NZAID

What NZAID does


Supporting sustainable economic growth in developing countries

NZAID is committed to supporting sustainable development in developing countries in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable, and prosperous world.

NZAID has a core focus on sustainable development and the Pacific region. The Pacific receives over half of New Zealand's official development assistance (ODA). NZAID has allocated $756 million to Pacific development over the next three years.

Reducing poverty is central to New Zealand's ODA programme. NZAID manages 33 programmes in a range of countries and sectors, all with their own development challenges and objectives. The development priorities and projects in each country and sector are guided by individual programme strategies.

While global progress has been made towards reducing poverty and hunger, there are still approximately one billion people living in extreme poverty and 800 million undernourished people.

In the Pacific, overall progress has been lacking largely because of the situation in Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has the lowest living standards of any country in the Pacific. PNG and the other Melanesian countries account for 86 percent of the region's population.

East Asia and, to a lesser degree, South Asia, have made large steps towards reducing poverty.

Because the causes of poverty are multidimensional and interrelated, action to reduce poverty has to work across a number of fronts. NZAID recognises that development assistance needs to be delivered via a number of channels in order to maximise gains for our developing country partners.

NZAID's regional programmes focus on themes of regional concern such as economic growth, health, education, governance, human rights, and environment.

NZAID also works with multilateral agencies and programmes which provide a proven and effective means for New Zealand to address poverty, conflict, governance issues and humanitarian crises worldwide.

Development strategies and programmes must be relevant to the local context and incorporate the perceptions of the poor themselves to be effective. NZAID therefore engage actively with New Zealand's non-government organisations (NGO) development community and provides funding to support a wide range of NGO programmes with partners on the ground overseas.

New Zealand is committed to providing effective aid. This includes support for the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the PDF. Accra Agenda for Action | PDF 248kb.

NZAID works closely with its Australian counterpart, AusAID, on development in the Pacific, especially helping Pacific island countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals.