Bulletin

Issue: May 2006

News

New role for La Trobe to boost regional development aid

La Trobe University is playing a key role in Australia’s new push to boost development aid in South Asia. It has been awarded a contract to administer SARF – the South Asia Research Facility – a $1.5 million project to help provide long-term regional development aid through targeted research and doctoral scholarships.

The contract follows the establishment at the University late last year of the La Trobe Institute for India and South Asia (LIISA) and coincides with the Federal Government White Paper on overseas aid announced in late April by Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Alexander Downer.

Mr Downer says with other donor nations increasingly focusing on Africa, the world is looking to Australia to play a leadership role on certain development issues in the Asia-Pacific region where 700 million people still live in poverty and almost two billion on less than $2 a day.

The Director of SARF is La Trobe’s newly appointed Adjunct Professor and Senior Development Adviser, Kenneth McPherson. LIISA administrator, Tracy Lee, has been appointed Projects Officer.

Professor McPherson says SARF has been set up under the Department of Foreign Affairs’ AusAID scheme and the Asia Pacific Futures Research Network of the Australian Research Council. It supports research projects at Australian universities on Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and provides a number of PhD scholarships for citizens of these countries to study at Australian universities.

Nominated research fields relate to basic services such as education, health care, water and sanitation; good government, which includes institution-building, local government and anti-corruption; the achievement of sustainable growth; HIV/AIDS; security and conflict issues affecting development; natural disaster mitigation; social exclusion and disadvantage; and natural resources. One of SARF’s first tasks has been to select candidates from the region for up to six PhD scholarships. The three-year scholarships, are tenable at Australian universities with AusAID covering full living allowance, fares and visa costs and the recipient Australian universities covering tuition fees and supervision.

SARF Foundation Committee members include La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Stoddart, and Dr Linda Bennett from the University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. Other members are from AusAID, the Australian National University, Monash University, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Professor Stoddart says the scheme grew from the inaugural South Asia Node meeting of the Asia Pacific Futures Research Network held in Sydney in February 2005. The five-year contract for SARF was signed by the University last November.
SARF will also organise an annual conference to update AusAID on the latest development issues, including specifically commissioned research on key topics of their nomination.

Professor Stoddart says a major feature of the success of the collaboration with AusAID was due to the Network’s ability to draw on research expertise around Australia, regardless of institutional affiliation.