Programs & Projects

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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
Paris Climate Summit: A New Global Financing Pact Takes Shape
Commentary
Paris Climate Summit: A New Global Financing Pact Takes Shape
Originally published in MDB Reform Accelerator
International shipping: a missed opportunity to reduce emissions
Commentary
International shipping: a missed opportunity to reduce emissions
Originally published in the Samoa Observer
Understanding “loss and damage” from climate change across the Indo-Pacific
Commentary
Understanding “loss and damage” from climate change across the Indo-Pacific
Originally published in MDB Reform Accelerator
Pacific Aid Map 2023 - Key Findings Report
Reports
Pacific Aid Map 2023 - Key Findings Report
The annual Pacific Aid Map — launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018 — is an analytical tool designed to improve aid and development effectiveness in the Pacific Islands region. It…
Pacific aid enters a new era
Pacific aid enters a new era
Development priorities across the Pacific are changing, with new players and new financial instruments emerging to increase the scope and magnitude of funding required. The latest…
2023 Pacific Aid Map
Interactives
2023 Pacific Aid Map
Australia is the Pacific's largest development partner in our sixth annual interactive, mapping every aid project in the Pacific from 2008–2021 as the region faces new development…
Climate negotiations in a fossil fuel state: What to expect from COP28
Climate negotiations in a fossil fuel state: What to expect from COP28
The time until the next climate change negotiations get underway in December seems deceptively far away, but in fact countries are already gearing up for the 28th Conference…
How should Australia react to Bidenomics?
How should Australia react to Bidenomics?
American economic policy has shifted towards government intervention, including industrial policy and away from free-trade. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan set out the…
China’s car exports pose a key question to policymakers: Compete or protect?
China’s car exports pose a key question to policymakers: Compete or protect?
China is on track to export nearly 5 million motor vehicles by the end of the year, making China the largest car exporter in the world. This has caught many by surprise. But the…