Introduction
Background
Methods
Inquiry respondents | Study % |
---|---|
Non-government actors | 69% (n = 114) |
i.e. submissions made by civil society organizations, community networks, peak bodies, educational entities (schools or universities), business and industry, or the private sector more broadly | |
Government organisations or agencies | 12% (n = 19) |
i.e. submissions made by Federal, state/territory and local government or government delegations | |
Individuals | 18% (n = 30) |
i.e. submissions made by members of the public | |
Joint | > 1% (n = 1) |
i.e. submissions made by government and non-government actors |
No. | Stakeholder Name | Submission No. | Description | Role, Aim or Vision |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Burnet Institute | #10 | Burnet Institute is unique in Australia in being both a medical research institute accredited by the National Health and Medical Research Council and a development non-government organization (NGO) fully accredited by DFAT. | The Institute’s vision is to achieve equity through better health, and its mission for the next five years is to achieve better health for vulnerable communities in Australia and internationally by accelerating the translation of research, discovery and evidence into sustainable health solutions. |
2 | PhD Candidate, Associate Professor and Professor (3 Individuals) | #17 | Three sustainable development and SDG specialist researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). | The authors of this submission support the Australian Government’s integration of the SDGs into its ODA program. |
3 | Oxfam Australia | #18 | Oxfam Australia is an independent, not-for-profit, secular development agency and a long-term development partner of the Australian Government. | Oxfam Australia’s vision is of a just world without poverty and it undertakes long-term development projects, provides emergency response during disaster and conflict, undertakes research and advocacy to advance the right of poor and marginalised people, and promotes fair trade. |
4 | Vision 2020 Australia | #19 | Vision 2020 Australia is part of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, a global initiative of the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Vision 2020 Australia is the national peak body for the eye health and vision care sector, and represents 50 member organisations involved in local and global eye health and vision care, health promotion, low vision support, vision rehabilitation, eye research, professional assistance and community support. | Vision 2020 Australia aims to ensure that eye health and vision care remains high on the health, ageing, disability and international development agendas of Australian governments. |
5 | World Vision Australia | #25 | World Vision Australia is part of World Vision, a worldwide community development organisation that provides short-term and long-term assistance to 100 million people worldwide (including 77 million children). World Vision Australia partners with the Australian Government to deliver the Australian ODA program and engages in dialogue with the Australian Government on matters of policy and practice. | The vision of World Vision is ‘for every child, life in all its fullness; our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so.’ |
6 | Family Planning NSW | #32 | Family Planning NSW is the leading reproductive and sexual health (RSH) agency in Australia with over 90-year’s history. Family Planning NSW are DFAT accredited and provide international development activities in RSH across the Indo-Pacific region. | Family Planning NSW provides RSH services, professional education and training, and research and evaluation in Australia, focusing in NSW. |
7 | Doctors for the Environment Australia | #33 | Doctors for the Environment Australia is a voluntary organisation of medical doctors in all Australian states and territories, and effectively functions as a public health organization. | Doctors for the Environment Australia works to address local, national and global health effects caused by damage to the earth’s environment in line with the medical profession’s proud community service record. |
8 | The Fred Hollows Foundation | #36 | The Fred Hollows Foundation is a leading international NGO working to restore sight, eliminate avoidable blindness and ensure Indigenous Australians exercise their right to good health. The Fred Hollows Foundation works with local partners and governments in Australia and in more than 25 countries around the world to prevent and \treat the major eye diseases causing avoidable blindness: cataract, trachoma and diabetic retinopathy. | The Fred Hollows Foundations works to meet the challenge that without better funding and access to eye care services, the number of people who are blind will triple from 36 million to 115 million by 2050, and these 36 million people, 4 out of 5 suffer from conditions that can be treated or prevented. |
9 | Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Secretariat | #41 | The GPE is a global multi-stakeholder partnership and fund for education and is the only fund which focuses solely on ensuring equitable, quality education for all through an inclusive systems-strengthening and results-based approach. | GPE mobilizes global funding, knowledge and political will; and acts locally, locking together better planning, more financing and mutual accountability to build strong education systems and better schools. |
10 | University of Sydney | #52 | Higher education and tertiary research institute in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. | To benefit the people of NSW, Australia and the wider world. |
11 | Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Australia/ Pacific | #55 | The SDSN Australia/Pacific of universities and knowledge institutions that mobilises scientific and technical expertise to promote practical problem solving for sustainable development, including the implementation of the SDGs. SDSN has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General, and has over 700 member institutions around the world. | The Australia/Pacific regional network of SDSN was established in 2013 and is hosted by Monash University. It works with the 30 SDSN members in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, as well as with many other partners from across all sectors, around a number of SDG-related areas. |
12 | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Government | #60 | DFAT is the department of the Government of Australia responsible for foreign policy, foreign relations, foreign aid, consular services, and trade and investment. | DFAT supports and operationalises the Australian Government’s integration of the SDGs into its ODA program. |
13 | The International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium | #62 | The International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium (The Consortium) is an Australian NGO partnership. | The Consortium champions universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and NGO consortium partners believe that all people should have the freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies and their lives. |
14 | Cardno International Development | #64 | Cardno International Development is a long-term DFAT partner, and works with DFAT to design and implement government-funded programs. | The role of Cardno International Development is to deliver over 50 DFAT programs in 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. |
15 | Victoria University’s Timor-Leste Reference Group | #65 | Higher education and tertiary research institute in Victoria, Australia, with unique and enduring relationship with Timor-Leste. | In 2017, Victoria University released its Green Paper that led to the development and implementation of a Victoria University Timor-Leste Strategic Plan (2018–2020) demonstrating unequivocal institutional commitment to clear, considered and measurable engagement with Timor-Leste with a continuing and renewed focus on sustainable development through an SDG lens. |
16 | Economics & International Relations student (Individual) | #69 | Young Australian student from the University of Adelaide with strong interest in international affairs. | Individual student keen to see Australia harness the opportunities presented by the SDGs to make the world a better place by 2030 and beyond. |
17 | Results International Australia | #71 | Results International Australia is part of an international, non-partisan and non-profit organisation that has been working in Australia for 30 years through a combination of staff-led and grassroots-driven advocacy, with service delivery in 37 countries. | Results International Australia works with federal parliamentarians and through the media to generate public and political will to end poverty, and focuses its advocacy on global health issues such as tuberculosis (TB), HIV, malaria, polio, child health, vaccines and nutrition, as well as education and microfinance. |
18 | Marie Stopes International Australia | #82 | Marie Stopes International Australia is a leading global provider of SRH services and key advocate for reproductive rights. | Marie Stopes International Australia transforms the lives of women and girls by providing them with reproductive choice, which includes access to SRH education, counselling, modern forms of contraception, STI and HIV testing, cervical cancer screening and safe abortion. |
19 | Save the Children Australia | #84 | Save the Children Australia is part of Save the Children, a leading independent international organisation for children, and works toward the agency’s vision for child rights in Australia and more than 120 countries across the globe. | Save the Children Australia’s vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. |
20 | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) | #85 | CSIRO is an independent Australian federal government agency responsible for scientific research. | CSIRO’s chief role is to improve the economic and social performance of industry for the benefit of the community by solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. |
21 | UNICEF Australia | #87 | UNICEF Australia is a national committee of UNICEF, a multilateral organisation that works in over 190 countries to promote and protect the rights of children. | UNICEF Australia advocates for the rights of all children and works to improve public and government support for child rights and international development. |
22 | International Women’s Development Association (IWDA) | #98 | IWDA is the leading Australian agency entirely focussed on women’s rights and gender equality in the Asia Pacific region, and is international, feminist and independent. | IWDA’s vision is gender equality for all and its purpose is to advance and protect the rights of diverse women and girls. |
23 | Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) | #99 | PHAA is the principal NGO for public health in Australia. | PHAA works to promote the health and well-being of all Australians by driving better health outcomes through increased knowledge, better access and equity, evidence informed policy and effective population-based practice in public health, and its efforts are advanced by its vision for a healthy Australia: health is a human right, a vital resource for everyday life, and key factor in sustainability. |
24 | Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (APGPD) | #116 | The APGPD are part of a global network of parliamentary groups on population and development that similarly connect parliamentarians across party lines and country borders to work cooperatively on their shared vision. | The APGPD works across party lines to champion women’s empowerment, break down gender discrimination, and advocate for women’s right to access quality reproductive health services through Australia’s foreign policy engagement, and since 2000 APGPD’s vision and remit has been guided by the Millennium Development Goals, and since 2015, the SDGs, as outlined in the Group’s ‘Rules and Objectives’. |
25 | Monash University | #120 | Higher education and tertiary research institute in Victoria, Australia. | To benefit the people of Victoria, Australia and the wider world. |
26 | Global Citizen Australia | #122 | Global Citizen is an Australian-grown international advocacy organisation dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. | Global Citizen is building the world’s largest movement for social action towards ending extreme poverty through organising massive global campaigns to amplify the actions of Global Citizens from around the world and ensure that poverty reduction is on the agenda for the world’s key political moments. |
27 | Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) | #135 | ACFID is the peak body for Australian NGOs involved in international development and humanitarian action. | ACFID’s vision is of a world where all people are free from extreme poverty, injustice and inequality and where the earth’s finite resources are managed sustainably, and ACFID’s purpose is to lead and unite its members in action for a just, equitable and sustainable world. |
28 | Australian Human Rights Commission | #138 | The Commission is Australia’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) and is accredited as an ‘A status’ NHRI under the United Nation’s Paris Principles. | The Commission has a statutory power to promote and protect human rights under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, and as an independent statutory agency, the Commission has functions including education, awareness raising and inquiring into and conciliating complaints of unlawful discrimination and breaches of human rights. |
29 | Department of Health, Australian Government | #143 | The Department of Health has a diverse set of responsibilities, including supporting Australia’s world class health system, supporting universal and affordable access to high equality medical, pharmaceutical and hospital services, while helping people to stay healthy through health promotion and disease prevention activities. | The Department of Health is committed to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its corresponding 17 SDGs. The Department’s Vision statement is Better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations, and it seeks to achieve its Vision through strengthening evidence-based policy advice, improving program management, research, regulation and partnerships with other agencies, consumers and stakeholders. |
30 | Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) | #157 | ACIAR is Australia’s specialist international agricultural research for development agency, and is an independent statutory agency within the foreign affairs portfolio. | ACIAR’s mission is to achieve more productive and sustainable agricultural systems, for the benefit of developing countries and Australia, through international agricultural research partnerships. |
31 | Australasian College of Road Safety (ACSR) | #160 | ACSR was established in 1988 and is the region’s peak organization for road safety professionals and members of the public who are focused on saving lives and serious injuries on our roads. | ACSR fosters communication, networking, professionalism and advocacy in road safety, with a strong focus on strengthening SDG 3.6 achievement in both Australia and the Pacific region. |
Results
Part 1 - findings of the documentary analysis
Theme 1: different characterizations of health
Advancement of SDG 3 is critical to enable broader Indo-Pacific regional development under the SDG agenda
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) underpins the success of all 17 SDGs
Coalescence with Planetary Health
Theme 2: planning and governance for integrating SDG implementation into Australia’s ODA program
Australia should be an SDG leader in the Indo-Pacific and needs a SDG implementation plan
Raising public awareness on the SDGs and their significance for Australia and the region
Shifting from siloed health and development planning to an integrated approach
Data strengthening for robust data and strong evidence base for health
Theme 3: Australia’s regional and global health priorities
Five priority populations | Rationale |
---|---|
1. Child health and wellbeing | • “The 2030 Agenda presents an opportunity to support the rights and best interests of all children. It is a chance to provide children with the best start in life, and to ensure that they survive and thrive. The 2030 Agenda is a comprehensive and holistic framework that creates a vision for the world where children can live free from violence and abuse and in an environment that supports their healthy development” – UNICEF Australia • “One practical way that the Australian Government can show leadership on leaving no one behind in the Indo-pacific region is by being an advocate for child protection and the elimination of violence against children” – World Vision Australia |
2. Adolescent health | • “Current population specific funding mechanisms targeting key affected, vulnerable and marginalised populations still exclude adolescent populations as a demographic priority. Australian ODA should be consolidated to enable an inter-sectoral and multi-component engagement of key SDGs that will harness the opportunities of the triple dividend that benefits during adolescence, across the life course, and into the next generation” – Burnet Institute • “Adolescence is a pivotal period during which the gains of childhood can either be consolidated or lost. The second decade of life presents an opportunity to build on gains made in childhood and to invest in programmes that contribute to healthy, safe, informed and empowered transitions to adulthood. It can also be a forgotten stage” – UNICEF Australia |
3. Persons with disabilities | • “Australia has a strong commitment and track record on disability inclusion in the aid program. This is demonstrated by DFAT’s international advocacy for disability inclusive development, the commitments set out in Australia’s Development for All strategy for strengthening disability inclusive development, and reported progress… Recommendation []: Inform all future program investments according to the Office of Development Effectiveness’ strategic evaluation of DFAT’s work promoting disability-inclusive development” - Oxfam Australia • “Importantly, [the SDG] document references disability 11 times… Given the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) made no reference to persons with disabilities, this is an achievement in itself, presenting a tangible opportunity for the inclusion of people who are blind or vision impaired to be counted” – Vision 2020 Australia |
4. Marginalized & poor populations | • “The two most frequently-used words in the description of the SDG targets are “for all”. To improve the lives of everyone, care must be taken to ensure those who are most disadvantaged benefit from SDG progress… Australia’s domestic and international policies therefore need to prioritise marginalised and vulnerable groups, including but not limited to women, children, people with a disability, Indigenous people and ethnic and sexual minorities… The principle of leaving no one behind equally applies to Australia’s work overseas” – World Vision Australia • “Ensure Australia’s approach to implementing the SDGs domestically and through our aid program centres on the commitment to leave no one behind, with concrete strategies to support inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the design, delivery and monitoring/evaluation and reporting on services and programs. This should result in…explicitly targeting the poorest communities and most marginalised groups within the countries where Australian aid is directed to... Although the drivers of inequality are complex and multi-dimensional, evidence shows that it is necessary to focus on the needs of the most disadvantaged populations to reduce inequality… Accordingly, it is important for Australia to make strategic choices about the type of aid it provides in support of poverty reduction and addressing inequality. Priority must be given to investing in human capital as a foundation for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development” – Save the Children |
5. Women and girls’ health and wellbeing, and gender empowerment | • “It is critical for Australia to support integrated, multi sectoral approaches that empower women and girls and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. We welcome the Australian Government’s strong commitment towards greater gender equality, as reflected in the goal that 80% of Australia’s development program will address gender issues in implementation” – Save the Children • “Recommendation []: Australia should retain the 80% gender target, and ensure this target is made more meaningful by: o Increasing transparency of DFAT’s self-assessment process so that stakeholders understand how programs are being assessed; o Ensuring all partners, including private sector partners, integrate gender analysis from design through to program evaluation; o Ensuring DFAT has sufficient technical expertise in gender mainstreaming to accurately assess all programs; o Increasing financial expenditure on programs where gender equality is the principal objective; and o Increasing transparency of the financial allocation towards gender equality in programs where gender is a significant objective” – Oxfam Australia |
Six priority issue areas | Rationale |
---|---|
1. Health system strengthening | • “Progress in generating research evidence to support UHC has been uneven, and investment in low-income countries’ research production neglected. Currently, only 10% of health policy and systems research globally is conducted on low- and middle-income countries. Building the capacity of poorer communities to research and learn is key to their sustainable development” – Burnet Institute • “To implement sustainable change in the Pacific health sector, long term investment is required to build the capacity of Pacific communities to implement change themselves. Investment in infrastructure to provide appropriate health facilities is essential. Critical to achieving improved health outcomes is training of clinicians, community workers and teachers, trialling and implementing customised programs, and ensuring that they continue by embedding teaching in schools and universities” – Family Planning NSW • “[Recommendation] Scale up ODA investments in strengthening health systems to support the provision and expansion of Universal health Coverage (UHC) schemes, including the provision of high quality, comprehensive and integrated eye care services” – Fred Hollows Foundation • “Using an inclusive approach to intervene at multiple levels of the health system with locally tailored responses to eye health workforce development increases the efficiency, suitability and sustainability of the investment by the Australian Government, provides the best chance to leave no one behind” - Vision 2020 Australia |
2. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) | • “The unmet need for family planning remains unacceptably high, especially in disadvantaged populations and in under-developed and developing countries, including in the Pacific region. In the Solomon Islands, for example, population increases are expected to outstrip food and water supply within ten years. Neighbouring Papua New Guinea is experiencing similar critical sustainability issues in relation to its current population projections. These parts of the Indo-Pacific are faced with limited and unreliable contraceptive supply, with some of the most under-resourced reproductive services in the world” - Family Planning NSW • “We further recommend that our aid program continue to support the provision of SRH services in humanitarian emergencies and prioritise SRH support for regions where maternal mortality and the need for contraception is highest. Access to quality reproductive services has a transformative impact on women’s health, education and empowerment and is therefore essential to gender equality” - Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development • “[Recommendation] The Australian Government [] increase its current funding of $23.7 million to investing $50 million per annum for reproductive health initiatives” – Global Citizen Australia • “Sexual and reproductive health is an area of considerable success and great potential. DFAT’s Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls strategy recognises reproductive health as a key factor in gender equality and economic empowerment, and the Family Planning and Aid Program – Guiding Principles are supportive of comprehensive care. Family planning is a mechanisms for achieving the SDGS as it contributes to decreasing maternal and child mortality and poverty, achieving gender equality, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, decent work, and access to higher education. Family planning can also help mitigate climate change and promote sustainable communities” – Marie Stopes International Australia |
3. Combatting communicable and infectious disease | • “As part of an increase in development assistance for health, Australia should focus on… Increased assistance to combat the infectious diseases claiming the most lives – HIV, TB and malaria – both through bilateral assistance in our region and through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; Increased action to ensure all children have access to vaccines, including through ensuring the re-use of resources from the polio eradication campaign to improve vaccination systems” – Results International Australia |
4. Social determinants of health, such as nutrition and food security, education, climate change & environmental health | • “Undernutrition is widespread in countries in Asia and the Pacific, in spite of their economic progress. Taking further action on nutrition would be consistent with Australia’s aid objectives of promoting sustained economic growth, improving health and education, and empowering women and girls – Results International Australia • “The impact of under nutrition on the health, productivity and survival of individuals should be of concern for Australia given that its neighbours in the Pacific have some of the highest child undernutrition rates in the world. In particular, in Papua New Guinea (PNG) almost one in two children are stunted from undernutrition – the fourth highest child stunting rate in the world. In a ground-breaking report released in 2017, Save the Children and Frontier Economics estimated that child undernutrition cost the PNG economy a staggering $1.5 billion (8.45% of GDP) in a single year. Yet only 0.1% of Australia’s [ODA] to PNG was allocated to nutrition in the years 2010 and 2012 (latest data publicly available). It is not possible to promote inclusive and sustainable economic development in the long term in PNG if around half of the population of working age continues to suffer reduced productivity from childhood undernutrition. Indeed, child undernutrition will likely impede the potential impact of other aid investments hat bilateral and multilateral donors make for the purpose of promoting economic growth” – Save the Children • “[Recommendation] The Australian Government should increase its support for education from 18 to 20% of the Australian aid program and increase its share of total funding for the Global Partnership for Education… In relation to Goal 3, Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, achieving universal education could: Prevent seven million cases of HIV and AIDS in the next decade; enable women with at least 7 years of formal education to have two or three fewer children; and reduce child mortality rates” – Results International Australia • [Recommendation] The Australian Government to increase its support for education and increase its share of total funding for the Global Partnership for Education from current investment of $900 million to $200 million AUD” - Global Citizen Australia • “[Recommendations] Australia should increase its contribution to international climate finance as part of a growing aid program and in line with Australia’ international obligations; Australia should develop a comprehensive Climate Change Strategy for the aid program” – Oxfam Australia • “As our closest neighbours in the Pacific are among those most vulnerable to climate change and associated health impacts, Australia should be positioning itself to work on all SDGs in ODA but with a focus in the region on climate change, clean energy, land and ocean use, and chronic diseases and gender equality” – Doctors for the Environment Australia |
5. Eye health | • “[Recommends] “Eye health and vision care is regarded as a public health priority in Asia and the Pacific” – Vision 2020 Australia • “Good vision transforms lives and has positive development impacts far beyond good health; it can enable individuals and families to pull themselves out of poverty, helps people to go back to work or school, and to overcome inequality, marginalisation and exclusion that blindness and vision loss often perpetuate” – Fred Hollows Foundation |
6. Health security | • “DFAT engagement that aligns with SDGs 3, 5, 16 and 17[:] Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper highlights our commitment to guarding against global health risks, in particular preventing and responding to the introduction and spread of infectious diseases. The Minister for Foreign Affairs recently launched the Indo-Pacific Health Security Initiative ($300 million, 2017–22), which will support efforts to prevent and contain disease outbreaks in the Indo-Pacific that have the potential to cause social and economic impacts on a national, regional or global scale. Complementary to this initiative, Australia’s ODA program supports countries to build strong, functioning health systems, which are critical to promoting sustainability and achieving sustainable economic growth” – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) • “The new Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security is a very welcome initiative and a clear opportunity for Australian ODA to support progress in areas of health and wellbeing (SDG 3), both short-term through infectious disease and biosecurity and in the long-term by addressing drivers of risky behaviour at the individual, household, community, national and regional levels” – University of Sydney |
Theme 4: financing to deliver regional and global health SDG imperatives (and the SDGs generally)
Strong calls for Australia’s investment in ODA, including ODA for health programs, to be increased
Changing the rhetoric and focus of Australia’s ODA program to align with the SDGs
Australian Government investment in improving its ODA reporting and the enabling of countries, which are recipients of Australian aid, to improve tax collection for SDG financing
Leverage Australian private sector investment in ODA-SDG strategy and activities
Part 2 - comparison of whether, or to what degree, the above four themes are reflected in the FATRC summary of the submissions of early 2019 and Australia’s SDG VNR (June 2018)
FATRC report comparison
- Recommendation 1 - The Australian Government develop a national SDG implementation plan;
- Recommendation 4 - The SDGs are integrated in all Australian Government agencies’ policies and strategies;
- Recommendation 9 - Government should improve SDG awareness among all stakeholders; and
- Recommendation 18 - Continue SDG integration into Australia’s ODA program and prioritize the commitment to leave no one behind.