of Development Effectiveness (AusAID), 2007, Annual Review of Development Effectiveness
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is an often forgotten part of Australia's development assistance, but does some fantastic work and has a good website. ACIAR is a statutory authority that encourages Australia's agricultural scientists to use their skills for the benefit of developing countries and Australia. ACIAR funds research projects that are developed within a framework reflecting the priorities of Australia's aid program and national research strengths, together with the agricultural research and development priorities of partner countries in five regions: Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, North Asia, South Asia and Southern Africa.http://www.aciar.gov.au/
The Minister and two Parliamentary Secretary's responsible for aid: have websites which show the policy view through hosting their speeches and other media:
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/ The website for The Hon Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/parlsec/ The website for Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/parlsec/ The website for The Hon Duncan Kerr SC MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs
For further policy or government contacts or interesting publications, also view the following:
http://www.directory.gov.au/ An online directory (sort of like white pages) for government - click on Foreign Affairs on Trade, then click through to see who is the Director of individual sections and so on within DFAT, AusAID, ACIAR and so on. This site is updated regulalry so is the best place to find out the new person in charge of departments - other than picking up the phone of course.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fadt_ctte/index.htm A fascinating website listing all submissions and responses to and from the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
The Institute of Development Studies in Sussex in the UK maintains a number of knowledge services, for example Eldis and id21. These are great resources for UK focussed articles and information on nearly every development topic (and there must be tens of thousands of articles available to download). The geogrpahic focus as you would expect from a UK institution is Africa and (South / West) Asia, but there are some articles on East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/knowledge-services
The Development Studies Network is a small multidisciplinary organisation which encourages discussion and widespread exchange of knowledge of global social and economic development issues, development-related research, and international aid policy and practice. The Network publish an excellent journal, Development Bulletin, and maintain an electronic forum for news about current research and discussion on development issues and organize regular seminars and international conferences. Most issues of the Bulletin are available online and this is a fantastic resource - contributors to the Bulletin include practitioners and policy makers as well as academics. http://devnet.anu.edu.au/index.php
The Australian Development Gateway is a development website which lists articles, job opportunities and other information and is funded by AusAID for approximately $1,000,000 a year. http://www.developmentgateway.com.au/
dev-zone is a development website which lists articles, job opportunities and other information. It is based in NZ. http://www.dev-zone.org/
