https://aidwatch.org.au

For nearly 30 years Aid/Watch has focused on demanding transparency and accountability in Australia’s foreign aid, trade and development programs. With a focus on the Asia Pacific region, we expose programs that further Australian national and corporate interests rather than addressing the root causes of environmental injustices, poverty and inequality.

The focus of our work is:

• Decolonising Aid & Development: Re-imagining current colonial-led aid and development models to be rooted in justice, decolonisation and regenerative futures.
• Exposing Development Aggression: Advocating for justice and rights-based approaches to development in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities protecting their human rights, lands and waters.
• Unearthing Extractivist Greenwashing: Undertaking research and education to curb greenwashing of the energy and digital transition to achieve a justice transition that delivers regenerative outcomes towards circular societies.
• International Solidarity: Providing practical and theoretical assistance to our partners in the Asia Pacific region through international solidarity at a time of converging crises.

Over the years, AID/WATCH has successfully challenged government agencies, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and corporations against their use of foreign policy mechanisms in undermining the environment and local communities. Our successes have included:

• Successfully lobbying and campaigning destructive bilateral and World Bank projects in Papua New Guinea;
• Building alliances with local communities for the successful closure of Australian aid programs that undermine the environment and local communities in Cambodia, Indonesia and Vanuatu;
• Exposing Australian aid and militarisation in Afghanistan;
• Leading a coalition of Australian NGOs to force Australia’s export credit agency Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) in adopting environmental guidelines for stronger compliance of large scale development projects; and
• Winning an Australian High Court challenge for environmental-based charities that seek to influence government policy in the public interest.

AID/WATCH’s work has moved beyond the ‘aid lens’, highlighting the unfinished business of decolonisation and further intersecting issues of all forms of justice. For this reason, AID/WATCH’s work, now and into the future, demands decoloniality as part of a regenerative process in our approach, campaigning and everyday social relations.

We continue to fight for justice in the overseas aid sector and move beyond development aggressions in all forms to build the foundations for a regenerative and just future for all.