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This article discusses a special issue of the Development Policy Review journal that aims to elevate the voices and perspectives of Pacific scholars on foreign aid and development issues in the region. The special issue was prompted by the low publication rates for authors from the global South in development journals. The articles in the special issue cover a range of topics, including power asymmetries in aid relationships, the importance of adapting aid to diverse contexts, the need for donors to listen to local voices, and the resilience of Pacific communities. The authors hope that this collection of articles will provide valuable insights and promote a better understanding of aid in the Pacific. [Extracted from the article]

We test whether emphasizing foreign aid's ability to advance donor national interests increases public support for aid. We compare appeals to the national interest with other approaches, including highlighting aid's ability to help developing countries. Tests involved a nationally representative, randomized survey experiment in which the treatments were vignettes about a major real aid project. Central among our findings were asymmetric treatment effects. It was easier to reduce the view that too much aid is given than to increase the belief that too little is given. Only appeals to the national interest were reliably able to do the latter. The efficacy of the different treatments varied depending on participant ideology, although in unexpected ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rise is ushering in a new era of geostrategic contestation involving foreign aid. In many traditional OECD donors, aid policy is changing as a result. We report on a survey experiment studying the impacts of rising Chinese aid on public opinion in traditional donors. We randomly treated people with vignettes emphasising China's rise as an aid donor in the Pacific, a region of substantial geostrategic competition. We used a large, nationally-representative sample of Australians (Australia is the largest donor to the Pacific). As expected, treating participants reduced hostility to aid and increased support for more aid focused on the Pacific. Counter to expectations, however, treatment reduced support for using aid to advance Australian interests. These findings were largely replicated in a separate experiment in New Zealand. Knowledge of Chinese competition changes support for aid, but it does not increase support for using aid as a tool of geostrategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we conduct the first‐ever systematic study of Australian aid project appraisals. Using a previously unstudied data set of appraisals, we study project and recipient country factors influencing Australian aid effectiveness. We find effectiveness varies more within recipient countries than between countries. We find larger projects are more likely to be successful. Humanitarian projects are more successful on average than development projects. We also find that Australian aid is less likely to succeed in the Pacific than elsewhere, a significant finding given Australia's increased focus on the region. Finally, we show that Australia does not appear to be an unusual donor: when we compare Australia with other donors in a global data set, we find similar variables are correlated with effectiveness for most donors, including Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Australia is not a generous international citizen in less than one cent of every dollar of federal spending is devoted to foreign aid. Topics include Australia's comparative affluence being taken into account Australia being an outlier by the standards of the OECD, the proximity ensure Australia dominates the aid landscape in the Pacific, and Australia gave nearly four times as much to the region as New Zealand, and nearly five times as much as China.

This article studies the New Zealand government aid programme over the years of Murray McCully's tenure as New Zealand's foreign minister. The article uses quantitative and qualitative data to detail changes in New Zealand aid volume, sectoral and geographic foci, and quality. We argue that despite strong rhetoric from Minister McCully, change in some areas was surprisingly modest. Yet the minister had impacts in other areas, particularly on aid quality, foremost in the form of changes to the purpose of New Zealand aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does foreign aid extended by one country improve that country's image among populations of recipient countries? Using a multinational survey, we show that a United States aid program targeted to address HIV and AIDS substantially improves perceptions of the U.S. Our identification strategy for causal inference is to use instrumental variables measuring the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS problem in aid recipient countries. Our finding implies that in addition to its potential humanitarian benefits, foreign aid that is targeted, sustained, effective, and visible can serve as an important strategic goal for those countries that give it: fostering positive perceptions among foreign publics. By doing good, a country can do well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]