Australia is committed to reducing poverty in Indonesia

The Australian Government has announced an increase in its official development assistance to Indonesia of $105.2 million.

In 2013-14, the Australian Government will provide an estimated $646.8 million (more than Rp. 6.24 trillion) in official development assistance. .

“Australia remains committed to assisting Indonesia to overcome poverty, as demonstrated by the increase in funding,” said Australia’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty.

“Indonesia is Australia’s close neighbour and is still facing complex development challenges. Our assistance supports the Indonesian Government’s poverty alleviation efforts.”

Managed by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Australia’s aid program in Indonesia is focused on education, infrastructure and social protection. Australia is building or extending up to another 2000 junior secondary schools in some of Indonesia’s poorest and most remote areas.

Australia is supporting the Government of Indonesia to more accurately target and deliver programs to help the poorest and most vulnerable. This includes improved management and monitoring of its successful community empowerment program, PNPM, which delivers grants to communities for small scale infrastructure and income generating activities.

Our assistance to Indonesia in 2013-14 will include support to local governments, partners and civil society organisations to make sure, for example, that books are delivered to schools, medicines are available to health clinics and children get birth certificates.

Australia will also continue to invest in water and sanitation infrastructure which will result in up to 250,000 new water and 9,000 new sewerage connections by 2015.

Our funding will help reduce deaths from pregnancy complications by training health care workers and administrators and by helping the Ministry of Health improve the way it manages human and financial resources.

The 2013-14 Budget continues to implement the Government’s Comprehensive Aid Policy Framework (CAPF). The CAPF enables the Australian Government to work together with Indonesia to better plan and implement aid investments more effectively, delivering better results for the people of Indonesia.

The 2011-12 Annual Review of Aid Effectiveness, which was released in January, demonstrated that Australian aid is effective and is making a real difference.

The Government is committed to increasing the Australian aid program to $5.7 billion in 2013-14. This will increase Australia’s Official Development Assistance to 0.37 per cent of its Gross National Income, with the view to reaching 0.5% of GNI by 2017-18.

Media Enquiries:
Mia Salim, AusAID Public Affairs, +62 812 107 0237