OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Australia 2018 by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Development
ISBN: 9789264293366
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2018-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Australia has clear procedures and guidance, but not all its systems enable them to be applied efficiently

Australia’s aid programme generally has impressively clear policy, programming and contracting guidance that is epitomised by the one-stop shop of the Aid Programming Guide (DFAT, 2017a). The guide sets out policy and programme management responsibilities, legal and financial obligations, and aid quality and accountability requirements. It also outlines mandatory processes and recommended approaches for aid management, and is supplemented by detailed policies, guidelines, tools and templates.

Its governance structures, guidance and training enable Australia to effectively balance several overlapping requirements. These are the need to provide staff with accessible materials; ensure coherence between policy and programming; and provide management with assurances for particularly risky interventions. Australia balances these with the additional need to give autonomy to and delegate to the field. It accomplishes this through a flexible division of aid management responsibilities among missions and geographic divisions that takes into account the scale of aid and level of engagement required.

However, Australia faces some ongoing challenges in relation to overall systems for assurance and oversight.

As noted above, DFAT identified the need to redefine the authority, responsibilities and membership of the Development Policy Committee and Aid Investment Committee to improve oversight of project and programme risk and performance. The current mechanism for peer review and for independent appraisal processes in programme design also are not working optimally in terms of compliance and value added. With the reduction in the numbers of specialist staff (see below), DFAT will need to ensure that it is able to provide sufficient quality assurance over the aid programme.

The integration of AusAID into DFAT placed significant pressure on the department’s information and communications technology, according to the department’s secretary at the time and successive staff surveys.5 A redevelopment of DFAT’s aid management IT system, AidWorks, is under way in recognition of problems with the system’s usability, functionality and reporting capability.

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