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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
Tonga walks a tightrope on its Chinese debts
Tonga walks a tightrope on its Chinese debts
Tonga’s debt burden is set to balloon over the next five years as the deadline looms on loans from China. Repayments will see the country’s debt burden rise to among the highest…
Drivers of change in the Pacific
Drivers of change in the Pacific
The start of 2024 saw the Pacific islands hit global headlines with news of riots in Papua New Guinea and Nauru make a strategic switch in the diplomatic stoush between Taiwan and…
Global economic prospects are the worst in decades but investing in the future could be the answer
Global economic prospects are the worst in decades but investing in the future could be the answer
The World Bank released its semi-annual Global Economic Prospects Report on 10 January, and it reads like a warning shot across the bow for the world’s economies. Global…
Vietnam’s challenge to wean off coal
Vietnam’s challenge to wean off coal
During a summer break, The Interpreter will feature selected articles each day from throughout the past year. Normal publishing will resume 15 January, 2024. This article first…
France-Australie : Relancer La Coopération Sur Le Développement Durable Dans L’indo-Pacifique
Commentary
France-Australie : Relancer La Coopération Sur Le Développement Durable Dans L’indo-Pacifique
Originally posted on Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques 
COP28 agreement marks a milestone but does not go far enough
Commentary
COP28 agreement marks a milestone but does not go far enough
Originally published on Nikkei Asia
Germany’s digital dilemma
Germany’s digital dilemma
In a world increasingly defined by digital transformation, Germany stands as anomaly, resisting the tide of digitisation in the face of global trends. When I recently stepped…
Half time at COP28: Reflections from Dubai
Commentary
Half time at COP28: Reflections from Dubai
Originally posted in The Samoa Observer
The Australian Financial Review
27 September 2022
ABC Radio National Breakfast
5 July 2022
The Saturday Paper
27 August 2022
ABC Radio National Breakfast
5 July 2022
Business Times Singapore
2 August 2022
Canberra Times
14 December 2021
The Canberra Times
16 November 2021