Welcome to the July 2009 quarter edition of Exchange Magazine. The goal of the AYAD Program is to strengthen mutual understanding between Australia and our partner countries, and to make a positive contribution to development. How do we, as Program managers, participants and stakeholders, know whether we are achieving this goal? The Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program aims to strengthen mutual understanding between Australia and the countries of the Asia Pacific region and make a positive contribution to development. The Program achieves these aims by placing skilled young Australian (18-30) on short-term assignments in developing countries in the Asia Pacific region. AYAD volunteers work with local counterparts in Host Organisations to achieve sustainable development outcomes through capacity building, skills exchange and institutional strengthening. The AYAD Program provides support to AYADs including living and accommodation allowances, flights, pre-departure training, in-country management, insurance, medicals and debrief on return.
Examples of how the AYAD Program strengthens mutual understanding jump out of the pages of this magazine. The sharing of knowledge, skills and cultures occurs at all levels: between volunteers and their counterparts; between host organisations and Australian partner organisations; and between the Australian and partner governments. On this last point, we at Austraining were honoured by a recent visit to our office in Adelaide by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Tupouto’aLavaka, High Commissioner of the Kingdom of Tonga, during which HRH expressed gratitude for the contribution made by AYADs. We were also pleased that the Australian Foreign Minster the Hon Stephen Smith MP made time in his busy schedule to meet with the AYAD and VIDA volunteers in Samoa when he visited last month; see page 15 for photos.
The AYAD Program is an Australian Government, AusAID initiative and is fully funded by the Australian Government’s overseas aid agency, AusAID. AYAD is managed by Austraining International, a South Australian international project management company.
As well as strengthening mutual understanding, the AYAD Program aims to make a positive contribution to development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The aid effectiveness
agenda, enshrined in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and more recently through the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), commits development practitioners and programs to manage for results, and capture and report on development impacts. Austraining is at the forefront of efforts to evaluate the development impact of volunteer programs, having recently launched the introduction of a Results-Based Management (RBM) framework for the AYAD and VIDA Programs in three pilot countries (Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines). The RBM pilot is being implemented in collaboration with our Canadian partners CECI/WUSC, who manage the Canadian Government’s Uniterra Volunteer Program. The introduction of an RBM Framework will result in stronger alignment of volunteer assignments in priority development sectors and more effective tracking of partner capacitybuilding results, and will demonstrate VIDA and AYAD contribution to development outcomes at the sector, country and program levels. I look forward to sharing the outcomes of our RBM pilot with you over the next year. Until the next edition, Anthony Rologas AYAD Program Director