New Zealand's foreign minister Gerry Brownlee says he wants to continue to shift the focus of this country's assistance in the region towards development and away from AID.
Mr Brownlee's predecessor Murray McCully who resigned in May had been criticised by academics and aid researchers for micro-managing New Zealand's overseas development assistance which they said had resulted in some white elephant projects in the region.
Smaller regional organisations working with the poorer more disadvantaged communities in the Pacific had also voiced concern at losing funding because of the change in focus.
But Gerry Brownlee told Koroi Hawkins his focus will still be on helping Pacific countries help themselves.
Transcript
GERRY BROWNLEE: Not substantially different I think the concept of getting rid of that word aid and promoting the word development in the contributions that New Zealand makes to life in the Pacific Islands is where I would like to see things head. When you look at programs that have that sort of enduring aspect to them then I think you are on the right track. One good example is the electrification of the villages in Tonga. Now as a consequence of that project you are not only going to get an electricity supply a more reliable supply but you are also going to reduce the line losses so you are going to get more power for your electricity production and then of course the lines people that are doing that are predominantly local and have done their linesmen certificates through NZQA so they become quite qualified. Some of them may decided to leave Tonga and go and work somewhere else for a time on the back of that. Many of them will return but it will mean that there is a base crew there that can maintain that asset for many many years to come. And that is the type of thing I see as being very very valuable a shift away from just being an aid project to being a development project.
KOROI HAWKINS: Some smaller NGO groups working with poorer communities in the region have been sort of affected by this focus on larger infrastructure they feel like they are losing funding. Is that something New Zealand Official Development Assistance is concerned with in terms of the human development aspect of aid?
GERRY BROWNLEE: Well we haven't completely abandoned all that but when you say human development I think you are looking at. I look at it this way if you just want to spend your time treading water eventually you will drown. If you want to invest in some swimming lessons then you have got a chance of saving yourself and that is the type of approach that we are taking here.
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