Aid Program Performance
Report 2016-17
Sub-Saharan Africa
September 2017
1
Key Messages
This report summarisesthe performance of Australia’s aid program in Sub-Saharan Africa from July 2016 to June 2017 against the Sub-Saharan Africa Aid Investment Plan 2015-2019.The Sub-Saharan African Aid Program made good progress against its objectives in 2016-17.
Australia Awards-Africa supported 480 awards including 140 Masters Scholarships, 249ShortCourse Awards and 91 Fellowships–48 percentreceived by women
Australia delivered improved agricultural productivity by conducting research into food security and farming techniques that benefited the livelihoods of farmers.
Australia provided humanitarian assistance in response to protracted crises in Somalia and South Sudan, emergency drought relief to Ethiopia and southern Africa, and food security assistance in the Lake Chad Basin, reaching 758,000 people with life-saving assistance.
Australia contributed $1 million to the African Union for its Gender Observatory to collect data on the progress of gender equality across the region in January 2017.
Context
Sub-Saharan Africa is an incredibly diverse region with multiple development challenges across 49 countries and a population of 1.033 billion.[1]Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to have decelerated to 1.5 percent in 2016, the lowest level in over two decades, as commodity exporters adjust to low commodity prices. South Africa and oil exporters account for most of the slowdown, while activity in non-resource intensive countries –agricultural exporters and commodity importers– generally remained robust.[2]
By 2030 Sub-Saharan Africa is set to make considerable progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in economic growth and strengthening domestic-resource mobilisation. However, the majority of goals– including ending extreme poverty, reducing maternal mortality and access to energy – will need to increase the speed of progress by several multiples of current rates in order to reach SDG targets.[3]
The development context and challenges differ dramatically between countries. Many of the key constraints to economic growth, however, are shared across the continent, including skills shortages; poor enabling environments for business and governance; food insecurity and low agricultural productivities; humanitarian crises; gender and other inequalities.
Australian aid expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2016-17 totalled$136.6 million through bilateral, global and regional programs including humanitarian assistance, volunteers, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). The bulk of Australia’s investment is directed to countries in eastern and southern Africa where we have historical program ties and presence, long-term Australian NGO experience, economic and security interests and diaspora links. [4]
The goal of the Australian aid program in Sub-Saharan Africa is to help people achieve more equitable access to the benefits of economic growth and to save lives through appropriate and effective humanitarian action. Australia’s aid to Sub-Saharan Africa is making a difference by focusing on sectors where Australian experience adds value– extractives, agricultural productivity and public policy. Our posts across Africa consult partner governments regularly to ensure the relevance of our program and to identify emerging priorities. There are four primary objectives for Australia’s aid program in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Objective 1: Contribute to African leadership and human capacity development in areas of critical skills shortages, specifically in the areas of extractives, agricultural and public policy, where Australia has extensiveexperience and expertise.
In recognition of the direct relationship between economic growth and human capital development, the Australian government’s flagship is the Australia Awards-Africa program. Over fouryears (2015-19),Australia is committing approximately $100 million to develop the skills and knowledge of 1,200 African professionals in priority areas for their countries.
African countries experience skill shortages in the professions and manytertiary education systems are not capable of meeting immediate needs to support productivity-led growth. Public sector skills deficits hinder the capacity of governments to deliver services, support sustained growth and address development challenges.
Objective 2: Enhance agriculture’s contribution to sustainable and inclusive economic growth and food security.
The scope of this objective is changing as we transition out of major bilateral food security and agricultural investments. Australia’s support for the agriculture sector continues largely through the programs delivered by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) along with global and regional programs. We are developing new agricultural benchmarks to reflect the future direction of the program. The new benchmarks will be included in the 2017-18 APPR and the Sub-Saharan Africa Aid Investment Plan (AIP) will be updated at the same time.
Our continuing investments in agriculture will reflect its importance to Africa. It accounts for 32 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa and is the sector that offers the greatest potential for poverty reduction and job creation, particularly among vulnerable rural populations and urban dwellers with limited job opportunities. Growth generated by agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be 11 times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth in other sectors–a vital multiplier given that 65 percent of the continent’s labour force is engaged in agriculture.[5]
Objective 3: Respond appropriately to humanitarian crises in Africa through working with effective humanitarian partners and supporting advocacy efforts for effective international humanitarian action.[6]
The broad goal of the Sub-Saharan Africa Program’s humanitarian assistance is to save lives, alleviate suffering and enhance the dignity of people faced with violent conflict, disasters and other humanitarian crises in Africa.
Ongoing conflict and drought across the continent saw an upsurge in the number of people forced to flee their homes in 2016. Large numbers of internally displaced people and refugees, particularly from South Sudan, saw a continued rise in the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) lists some 18million displaced people in the region as people of concern. Sub-Saharan Africa now hosts over a quarter of the world’s refugee population.
El Niño-related drought also led to extremely poor rainfall in eastern and southern Africa, resulting in multiple seasons of failed crops and widespread food insecurity. Over the course of 2016, Australia responded when the UN called special appeals to address acute food insecurity in Ethiopia and southern Africa.
Objective 4: Empower women and girls and improve gender equality outcomes.
Gender equality is both an important right and a powerful tool for development, economic growth and stability. Some research suggests that if women played an identical role in labour markets to that of men, as much as USD$28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual GDP by 2025.[7]Sub-Saharan Africa has great potential to close the gender equality gap and is ahead of all other regions except Western Europe. The region has closed nearly 68percent of its gender gap and data suggests economic parity can be achieved in 60 years.[8] While high female labour force participation rates are a factor in closing the region’s gender gap, women still tend to be concentrated in low-skilled roles. The focus of our programs, particularly Australia Awards, aims tosupport women’s access to higher skilled jobs so that gender parity leads to economic growth and inclusion.
Contributions of global funding to the Sub-Saharan Africa program
Australia made significant contributions to Africathrough the global aid programs in 2016-17. The Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) funded accredited Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) to deliver over 80 projects in Sub-Saharan Africa worth more than $20 million. Australia’s Volunteers program provided over $2.2 million to support 42 volunteer placements in South Africa, one volunteer placement in Swaziland and 25 volunteer placements in Tanzania in 2016-17.The Direct Aid Program (DAP) is a flexible small grants program to advance development outcomes for vulnerable communities. It provided $6 million to support over 170 projects in all Sub-Saharan Africa countries of accreditation in 2016-17. These programs are usuallydelivered in partnership with local implementing partners, responding to priority areas such as agriculture, gender equality, disability support, education, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health.
Australiademonstrated its ongoing commitment to regional peace and security by contributing $219 million toUN Peacekeeping Missions in Mali, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and the Darfur region in Sudanin 2016-17.
Australia is a modest donor to Africa, ranking 19 out of 29 OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries in terms of amount of contribution, based on 2015 data.
Table 1: OECD top five donor country contributions to Africa[9]
Top five OECD donors to Africa / USD million* / percent of DAC countriesUnited States / 9 320 / 34%
United Kingdom / 4 203 / 16%
Germany / 3 036 / 11%
France / 2 292 / 8%
Japan / 1 765 / 7%
Other DAC countries / 6 447 / 24%
Total / 27 063 / 100%
*2015 figures are the latest available from the OECD
In Table 2 below, no bilateral funds are allocated for the agriculture and humanitarian objectives (2 and 3). DFAT global programs or other government departments now provide all funds for investments under these objectives. For the agriculture objective, three legacy bilateral programs delivered by CSIRO, the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) and Department of Environment and Energy (DOEE) continue but with no new funding in 2016-17. The remaining agriculture programs include approximately $12 million for ACIAR programs and $3.8 million for 20 ANCP projects. The reporting for thehumanitarian objective is for the 2016 calendar year, not the financial year, as humanitarian funding aligns with annual appeals. Of the $64.07 million in humanitarian funding in 2016, $17.35 million was disbursed from the Africa Humanitarian Fund and $46.72 million was disbursed through central funding to multilateral agencies.
Expenditure
Table 2 Total Australian ODA Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa FY 2016-17
Objective / A$ million / % of ODA to AfricaObjective 1: Contribute to African leadership and human capacity development in areas of critical skills shortages, specifically in the areas of extractives, agricultural productivity and public policy, where Australia has extensive experience and expertise. / 31.6 / 23%
Objective 2: Enhance agriculture’s contribution to sustainable and inclusive economic food security.a / $0 / 0%
Objective 3: Respond appropriately to humanitarian crises in Africa through working with effective humanitarian partners and supporting advocacy efforts for effective international humanitarian action. / $0 / 0%
Objective 4: Empower women and girls and improve gender equality outcomes. / $1.9 / 1.4%
Sub-Total Bilateral: / 33.5 / 25%
Regional and Globalb: / 88.2 / 64%
Other Government Departmentsc: / 15.0 / 11%
Total ODA Expenditure Sub-Saharan Africa : / 136.6 d / 3.6%e
a)Agriculture programs are funded from non-bilateral programs (regional, global and other government departments).
b)Global funds include the ANCP, volunteers, humanitarian and agricultural funding.
c)Other government funding is largely from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
d)Due to rounding, there is a difference of 0.1 between the sum of the component items and the total.
e)The percentage of total Australian ODA to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Progress towards AIP Objectives
Table 3 Rating of the Program’s Progress towards Australia’s Aid Objectives
Objective / Previous Rating / Current RatingObjective 1: Contribute to African leadership and human capacity development in areas of critical skills shortages, specifically in the areas of extractives, agricultural productivity and public policy, where Australia has extensive experience and expertise. / Green / Green
Objective 2: Enhance agriculture’s contribution to sustainable and inclusive economic food security. / Amber / Green
Objective 3: Respond appropriately to humanitarian crises in Africa through working with effective humanitarian partners and supporting advocacy efforts for effective international humanitarian action. / Green / Green
Objective 4: Empower women and girls and improve gender equality outcomes. / Amber / Amber
Green. Progress is as expected at this stage of implementation and it is likely that the objective will be achieved. Standard program management practices are sufficient.
Amber. Progress is somewhat less than expected at this stage of implementation and restorative action will be necessary if the objective is to be achieved. Close performance monitoring is recommended.
Red. Progress is significantly less than expected at this stage of implementation and the objective is not likely to be met given available resources and priorities. Recasting the objective may be required.
Objective 1: Contribute to African leadership and human capacity development in areas of critical skills shortages, specifically in the areas of extractives, agricultural productivity and public policy, where Australia has extensive experience and expertise.
Australia Awards-Africa is meeting its performance benchmarks and program objectives. Progress against this objective is rated green.
The first awards benchmark aims to achieve gender parity in the awarding of scholarships.Forty eight percent of awardees were women in 2016-17. The second benchmark aims for 90 percent of alumni to report they are using their awards skills to contribute to development outcomes.This was 99 percent in 2016-17.[10]
The program aligns with partner government priorities by engaging with government agencies and coordinating authoritiesin each country through the award promotion and selection process. Posts consult partner governments and other local institutions to develop country profileseach year, whichinform our awarding of scholarships and align the short course program with country priorities.
Australia Awards-Africa focuses on improving skills in the priority areas of extractives, agricultural and public policy. The program delivered in the key priorityareas, agriculture awards included 39percentof short courses and 28percentof Masters; extractives awards included 30 percent of short courses and 12percentof Masters; and public policy awards included 31 percentof short courses and 19percentof Masters.
The Masters program contributes to national development by equipping awardees with the skills and knowledge needed to drive change and achieve sustainable economic growth and social development. Scholarships are offered to emerging leaders from eligible countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in a variety of fields aligned with national development priorities. Masters scholarships are awarded in sectors of importance to partner governments, including health (23 percent) and environment (10 percent).
The short course program offered 10 courses co-delivered in Africa and Australia by African and Australian institutions in 2016-17. Short courses included Agribusiness, Increasing the development impact of agricultural research, Managing mine closures, Mineral and energy economics, Ocean governance and sustainable fisheries, Public-private infrastructure partnerships,and Trade policy and negotiations. We are revising the short course program for future years (2017 to 2020) to align with partner government priorities and to incorporate lessons learned from the Infrastructure Skills for Development Program evaluation completed in 2017.
Australia has almost 6,000 Australia awards alumni in Africa. Maintaining a relationship with the alumni is key to tracking and achieving program outcomes, including that awardees contribute to development in their countries and retain strong links with Australia. There are currently 23 alumni associations across Africa. Since January 2016, we have offered over 360 further development and networking opportunities to our alumni, including participation in 16 regional alumni events. Alumni contribute to awardee pre-departure briefings,are members of award selection panels and mentor awardees.The Australia Awards - Africa Women in Leadership Network (WILN) has 235 members across 39 countries. Australia supported six alumni to attend the8th South African AIDS Conference in Durbanin June2017 and three alumni to attend the Africa Down Undermining conference in Perth in September2016.
In 2017, DFAT began a two-year pilot Post-Doctoral Fellowships program for African researchers through the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN). The program is developing on-going educational, research and professional links between individuals and universities in Australia and Africa. Fields of research include science and technology, agricultural productivity and/or health. Eight research fellows from South African universities have begun the program and Kenya and Ghana will join the pilot in 2018.
In addition to the bilateral program, DFAT offers Australia Awards Fellowships to Africans under its global Fellowships program.Ninety-one Africans received fellowships in 2016-17 and over 50 percent were women.Fellowships offer Australian organisations, from all sectors, the opportunity to deepen and broaden their links with leaders and professionals in developing countries by providing opportunities for Fellows to undertake short-term study and professional development in Australia.
AfricanPerformance Assessment Framework (PAF)data illustrates achievements throughout the awardcycle:[11]
98% of outgoing awardees attended pre-departure briefings and reported this as positively helping to support their arrival in Australia and on-award experience
98% of awardees were satisfied or very satisfied with the extent to which their course developed their knowledge and skills
89% of awardees who attended reintegration workshops were satisfied that the workshops supported their positive return home and into their workplace; and
99% of alumni surveyed in an alumni outcomes study reported they are applying their Award-acquired learning in their job.
The 2016 Australia Awards – Africa Baseline Perception Study found that DFAT Posts consistently receive positive feedback and requests for information about Australia Awards from partner governments. DFAT’sAwards Branch (AWB)is currently conducting a global tracer study to understand the long-term impact of the awards program. Consultants visited Kenya in March 2017, interviewing alumni from rural and urban locations, including some who studied as far back as the 1960s. The Kenyan alumni commented positively on the Australia Awards – Africa program’s influence on their career paths and their ability to influence change and development.