Simon Lauder reported this story on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 08:17:00

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: An analysis of data collated on aid spending estimates that Australian Aid has saved 230,000 lives since the year 2000.



Melbourne University's Professor Alan Lopez has analysed data which recently appeared in the medical journal The Lancet and he's worked out the impact of Australia's aid contribution since the year 2000.



But he says he's concerned by cuts to Australia's aid budget in recent years and he says his research should help politicians argue more effectively on the issue of foreign aid.



Professor Lopez is speaking here to Simon Lauder.



ALAN LOPEZ: Keeping young children alive: that's been a main focus of global health. What we don't understand is, in quantitative terms, what does that mean in terms of lives saved?



What we've found in this study is that Australian aid over the last 15 years, since 2000, has directly contributed to saving the lives of 230,000 children worldwide.



SIMON LAUDER: Does this mean it's now possible to say how much Australian money it costs to save one child in a poor country?



ALAN LOPEZ: It does, it allows us to do that. We know how much has been invested, we know the impact in terms of the interventions, we know the number of child lives that we think we've saved with this money reasonably reliably.



We can divide one by the other. And when we do that in Australia for every $5,400 - $5,400 has directly contributed to saving a child's life in a poor country.



SIMON LAUDER: Have you been concerned by the cuts to Australia's foreign aid budget recently?



ALAN LOPEZ: Absolutely. I think it's not so much the absolute goal or amount, whether it's a billion here or a billion there. These are substantial amounts of money and of course, as I said earlier, they have to be considered in an overall budgetary debate.



But it is the message that is being conveyed to the global health community - health and development community - that aid is an easy target in Australia, that it's being cut substantially.



Any thinking Australian has to be concerned that our duty, our moral duty as citizens of the planet, is being affected by these continual sharp and substantial cuts to the aid budget.



SIMON LAUDER: I think most people would have a broad understanding that aid spending translates in some way to lives saved. Do you think your work will really help argue that aid budgets shouldn't be cut further?



ALAN LOPEZ: I can't see why not. This is a absolute and direct calculation of the amount of children that are being kept alive today because of Australian aid.



Now I cannot think of a more direct statistic that a parliamentarian would want to see or quote in order to assess the value of Australia's investment over the last 15 years in foreign aid for health.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Melbourne University's Professor Alan Lopez, speaking to Simon Lauder.