Sixty years after joining the Development Assistance Committee, Australia has spent tens of billions on economic, development, and humanitarian projects across the world.
Its foreign cooperation is guided by four central themes: climate action; disability equity and rights; gender equality; and humanitarian action. Australia has also identified the Indo-Pacific region as a strategic focus, allocating about three-quarters of its projected 5.1 billion Australian dollars development aid for 2025 to 2026 to the region — likely equivalent to around 3.3 billion in U.S. dollars — according to its latest budget.
In this article, we crunched the latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to better understand Australian aid — looking into the overall trends, top recipient countries, and priority sectors. We also examined the latest contracts from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade — Australia’s main aid funder — to list its lead implementers.