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Abstract: Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia supports the control of tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea for reasons of aid effectiveness and a desire to decrease the chance of importing tuberculosis to Australia. This paper analyses the case for this support using both cost-utility and cost-benefit analysis. We reach three conclusions. First, Australia directly benefits from its investment in controlling tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea, with a cost of $ US 13 million (in 2012 prices) over 10 years earning a net present value of $ US 22 million. Second, the longer and more extensive the basic directly observed short course therapy, or basic DOTS, to control tuberculosis, the higher are the returns for Australia. Finally, in addition to surpassing all commonly used benchmarks for being a cost-effective investment for Australia, a basic DOTS expansion also generates a health benefit for Papua New Guinea that compares well as one of the 'ten best health buys' in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a comparative case study approach, the article reviews trends in volumes and modalities of non-traditional development assistance flows since 2003 (from emerging countries, philanthropic organisations and the private sector) for the governments of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor- Leste and Vanuatu, and elaborates on the governments' priorities regarding the terms and conditions of development assistance flows and the impact on aid coordination of new providers. We found that the amount of non-traditional development assistance has strongly increased in Fiji but less so in Papua New Guinea, Timor- Leste and Vanuatu. Capacity building for government officials-both in the negotiation and management of these flows-is a priority aspect for development assistance for all of the four analysed governments, even for Papua New Guinea where the government introduced a target to reduce technical assistance, aiming to a more efficient use of this modality and improved knowledge transfer to government officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the poor performance of women candidates in Solomon Islands elections and potential aid policy responses. The article outlines women candidates' performance, details challenges faced by women, examines existing aid work designed to help women candidates and provides policy suggestions. The article argues that existing aid policy focused on candidate training and voter education has achieved little because the main impediments women candidates face are access to finance and local gatekeepers, alongside more subtle normative constraints. These are barriers that are not easily shifted by training or education programs. Meanwhile, for reasons of political economy, another area of aid-supported engagement, a parliamentary gender quota, is unlikely to be enacted. Reflecting this, and the nature of the challenges women candidates face, the article recommends donors also undertake work to help prospective women candidates engage with communities over time, building ties and reputations as providers of assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although South Korea is one of the newest members to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee in 2010, it has a long history of official development assistance ( ODA), first as a recipient of aid (1945-1995) and later as an emerging donor (with the establishment of aid-implementing agencies for concessional loans in 1987, and for grant aid in 1991, respectively). And, global public health has been one of the three largest outreach areas of South Korea's foreign aid programmes. This article examines the global public health outreach activities of South Korea's leading aid-implementing agencies, namely Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare and Economic Development and Cooperation Fund, using data for the latest period, 2008-2012. South Korea's innovative global public health ODA through the Global Poverty Eradication Contribution is also examined. The analysis of global public health outreach activities has shown that South Korea has concentrated its foreign aid to Asia and Africa, and that a large share of its aid has been focused on health care services; water, sanitation and hygiene ( WASH); maternal and child health ( MCH); and infectious diseases. A significant regional difference was found: South Korea's aid focused on health care services and MCH in Asia, while it focused on WASH and infectious diseases in Africa. Findings have also shown that South Korea's priority countries for development cooperation have received more aid compared with non-priority countries. In conclusion, we have found that South Korea's global health outreach activities were in line with the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs), but that they lack a clear focus and do not have globally recognised initiatives or projects compared with large and traditional donors such as the United States and Japan. Further research is needed to examine the impact of the rapidly rising aid activities of South Korea, especially in global public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often argued that the United States and Chinese engagement in the Pacific manifests a clash of foreign policies that mimics the cold war confrontation of the post- World War II era. The article argues that rather than a dichotomous contestation of foreign policies, the United States- China engagement is more complex in nature and needs to be understood using more 'syncretic' lenses to understand the complex synergy in their relationship, which oscillates between tension and accommodation, cooperation and competition. While there are areas of policy contestation, there are also areas of policy appeasement and convergence. This may act as a stabilising factor in the region as the two powers acknowledge the significance of the other and the long-term cost of direct confrontation on their respective interests. This potentially contributes to a 'stable' environment where the Pacific Island Countries are prevented from taking sides, which could potentially exacerbate tension and regional instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]