The new international development policy has dropped, and across the development ecosystem the response has been a healthy mix of congratulations, relief, disappointment and cautious hope, along with worry that the big promises in the new policy won’t – or simply can’t – be delivered upon. 

The focus is now shifting to implementation and everything that will translate the policy into action: sectoral sub-strategies, a refreshed development partnership planning process, performance systems. These are the essential underpinnings of any development cooperation program, and the price of entry to the donor world. 

In her foreword to the policy, Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong noted that Australia will have to make “meaningful changes” to how it thinks, plans, and engages if it is to achieve the policy’s objectives. 

So we’ve challenged ourselves to think bigger and identify several constraints that the Government can tackle head on if it’s serious about making this policy and its impact really count. Whether it be DFAT’s capability and resource shortfalls, or the authorising environment for development ambition, this Inquiry explores three potential changes that will help translate the new development policy commitments into catalytic development impact.