When Australia released its International Development Policy in 2023, considerable attention was given to the positioning of the development program as ‘one of our tools of statecraft’. Some argued this would help restore development to the heart of Australian foreign policy. Others were more sceptical, noting there was no accompanying plan to lift the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget. The policy instead made an intriguing reference to the deployment of non-ODA support alongside ODA. Could this help unlock the catalytic potential of Australia’s development cooperation?
In the years since, Australia has increasingly utilised non-ODA funding to promote development in the region. Yet uncertainty remains about the nature and impact of this funding. The recent OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) peer review of Australia’s development cooperation stresses the need to clarify the objectives and alignment of its ODA and growing non-ODA support.
This brief offers a conceptual framework to strengthen the deployment of non-ODA support alongside ODA. It is not a comprehensive treatment of this complex topic, but an initial contribution to the broader conversation about the future of Australian development cooperation. While acknowledging the risks, it highlights the promise of non-ODA support within a development program that complements Australia’s other tools of statecraft without losing sight of its core purpose.
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- Non-ODA support has moved from the margins to the mainstream of Australia’s development cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, yet remains poorly understood.
- When purposefully deployed, non-ODA support enables greater scale, flexibility and coherence in development cooperation.
- Further guidance on the use of non-ODA support alongside ODA would help sharpen the development program as a tool of statecraft while preserving its core development purpose.
