Working for a better world - the role of Australian foreign aid Case Study Teacher's Notes Student Activities Brainstorm and PNQ task Brainstorm what you know about foreign aid. Some questions to get you thinking.... What is foreign aid? Who gives it? What is the purpose of it? Why would a country give foreign aid? Which sorts of countries would be the recipients of foreign aid? When would foreign aid be given? Record your ideas on the whiteboard. Use the brainstorm material recorded on the whiteboard to organise your thoughts into a PNQ chart as follow (a PNQ chart asks you to organise your thoughts on an issue or topic into positives, negatives and questions you would like answered. These questions could be used as the basis of further inquiry related to this important topic.)     P Positives     N Negatives     Q Questions Getting to grips with the lingo! Use the case study material and/or your economics textbook and/or an economics dictionary to check your understanding by defining each of these key terms/concepts in your notebook. Developing countries Developed countries Absolute poverty Relative poverty Economic development Sustainable development Economic growth Standard of living Gross domestic product GDP/Gross national product GNP Foreign aid Bilateral aid Multilateral aid Non-government aid organisations The objective the Australian Government's aid program is 'to advance Australia's national interest by assisting developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development'. Explain the meaning of the underlined terms and phrases to someone who has no knowledge of economics. Guest speaker Invite a guest speaker from an NGO (Look up the ACFOA website [http://www.acfoa.asn.au/] for a selection of NGOS). Design a list of questions you would like answered. Fax these to the speaker so they are forewarned. Perhaps these questions might be ones you posed in your PNQ charts. It would be great if an expert could answer some of these for you. You could also find out the sort of aid programs the NGO is involved in. Perhaps the information your class accesses could be presented as display material for the school foyer and/or form the basis of a presentation at a school assembly where the aims and achievements of Australia's foreign aid programs could be discussed. Investigation and report Undertake an investigation and write a report on 1) the various theories relating to reasons why a country may be poor. Theories to explore could include population, environmental factors, ownership of resources, vicious cycle of poverty, political instability and mismanagement and unfair relationships between the developed and developing world and 2) use the examples of aid provided by Australia to select an example of an aid program that could assist in removing the barriers to sustainable development discussed in part 1). Report Use the case study material to prepare a short report on Australia's aid program. Imagine that your report is to be published in a newspaper or magazine. In your report explain why we have an aid program and where and how it is delivered. List examples of the types of assistance provided and discuss the benefits to developing countries and Australia. Web-site investigation and powerpoint presentation Multilateral aid is given by Australia to a number of international organisations. Divide the class into small groups. Allocate a different organisation to each group. In your group, investigate the role of your allocated organisation in assisting developing economies and provide actual examples of assistance where possible. Present your findings to the teacher and the class using powerpoint. Case study Visit the AusAID web-site at http://www.ausaid.gov.au. Explore the web-site and find examples of aid assistance. Choose one of these projects and explore the case study for evidence that it meets the stated criteria (that is made reference to the principles, sectors and cross-cutting issues) as set out in the Australian Governments policy 'Better Aid for a Better Future'. Comment on why gender equality and the environment are considered important in alleviating poverty and achieving sustainable development. Roleplay scenario Imagine you are an adviser working for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is the period leading up to the preparation of the Federal Budget. The Australian economy is growing strongly with GDP at 4.75% per annum, unemployment at 5.5% and inflation at 3% per annum. There has been a number of international crises, many of which are in the Asia Pacific area. Prepare a statement for your Minister to use in Cabinet budget discussions which argues strongly for an increase in Australian official overseas aid from the current 0.25% ODA/GNP to 0.35% ODA/GNP which is somewhat closer to the UN target.   Top © Commonwealth of Australia