AusAID The Asia Foundation Partnership Philippines

AusAID in Manila and The Asia Foundation (TAF) country office in Manila have agreed to enter into a strategic partnership to support the development program of the Philippine Government in the context of the two institutions’ respective strategies for the Philippines. The Partnership would enable AusAID and TAF to collaborate on priority development issues of mutual interest. Under its planned new Country Assistance Strategy, AusAID – as the third largest bi-lateral donor in the Philippines – will support an ambitious development assistance program with priorities in basic education, disaster risk reduction and climate change, local governance and conflict-affected Mindanao. To enhance the development effectiveness of its assistance and informed by assessments of its previous development activities, AusAID seeks to strengthen the role of civil society in pursuing policy change and to improve the responsiveness and accountability of government institutions. As a well-established international non-governmental organisation with a strong reputation for conducting high-quality analytical work, often on complex and contentious issues, and consistent with the global AusAID-TAF Partnership Agreement signed in March 2010, TAF is keen to scale up the stakeholder engagement approaches it has successfully used in supporting policy reform and is well-placed to significantly expand the scope and reach of its activities in the Philippines.