It has been just over a year since the Trump administration's dramatic cuts to America's foreign aid budget and the shuttering of USAID. With other major donors also slashing their aid programs — potentially causing 22 million additional avoidable deaths by 2030 — what does this mean for Australia's development efforts? A new OECD review of Australia's aid program provides a timely opportunity to assess the health and future direction of Australian development assistance.

The Lowy Institute’s Roland Rajah and Grace Stanhope are joined by Cameron Hill from the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University and Bridie Rice, CEO of Development Intelligence Lab, to discuss the global aid landscape, Australia's comparative advantage in the region, and the tensions between short-term transactional wins and long-term transformational development.

More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple.

Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Follow Roland Rajah on X and LinkedIn.

Follow Grace Stanhope on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United Nations is facing two simultaneous disruptions: the planned UN80 reforms, timed to refine the organisation’s structure and mandate during its 80th anniversary, and budget cuts led by the Trump administration. Lowy Institute Research Fellow Grace Stanhope speaks with UN financing expert and author Dr Ronny Patz, and Ryan Neelam, the Lowy Institute’s Director of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, about the financial viability and geopolitical dynamics of the UN.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Institute’s Dr Melanie Pill speaks with Professor Thomas Hale, author of Long Problems: Climate change and the challenge of governing across time, about the difficulty of addressing issues, like climate change, that have such distant consequences. They discuss the barriers to addressing and governing long problems, how to build stronger institutions, and how international negotiations and agreements can be better structured to address climate change.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.