Opinion pieces

• The budget axe must not fall on vital foreign aid

  Posted: Monday, 13 May 2013

  Published in Sydney Morning Herald online May 13, 2013

  By Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive and Dr Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia chief executive

  In the lead-up to federal budget day, advocates representing a wide variety of interests are coming out of the woodwork to plead their cause. No one wants their industry or sector to be affected by what now seems like inevitable cuts to government spending. But most of these campaigners are lobbying for their own patch.

  Compare that to the thousands of young Australians who have been working tirelessly over several months to raise awareness of overseas aid. These young volunteers are not lobbying the government out of self-interest. They believe in our aid program because it's affordable and because it works.

  In fact, our overseas aid program delivers a truly stunning level of human benefit per dollar spent. For the humble offering of $4.50 per ...

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• PNG needs some of our Anzac spirit

  Posted: Tuesday, 23 April 2013

  Published in Fairfax online (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age & WA Today) on April 23, 2013

  By Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive

  As we approach Anzac Day, Australians are prompted to reflect on our national character. Drawing on events far from our shores close to a century ago, we lay claim to a particular combination of traits: mateship, pulling together, and brave sacrifice.

  Anzac Day should also prompt us to look at those actions closer to home that help define us as good mates, ready to pull together for a common cause. I'm talking about the importance of our relationship with Papua New Guinea – Australia's closest neighbour.

  Our countries have enduring ties due to proximity, people, and history – and that includes shared experiences in theatres of war, like Kokoda.

  The genuine warmth of the relationship is evidenced by the assistance our diggers received from ordinary Papua ...

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• It's amazing what aid programs have achieved

  Posted: Saturday, 6 April 2013

  Published in the The Australian on April 6, 2013

  By Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive

  Is foreign aid effective? The authors of two pieces in last Saturday's Inquirer would argue that it isn't. But it all depends upon what you are expecting.

  If you expect aid to kick-start economies and result in continuous economic growth then you might be disappointed. But if you see healthy, well fed and educated children where previously there was illness, death and lack of opportunity, you will have a very different view.

  It is understandable that people want aid to generate economic development - after all it is essential to self-sustaining poverty reduction in any poor country. However this is not the only purpose of aid, nor its main target.

  The evidence is inconclusive about aid's ability to generate economic growth. There are no simple paths to development - it is a complex process shaped ...

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• Committing to ending early marriage

  Posted: Wednesday, 6 March 2013

  Published on the The Australian website on March 6, 2013

  By Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive

  In 21st century Australia, most of us have the luxury of choosing the timing of significant life events.

  And that choice has led to some interesting social trends. From the age we start having kids to the process of ageing we are increasingly seeking to delay those landmark moments.

  So can you imagine the distress of having real-life responsibilities thrust upon you well before you are ready?

  That's the reality for the 13.5 million girls around the world who this year will marry 'early' that is, before their 18th birthday and in some cases as early as 11 or 12. Their childhood comes to an abrupt and sometimes brutal end, and the responsibility of keeping house and raising children of their own takes the place of playing with their friends, education and dreaming big.

  The ...

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• Fair go a fallacy as self-interest trumps real need

  Posted: Saturday, 9 February 2013

  Published in the Sydney Morning Herald and Fairfax online on February 9, 2013

  By Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive

  Ever since the Prime Minister called the election, I’ve had three words repeating in my head. Fair - By - Instinct. That’s how the PM described our nation and it’s an assessment I think most Australians would agree with. Fairness is the cornerstone of our constitution and our national identity. But as we head into an election year, I think we need to ask ourselves whether we really believe in a fair go for all.

  A leaked Coalition discussion paper which floats the idea of diverting overseas aid money to build a medical centre in far north Queensland is just the latest development in a series of alarming developments in the aid sector. It’s a trend that’s seeing our political leaders play with the definition of aid and it deeply ...

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• Take a stand for the country we want to live in

  Posted: Tuesday, 29 January 2013

  Tim Costello

  World Vision Australia chief executive

  ++ Published by the Herald Sun newspaper on December 24, 2012

  For many Australians, 2012 has been a year of mixed blessings. The two-speed economy and international uncertainty have created challenges.  The rising cost of living lingers in our minds, even keeps some of us awake at night. Our Federal Parliament has become toxic with genuine debate stifled by political interests. 

  And yet despite all this, we are so fortunate. This year, Australia dodged the worst of the financial woes affecting other countries. In fact, our way of life is now the envy of the world. Just a few weeks ago, Australia was ranked the second best place on Earth to be born. We have won the lottery of life, so why does it sometimes feel like we’re waiting for bad news to strike?

  Christmas is above all a time to re-kindle our ...

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• Diverting foreign aid sets dangerous precedent

  Posted: Wednesday, 19 December 2012

  Published in the National Times, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, December 19, 2012

  Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive and Jack de Groot, Caritas Australia chief executive

  The federal government has dropped a bombshell on poor communities in developing countries, just in time for Christmas.

  After delaying its promise on aid at the May budget, the government now plans to divert $375 million of Australia's much-needed aid budget to fund domestic refugee programs, making Australia the third largest recipient of Australian aid.

  That's about 7 per cent of the budget diverted away from important development programs - programs that save lives and transform communities.

  Labor may think this arrangement is in Australia's national interest. It's not. Australia's overseas development assistance is a key part of a small investment in our future security and prosperity.

  Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr claims this diversion is not a cut to aid, and ...

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• 'Seasoned but not weary': Why the fight against poverty must continue

  Posted: Monday, 26 November 2012

  Tim Costello

  World Vision Australia chief executive

  Monday November 26, 2012

  I am often asked whether global poverty can be solved or whether it’s simply an inevitable part of life, one of those unchangeable laws of nature that we must accept. The ‘Why Poverty’ series screening on ABC TV this week poses a similar question - can we fix it, and if so, why haven’t we?

  The truth is extreme poverty is a complex but well-understood problem. And there are complex but well-understood solutions to match it. There are many reasons why global poverty endures, and also some challenging truths to face.  Political will is vital, as is global stability and the protection of the natural world. The solution also requires compassion and global citizenship by all people to ensure politicians have a mandate to act.

  I don’t suggest for a moment that the solution is easy. After nearly a ...

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• Time to put our hands up for health

  Posted: Monday, 12 November 2012

  By Tim Costello
  

  Chief executive World Vision Australia

  The biggest killer of children under five isn’t malaria. It’s not diarrhoea, AIDS or measles.

  It’s pneumonia. In fact, pneumonia claims more lives than malaria, measles and AIDS combined.

  While it’s an illness more readily associated in developed countries with the elderly and bed-ridden, in other parts of the world – even some classed as middle-income, such as India and China – pneumonia takes the lives of 1.4 million children before their fifth birthday.

  And these deaths are almost entirely preventable. So today, on World Pneumonia Day, and at the start of World Vision’s Global Week of Action, we ask everyone to make a commitment to helping children reach five years of age.

  In the year 2000, 189 countries signed the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which aim to improve the lives of those in the developing world.

  One of those – ...

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• Time to give child labour the boot

  Posted: Thursday, 27 September 2012

  Published on The Punch, September 27, 2012

  By Tim Costello

  Chief executive, World Vision Australia

  In its biggest week of the year, the AFL has had to respond to reports that it was using footballs stitched by Indian child labourers who are paid mere cents for the work.

  Child labour is a serious evil and needs to be combated everywhere. Not only are child labourers exploited economically, but their health and safety is often endangered, and they are deprived of the chance to get an education.

  I would expect the football codes and clubs to take this issue seriously, and I am pleased they have done just that. The AFL, and North Melbourne in particular, pride themselves on social responsibility. So it must have come as a shock for North when The Age reported that commemorative balls to be given away at their Grand Final Breakfast had been made with child labour. The ...

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• Papua New Guinea's future depends on Australia

  Posted: Tuesday, 4 September 2012

  Published by The Australian World Commentary section, Tuesday September 4 2012
  
  By Tim Costello
  Chief executive, World Vision Australia
  
  Prime Minister Julia Gillard has just returned from a meeting with Pacific Island leaders where she announced a major aid initiative to tackle gender inequality. We know that promoting gender equity can increase economic prosperity and transform community well-being so the PM’s announcement is a great step forward. But having just visited the Pacific region, I am also struck by the immense challenge that lies ahead for our island neighbours, and the responsibility that Australia must face up to.
  
  On the flight over to Papua New Guinea last month,(Aug) I realised that the patch of water below me carried with it a moral significance. At one shoreline, state-of-the-art healthcare for all; at the other end, complications at birth carry with them a death sentence. Papua New Guinea is our nearest neighbour, ...

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• The more we have, the less we enjoy

  Posted: Tuesday, 31 July 2012

  Published by the Herald Sun on Tuesday July 31st 2012.

  By Tim Costello

  Chief executive, World Vision Australia  

  Australians have never appeared as grumpy or as disillusioned as they do today. Amid a prolonged global financial crisis, plunging consumer confidence, job losses, price rises and a toxic political environment, we are losing our sense of optimism.  

  Australians are renowned for thinking ‘she’ll be right’ but now there is a growing sense that perhaps we can’t assume things will work out for the best. We are losing faith in our institutions, the mining boom is leaving many Australians behind and there is again a ‘fear of others’ permeating our public debate that is reminiscent of Hansonism.  

  Purchase Tim Costello's Hope here. 

  Our hope seems to be fading. But is it justified? Right now in Australia, we have low inflation, low interest rates and an unemployment figure hovering ...

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• Together we can make a difference in West Africa

  Posted: Monday, 16 July 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive World Vision Australia

  Published heraldsun.com.au June16, 2012

  NIGER is in the grip of a crippling drought, and hunger and loss is everywhere. It is one of the most unlikely places on the planet to find hope.

  And yet after spending several days in the country, the epicentre of the West African food crisis, that is exactly what I found.

  I headed to Niger to see for myself the impact of massive food shortages across eight countries, coming only two seasons after the last drought left people hungry.

  The things I have seen have been a testament to the human spirit and the determination of people to keep their families alive. I have seen men risking their lives to provide for their wives and children by migrating from farms to disused goldmines and then – with nothing but a headtorch, a bit of rope and a ...

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• When desperate men swap their daughters for goats

  Posted: Thursday, 14 June 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia

  Published on The Punch, Thursday 14 June 2012

  What would you do if you looked out your front window and saw the child next door – the child who was once a healthy, energetic 11-year-old – search the bushes for insects to feed his youngest sister?

  What would you do if you knew that once a fortnight the boy walked his sister almost 10km to a health centre for help? Or if you knew, as the children became thinner and thinner, that their desperate father was about to leave them to search for work in the city?

  What if the father was considering selling a seven-year-old into marriage because he could no longer afford to feed her, and needed the payment to feed the rest of his family?

  Would you ignore your neighbours, with their shocked eyes and protruding ribs, or ...

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• Pacific reaches crossroads, calls for new humanitarian engagement

  Posted: Friday, 1 June 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia

  For many Australians when they think of the Pacific they think of island paradises, cruises, and white sandy beaches.

  The reality, for the people of the Pacific, is starkly different. Some four million people across the Pacific, almost half of the entire population, are living in poverty. And tragically in some countries the numbers of child deaths and malnourishment near those of sub-Saharan Africa.

  Even in countries such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, which are thought of more for idyllic beaches and world famous diving, poverty, malnutrition and high rates of preventable child deaths are rising.

  Now, many countries in the Pacific are approaching a critical crossroads in their development and many continue to face threat to political stability.

  Elections in Timor-Leste and looming elections in PNG and Vanuatu, the winding-up of the RAMSI protection force in the Solomon Islands, ...

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• Foreign aid pledge critical to our region

  Posted: Tuesday, 10 April 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia

  Published in the Herald Sun, Tuesday 10 April 2012

  Australia is a generous nation, right? We give a lot of our wealth to poor nations. Some think we give too much.

  So just how much aid do we give? If you lined up 200, 50 cent coins on the ground and said that represented our annual national income. How many of these 50 cent coins would we give in overseas aid? Would we give ten coins, or five or even just one? The answer is actually, less than one 50 cent coin. Our current level of overseas aid sits at just 35 cents per every $100 of gross national income.

  In fact in the league ladder of rich nations, which was released this week, Australia languishes in 13th place out of the 23 OECD nations and WELL below the average of ...

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• Bittersweet story of chocolate

  Posted: Monday, 9 April 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia

  Published on The Drum, Monday 9 April 2012

  No doubt after Easter Sunday, there are a few of us feeling a bit guilty about overindulging in one or two too many chocolates.

  Yet most of us will be shocked to learn that there is another unfortunate impact from our annual splurge on chocolate eggs and bunnies every Easter.

  Indeed when you look at the facts, it is clear that much of the chocolate we consume in Australia will have cocoa in it that has been tainted by the use of child and trafficked labourers.

  An estimated 70 per cent of the world's cocoa supplies come from two countries in West Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

  Research undertaken by Tulane University in New Orleans found that between 2007 and 2008 almost two million children were working on cocoa-related activities in Ghana ...

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• Immediate action on West Africa food crisis can save lives

  Posted: Thursday, 29 March 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive for World Vision Australia

  Published by The Australian World Commentary Online on Thursday March 29, 2012

  LAST year the world waited and watched as thousands of people starved to death and millions went hungry as a result of a devastating food crisis that gripped East Africa.

  Some 13 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya went hungry and even six months after a famine was officially declared by the United Nations in Somalia 250,000 still faced imminent death.

  In a recent report condemning the inaction around that famine, former UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, said: "the fact this needless haemorrhage of lives took place in spite of all our knowledge and experience is an outrage".

  The report, "A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa", released by Oxfam and Save the Children, ...

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• Charities must work hard to restore the sacred trust

  Posted: Sunday, 11 March 2012

  By Tim Costello, chief executive for World Vision Australia

  Published by The Sunday Telegraph on Sunday March 11, 2012

  The Federal Government’s new charities commission should play a key role in promoting transparency across the sector and to expose the unethical practices of the minority.

  Charities operate on a ‘sacred trust’ from the Australian community. They rely on their good name and on delivering the promise that the funds they receive get to those who are in need.

  Any breach of this trust by a charity or an allegation made against one charity – impacts all charities.

  The special series by The Sunday Telegraph focusing on charities in Australia has made some alarming claims.  While I am not convinced the alleged practices are widespread in the sector in Australia, if such practices are happening anywhere they must be stamped out.

  Donors must be sure their money gets to those in need, ...

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• “I hope to be someone who can make a difference in people's lives, whether through my work or through my personal relationships"

  Posted: Friday, 9 March 2012

  By Michelle Lokot, Gender Advisor for World Vision Australia

  Published on mamamia.com.au on Thursday March 8, 2012

  What hopes and dreams do you hold for your children’s future? Perhaps it is a hope that they will find a loving relationship, a meaningful job or financial security. Perhaps it is simply that they will find a path that makes them happy.

  In my line of work as a gender advisor for World Vision Australia, I hear a lot about the hopes and dreams of girls and women in the developing world. And yet, when World Vision recently asked female staff from around the world to share their aspirations, I still found myself a little surprised by how much their answers resonated with my own views of the future.

  “I need to give my children a good education so they look after their own lives in the future,’’ said one woman from ...

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