Policy Updates

On May 21, 2025, the Australian government welcomed the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, marking a significant advancement in global pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, incorporating lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on multi-sectoral disease surveillance and equitable vaccine access.

Australia, as Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, played a key role in representing the Western Pacific region. While the agreement has been adopted, technical details remain to be finalized, and Australia will commence its treaty-making process after the agreement opens for signature, expected by mid-2026.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong emphasized the importance of international health cooperation in addressing shared global challenges. Health Minister Mark Butler highlighted the inevitability of future pandemics, stressing the collective responsibility to safeguard public health. Once in force, the agreement will enhance Australia’s ability to mitigate pandemic risks while retaining full sovereignty over public health decisions.

On November 28, 2024, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong released a new International Disability Equity and Rights Strategy to improve the lives of people with disabilities throughout Australia’s humanitarian and overseas development programs.

Wong announced a further AUD12 million (US$8 million) to assist access to technologies such as prostheses and wheelchairs in the Indo-Pacific. The policy will focus on five areas including eliminating discrimination, partnering with people with disability, seeking equity in climate, and humanitarian action.

The strategy was released ahead of the UN International Day of People with Disability, held on December 3, 2024.

On November 21, 2024, the Lowy Institute published the annual Pacific Aid Map which confirmed Australia remains the largest donor to the Pacific region.

The 2024 Pacific Aid Map provided complete data from 2008-2022, the second major donor in the Pacific region is China, which overtook the US. Other Western donors reduced their ODA to the Pacific region largely due to overarching budget constraints and redirected funding to Ukraine.

In 2022, Australia provided AUD2.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) whilst China provided US$256 million. The publication indicated that China has continued to revise its approach, including shifting towards grants and away from lending programs.

In general, loans to the Pacific region have increased from 12% in 2009 to 40% in 2022, driven largely by an increased focus on infrastructure in the region.

On September 21, 2024, US President Joe Biden hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the Quad Leaders’ Summit Meeting at his home in Delaware.

Albanese announced that the Quad planned to address cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific through the launch of the Quad Cancer Moonshot initiative.

Australia would contribute to the initiative by expanding its existing Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer Program. This program aimed to assist country governments to run HPV vaccine programs, including in Malaysia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Fiji.

The Australian Government will commit AUD17 million (US$11 million), with an additional AUD13 million (US$9 million) to come from a private philanthropy organization, the Minderoo Foundation, which was established by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

The HPV vaccine used against cervical cancer was co-developed by Professor Ian Frazer of the University of Queensland in northern Australia.

Cervical cancer rates are up to 13 times higher in Pacific Island countries than in Australia. Australia aims to eliminate cervical cancer domestically by 2035.

On September 20, 2024, the Papua New Guinean Minister for National Planning Ano Pala called for improved value and coherence from Australia’s assistance program.

Australia has provided over AUD637 million (US$433 million) annually to Papua New Guinea.

Pala criticized the spread of sectors in the ODA relationship, and the amount of funding going towards consultants and contractors. He referred to this as 'boomerang aid.'

The sectors in the agreed assistance strategy included cooperation on women’s rights, access to electricity, education, improved roads, and security.

Pala cited a major rebuild of the Angau Memorial Hospital, as a preferable approach to assistance. The hospital, in Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city of Lae, involved AUD250 million (US$170 million) of Australian development cooperation funding.

On August 30, 2024, Australia's NHMRC awarded a grant of US$3 million to establish a center focused on NTDs.

The funding was awarded to the Kirby Institute, located within the University of New South Wales In Sydney. Professor John Kaldor stated that the new center will be called ENGAGE.

It would involve service organizations and health researchers in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The center will seek to work with partner countries and communities on preventing and controlling endemic neglected tropical diseases.

On August 26, 2024, the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University announced its 2024 Australasian Aid Conference, to be held from December 3 to 5, 2024, at the Crawford School of Public Policy in Canberra, focusing on a range of sectors and aims to support development within the research community and promoting collaboration.

The conference is Australia’s largest annual meeting on international development and normally attracts some 600 participants, including researchers from the Pacific, Asia, and Australia.

The Development Policy Centre also planned to host a 2024 Pacific Migration Workshop on September 3, 2024. The workshop will focus on climate resilience and mobility, as well as the economic dimensions and social implications of migration.

Submissions are open until August 30, 2024, to propose possible panel events and papers.

On August 20, 2024, Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy announced AUD35 million (US$23 million) for a new Civil Society Partnerships Fund to improve the ability of civil society to engage in decisions, improve information sharing, and broaden community meetings.

The funding supports engagement with development partners to discuss priorities and improve local leadership. The program was funded for 4 years.

Australia plans to introduce a new transparency portal by the end of 2024 and published its first report on the Performance of Australian Development Cooperation.

Conroy announced the new fund in the context of the first anniversary of the Australian government’s International Development Policy. He claimed that since the new policy was launched, the ODA program assisted almost 24 million emergency-affected vulnerable people and provided therapeutics, medical equipment, and vaccines to immunize 10 million people.

On June 21, 2024, Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy announced a AUD5 million (US$3 million) commitment to assist veterinary capacity to identify and respond to animal disease outbreaks in regional countries.

The program would be delivered through a consortium headed by the University of Sydney.

Another program, totaling AUD11 million (US$7 million), is slated to be conducted in partnership with the Menzies School of Health Research, to improve health surveillance by countries in Southeast Asia, including monitoring AMR.

A further AUD16 million (US$11 million) was allocated to assist the development of better drugs for neglected tropical diseases. It will be be delivered through the Melbourne-based Medicines Development for Global Health, a not-for-profit bio-pharmaceutical company.

On June 21, 2024, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic announced a program of partnerships with CSIRO, totaling AUD24 million (US$16 million).

These would fund capacity building in identifying and responding to disease outbreaks in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Countries involved included Fiji, Lao PDR, Indonesia, and Viet Nam.

CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is slated to receive AUD16 million (US$11 million) to strengthen animal health laboratories in Southeast Asia as well as Pacific Island field diagnostic networks.

The initiative also includes assistance to improve capabilities in Southeast Asia to develop and manufacture biopharmaceuticals and vaccines.