Official Development Assistance: A Comparison

 

Foreign aid assistance by Nordic nations is amongst the most generous in the world. Policymakers are increasingly targeting that aid toward climate adaptation. In contrast, Australia’s aid programs remain dismally underfunded.  

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Climate Change Museums: The Klimahuset

 

Museums are key sites for climate change education, action and research. Oslo’s Klimahuset museum is a world-leading institution dedicated to communicating climate change.  

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Sami Parliaments

The Nordic Sami parliaments provide the indigenous people of Norway, Sweden and Finland with a voice in decisions affecting their communities. These parliaments provide an insight for attempts in Australia to provide a similar voice for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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Ending the ICE age

All new car sales in Norway will be zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. To achieve this goal, Norway has a comprehensive electric vehicle policy. Australia has no federal electric vehicle strategy or policies and no plan for the transition from ICE vehicles.

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Media literacy education in Finland

Finland tops the media literacy index, an annual index of European countries measuring resistance to fake news. Finland’s success rests on the teaching of media literacy skills in schools. 

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Fighting poverty: Unemployment policies in Nordic countries

Unemployment policies in Nordic countries highlight how Australian unemployment benefits could be improved. Poverty levels in Nordic countries are significantly lower than in Australia, partly due to unemployment policies that provide greater support.

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Tax and Wellbeing: The impact of taxation on economic wellbeing

It has been claimed that higher levels of taxation weaken the economy but a comparative study of 188 economies shows that higher levels of taxation are correlated with higher average income. The positive correlation also exists with other measures of economic wellbeing.

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Participating in growth: Free childcare and increased participation

The provision of free childcare provides the rarest of economic policy opportunities – it’s both an effective form of fiscal stimulus in the short term and has the capacity to boost the long-term participation rate and, in turn, the long-run rate of economic growth.

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Denmark bars tax haven companies from Covid-19 financial aid

The Danish Government has refused Covid-19 bailout money to companies registered in tax havens. This has inspired some countries to adopt similar restrictions, but Australia is yet to follow suit.

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Prison during covid-19: Nordic approaches

Nordic countries have incarceration rates that are a fraction of Australia’s. Their systems emphasise non-custodial alternatives to imprisonment and promote prisoners’ access to education. This has helped Nordic prisons respond to Covid-19.

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