Research

Saving lives

Results 2011–12

• Government planning for better maternal and child health in Bangladesh was informed by reliable, up-to-date maternal health data generated through the second Bangladesh Maternal Mortality and Health Service Survey conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
• Better health systems and policies in the Asia Pacific region were supported through research on births and deaths registration systems together with the provision of guidelines, resource kits and training for Asia Pacific countries to assess, extract and use their own health data. 
• More people have access to affordable healthcare in Indonesia, following research into barriers to health services in the not-for-profit hospital sector, conducted by the AusAID-funded Health Policy and Health Finance knowledge hub.

More about saving lives

Promoting opportunities for all

Results 2011–12

• The Government of Solomon Islands adopted a National Policy on Eliminating Violence Against Women and associated action plan using the evidence developed through the ‘The Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study: A Study on Violence against Women and Children’, funded by AusAID. This research is also supporting reform of the Penal Code, undertaken by the Solomon Islands Law Reform Commission.
• The national kindergarten to Year 12 school curriculum in the Philippines was improved to reflect international standards through comparative research on curriculum content, structure, sequence, and assessment from around the Asia Pacific region. This has stimulated Government demand for further research to improve the quality of education.

More about promoting opportunities for all

Sustainable economic development

Results 2011–12

The AusAID-ACIAR research partnership has:

• supported yield increases of more than 50 per cent, through research into the use of disease-resistant maize in Afghanistan. Total production value is expected to rise by more than $100 million.
• improved farmers’ incomes by nearly 50 cents per day through research into better farm management systems, irrigation methods and milk production in Central Punjab, as part of the Agricultural Sectoral Linkages Program in Pakistan.
• secured access for over 9000 men and women farmers to better seed varieties, and established 280 community seed production groups in 2011, through the Seeds of Life research project in East Timor. Around 21,000 farmers are now growing at least one Seed of Life variety developed at local research farms increasing yields by between 23 and 80 per cent.

AusAID-funded research has helped reduce farmers’ exposure to cassava toxicity in Mozambique through investigation of the effects of climate change on the staple crop. The development of predictive mechanisms and distribution of toxicity testing kits are now supporting farmers to choose the least toxic cultivars during seasons of drought.

More about sustainable economic development

Effective governance

Results 2011–12

• Research showing unequal access to justice resulted in Indonesian family courts receiving budget increases, providing access to the courts to four times the number of people living in remote areas of Indonesia.

More about effective governance

Humanitarian and disaster response

Results 2011–12

• A real-time earthquake estimation system was developed through research by the Australia–Indonesia Facility for Disaster Relief. This tool informed Indonesian disaster management authorities within hours of a massive earthquake in April 2012 that there would not be significant damage or casualties. This thereby reduced the need for unnecessary mobilisation of emergency relief services.s.

More about humanitarian and disaster response

 

Estimated Australian Development Assistance 2011–12

Priority	Spend ($ million)
Total	$133 million
Country programs	86.7
Sector/Thematic programs	33.9
Global programs	7.9
Research section	4.5

Historical funding

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The graph above shows historical AusAID Research Funding ($ millions).

The exact values are as follows:

• 2011–12
  $133 million
• 2010–11
  $106 million
• 2009–10
  $101 million
• 2008–09
  $67 million

Research overview

Most of AusAID’s research funding is provided through country programs and sector or thematic programs, with a smaller share through global programs and through AusAID’s research section. This decentralised approach ensures our portfolio of activity has close links to program design and implementation. The Research Section provides advice and guidance to program areas on research activities, and oversees AusAID’s centrally-managed research activities such as the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS). Information and outputs related to research activities supported by AusAID’s country programs and sector or thematic programs can be found on the relevant country or sector pages on this website.

AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme

The AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme is a key component of the AusAID Research Strategy 2012–2016, the purpose of which is to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. AusAID promotes fairness, transparency and value for money from our research investment including through the use of competitive mechanisms to fund research. The ADRAS, which is administered by AusAID’s central Research Section, supports high quality, innovative research that informs policy development. Since 2007 the ADRAS has supported 79 primary research grants and 17 systematic reviews of development research.

Listed under the relevant strategic goal are details and related research material of ongoing research activities managed by AusAID’s central Research Section. Information on research activities overseen by other areas including country or sector or thematic programs can be found on the relevant pages. Examples of outputs of centrally-managed research activities can be found under the 'Research database' tab.

Research database

AusAID funds research to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. Practical research helps inform where and how our own and our partners’ resources can most effectively and efficiently be deployed. This serves the overall purpose of the Australian aid program—to help people overcome poverty.

AusAID funds many different types of research to answer the wide range of challenges to development in our partner countries, to assist us to monitor development impacts, or to better target programs. The Research Database features outputs of research activities supported by AusAID’s central Research Section and makes accessible this range of outputs that are informing development thinking and that promote the use of evidence in AusAID policy and programming. Information and outputs related to research activities supported by AusAID’s country programs and sector or thematic programs can be found on the relevant country or sector pages on this website.

The AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme (ADRAS) is a key component of the AusAID Research Strategy 2012–2016, the purpose of which is to improve the quality and effectiveness of Australian aid in developing countries. AusAID promotes fairness, transparency and value for money from our research investment including through the use of competitive mechanisms to fund research. The ADRAS, which are administered by AusAID’s central Research Section, is designed to attract high quality, innovative research that informs policy development.