Graduate Careers

Do you have an interest in development, international relations and other cultures? Do you have strong research, analytical and communication skills? Are you interested in using your skills to make a difference for the world’s poor? Then you should consider working for AusAID — the Australian Agency for International Development.

Who is AusAID?
AusAID is responsible for managing the Australian Government’s overseas aid program. It aims to assist developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development.

What does AusAID do?
The Australian Government, through AusAID, provides Official Development Assistance to 75 countries, with a strong focus on the Asia-Pacific. AusAID works with domestic and international partners and developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. Development assistance is delivered across a range of sectors such as health, education, gender equality, law and order, infrastructure, rural development and the environment. The aid program also helps developing countries to manage a range of global threats, such as people trafficking, illicit drugs, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. Australia’s humanitarian assistance helps reduce the adverse impacts of conflict, natural and other disasters on vulnerable populations. AusAID responds to emergencies in the region such as cyclones, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes, becoming active the moment a disaster strikes.

Watch the ball. Hilton Early Intervention Centre, Suva, Fiji. Inclusion means that no one is left on the sidelines. Australian Volunteers International is sending a sports adviser to help modify and design programs for children with high support needs. The program is supported by the Australian Sports Commission and funded by AusAID. Photo: Australian Sports Commission.

Why does Australia give aid?
Modern, developed countries such as Australia have an obligation as part of the international community to provide assistance to developing countries. Australia has a special responsibility to countries in our region, especially given that two-thirds of the one billion people in the world living on less than US$1 per day live in the Asia-Pacific. In addition, two billion people in the world have no access to clean water, while 150 million children never get the chance to go to school. The Australian Government, through AusAID, is working to assist countries in our region to achieve the Millennium Development Goals — eight goals representing an agreement by developing and developed countries, to work together in partnership to reduce poverty and advance human development in a range of critical areas by 2015. Australia’s aid helps developing countries increase their capacity to achieve development objectives, in a sustainable way. By helping to build stronger communities and more stable governments we improve our own economic and security interests.

How does the aid program work?
The Australian Government, through AusAID, competitively contracts aid delivery work to Australian and international companies and not-for-profit organisations. These companies and organisations use their expertise to deliver development assistance and to work with local people to continue the benefits long after a contract ends.

AusAID works with the governments of developing countries to help them improve the way they deliver services for their people. For example, Australia is working in partnership with the Solomon Islands to improve the delivery of essential services including transport infrastructure, law and justice, and schools and hospitals. AusAID contributes funding to international and Australian organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, World Vision and Oxfam. AusAID provides funding to a range of United Nations agencies, including UNDP and UNICEF for their work in developing countries and also contributes to global and regional poverty reduction programs set up by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

What is the focus of the aid program?
AusAID is leading Australia’s global fight to eradicate extreme poverty. In the face of substantial challenges, not least in the Asia-Pacific, Australia is intensifying efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Australia has a special responsibility to assist developing countries in our region to achieve the MDGs. In July 2007, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking alongside the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, launched the MDG Call to Action, with the support of 14 Heads of State or governments and 21 private sector leaders. In May 2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that Australia has joined the MDG Call to Action, which aims to galvanise widespread support, momentum and concrete action for the MDGs. To strengthen this support, Prime Minister Rudd has committed to increasing Australia’s Official Development Assistance to 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015. The 2008-09 financial year sees new measures to take forward the Government’s international development assistance priorities including climate change adaptation, fighting avoidable blindness, disability and access to clean water and sanitation, reflecting the Australian Government’s concern to ensure the benefits of development reach the most vulnerable.

Toshin and his family at home in Samoa. With the right support, Toshin is no longer isolated from his peers and is attending school.

Toshin comes from a small village in Samoa. He’s 10 years old and he has cerebral palsy. This year he started school for the very first time.

Although his body is limited in its movements, his mind is active and it’s clear he wants to learn. Toshin’s intellectual capacity has just recently been picked up by a local disability worker.

Toshin’s family loves him very much but because of his physical disability, they assumed he couldn’t go to school. This belief, coupled with their anxiety and social discomfort about his condition, has kept Toshin isolated from his peers. It has also lost him valuable years of learning.

There are many minority groups in the world that struggle to have their voices heard but among the most vulnerable are those with a disability born into poor families in developing countries. The resources and support services to help them realise their potential simply don’t exist.

People with a disability everywhere confront enormous social barriers.

‘Even in the West life can be hard,’ says Kristen Pratt, Director of AusAID’s Disability Taskforce, ‘But it is very much worse in developing countries where people are more likely to be shunned socially, denied access to education and health services, and have no choice but to rely on relatives to look after them.’ The lack of alternative care arrangements and general support for people with a disability are matters of serious concern to the aid program, not least because of the need to protect them from mistreatment. In some circumstances, for example when money and food are scarce, resentments can build towards those unable to contribute to the household income — and this can spill over into abuse. A person with a disability may not be fed or cleaned properly, or may be shut away at the back of the house.

But Toshin is one of the luckier ones.

He’s part of a warm and loving family who, although far from rich, are doing all they can so that he can attend school.

It’s early days but already Toshin is blossoming. He’s made new friends, is enjoying his new school routines and loves learning to read. Suddenly Toshin’s future looks a great deal more promising, ‘My favourite part of school is singing and playing soccer,’ he says.

The 2008–09 federal budget honours the Australian Government’s commitment to working with people with a disability in the Asia-Pacific region. It will invest $45 million over two years for the development of a comprehensive disability strategy to guide Australia’s aid program and to develop an avoidable blindness program. For more information about the strategy see www.ausaid.gov.au

This article was originally published in Focus, the magazine of Australia’s overseas aid program. To view copies of Focus, go to www.ausaid.gov.au/focus