Abstract
BackgroundIn 2018, the Australian Government, through a Senate-led Parliamentary Inquiry, sought the views of diverse stakeholders on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation both domestically and as part of Australia’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) program. One hundred and sixty-four written submissions were received. The submissions offered perspective and guidance from a rich cross-section of those involved, and with keen interest in, Australia’s ODA-SDG commitment. This article identifies and explores the submissions to that Inquiry which placed impetus on Australia’s ODA-SDG and health and development nexus. It then compares how the synthesized views, concerns and priorities of selected Inquiry stakeholders align with and reflect the Australian Government’s treatment of SDG 3 in its SDG Voluntary National Review (VNR), as well as with the final Inquiry report summarizing submission content.ResultsFour key themes were synthesized and drawn from the thirty-one stakeholder submissions included in our analysis. Disconnect was then found to exist between the selected stakeholder views and the Australian Government’s SDG-VNR’s treatment of SDG 3, as well as with the content of the Parliamentary Inquiry’s final report with respect to the ODA-SDG and health and development nexus.ConclusionsWe situate the findings of our analysis within the wider strategic context of the Australian Government’s policy commitment to “step up” in the Pacific region. This research provides an insight into both multi-stakeholder and Federal Government views on ODA in the Indo-Pacific region, especially at a time when Australia’s Pacific engagement has come to the forefront of both foreign and security policy. We conclude that the SDG agenda, including the SDG health and development agenda, could offer a unique vehicle for enabling a paradigm shift in the Australian Government’s development approach toward the Pacific region and its diverse peoples. This potential is strongly reflected in stakeholder perspectives included in our analysis. However, study findings remind that the political determinants of health, and overlapping political determinants of SDG achievement, will be instrumental in the coming decade, and that stakeholders from different sectors need to be genuinely engaged in SDG-ODA policy-related decision-making and planning by governments in both developed and developing countries alike.
Highlights
In 2018, the Australian Government conducted a Parliamentary Inquiry into the implementation of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Australia and as part of Australia’s Overseas Development Aid (ODA) program [1]
We note that this study’s analysis was undertaken prior to the Foreign Affairs and Trade References Committee (FATRC) releasing its report into the Senate Inquiry into the UN SDGs in February 2019, and our analysis is not influenced by the content or findings of that report
To identify which written submissions to the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into the UN SDGs of 2018 provided the most detail on the crosscutting topics of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), health and development to include in this analysis, and guided by the methodology in a previous documentary review of parliamentary inquiry responses [34], we reviewed all 164 written submissions to the UN SDG Inquiry
Summary
In 2018, the Australian Government conducted a Parliamentary Inquiry into the implementation of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Australia and as part of Australia’s Overseas Development Aid (ODA) program [1]. This article focuses on support for the SDGs within Australia’s development role, exploring the rich experience, knowledge and voice on Australia’s health, development and ODA-SDG nexus within those submissions It examines whether those multi-sectoral insights and recommendations are consistent with the Australian Government’s treatment of SDG 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages) in the ODA context in its first Voluntary National Review (VNR) on SDG Implementation of June 2018, as well as with the Foreign Affairs and Trade References Committee’s (FATRC) summary of the Inquiry submissions released in 2019 [3, 4]. The Australian context is no different [14]
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