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The Indo-Pacific Development Centre

The Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC) is a policy research centre at the Lowy Institute dedicated to generating fresh policy insights and ideas on the most pressing economic development issues in the Indo-Pacific region. The IPDC focuses on key challenges facing emerging and developing economies in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia as well as the role of more advanced Indo-Pacific economies such as Australia, the United States, Japan, China, and others in helping shape the future economic development of the region.

The work of the IPDC is organised around six key themes:

  • Post-Covid recovery, growth and development
  • Climate finance and decarbonising development
  • Technology and the digital economy
  • Globalisation and regional integration
  • The future of international development finance
  • Geoeconomics and the intersection of development and security

As part of its development finance pillar, the IPDC houses the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map, a digital interactive that tracks all official development finance flows to the Pacific region.

The IPDC has been established with the support of multi-year funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Featured projects

Southeast Asia Aid Map
Southeast Asia Aid Map
New interactive tracking more than 100,000 development projects, the most comprehensive assessment of development flows in Southeast Asia ever undertaken.
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Updated research shows the unprecedented disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Pacific Islands region caused upheaval in how international donors provide aid.
Experts
Latest publications
News and media
Lowy Institute Lead Economist; Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Assistant, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Assistant, Southeast Asia Aid Map
Research Associate, Pacific Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Australia is increasingly spending around, not on, development
Australia is increasingly spending around, not on, development
With a cost-of-living crisis, mounting pressures from other expenditure areas, and a looming federal election, the 2024-25 foreign aid budget is not quite Labor’s promised rebuild…
The Translator: The nomenclature of foreign aid
The Translator: The nomenclature of foreign aid
Heard diplomats or analysts using a new turn of phrase only to wonder, “What does that mean?” Today we ask…What is Official Development Assistance?Official Development Assistance…
Indonesia's free lunch program is cooking up economic change
Commentary
Indonesia's free lunch program is cooking up economic change
Originally published in East Asia Forum 
If industrial policy is the new candy house, developing countries need to gain more than just the bread crumbs
If industrial policy is the new candy house, developing countries need to gain more than just the bread crumbs
Industrial policies such as the US Inflation Reduction Act or China’s Made in China 2025 policy are examples of a new suite of economic policies governments are deploying around…
Replenishing the Asian Development Bank in the Pacific
Replenishing the Asian Development Bank in the Pacific
In early May, donor governments are expected to unveil new funding commitments for the grant-financing window of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – the Asian Development Fund…
Digitizing G2P Payments: Lessons from Indonesia
Commentary
Digitizing G2P Payments: Lessons from Indonesia
Originally published on CGAP 
A multilateral bank for the Indo-Pacific?
A multilateral bank for the Indo-Pacific?
Governments around the world are facing complex intersecting challenges: how to achieve supply chain diversification and resilience while simultaneously pursuing more ambitious…
Pacific Islands News Association
17 April 2024
Khmer Times
24 November 2023
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier
15 November 2023
The Fiji Times
1 November 2023