Australia's aid spending is focused on Asia and the Pacific, with Papua New Guinea and Indonesia the top recipients. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAPImage
Australia, once seen as a generous donor, has been charged with using its aid budget like an ATM. What has changed? As the general election approaches (7 September) Claire Provost and Helen Davidson look at Australia's foreign aid policy and explore its spending in data: how much does it give and where does the funding go? Philippa Brant, meanwhile, argues that Australian anxiety over China's South Pacific aid efforts is misplaced.
Monica Mark visited Zamfara state, northern Nigeria, where she spoke to married girls as young as nine. One had endured three days of labour before being allowed to go to hospital – "I thought it would never end," she says.
How has the UK's development secretary fared in her first year? Claire Coffey, Lawrence Haddad, John Hilary and Ben Phillips assess Justine Greening's progress so far, from the UK's spending on aid to her efforts on women's rights. What do you think?
Elsewhere on the site
India turns to yoga to steer boozy bus drivers on the road to recovery – in an attempt to reduce road deaths, a Bengaluru-based company has introduced a pioneering scheme to wean its drivers off alcohol. And Claudia Adriazola explores how public transport can curb road deaths as our cities grow.
Multimedia
• Why are roads one of the world's biggest killers? – podcast
More than a million people die on the roads each year, yet this man-made problem is seldom the priority the numbers suggest it should be.
• Ugandan village pays tribute to thousands of people snatched during conflict – in pictures
An estimated 75,000 people were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda between 1986 and 2006. The fate of thousands remains unknown. The International Committee of the Red Cross launched a programme to assist grieving families of the missing, culminating in a remembrance ceremony in Kamama village.
• Clowns Without Borders: entertaining children in crisis for 20 years – in pictures
The performance artist-led organisation, which works with children affected by war, violence or other social issues, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Guardian's international development achievement award
The longlist for the Guardian's annual award is open for public vote. Find out more and vote for the person who you think has made an exceptional contribution to alleviating poverty in the developing world. The deadline to vote is midnight GMT on Monday 16 September 2013. You may vote only once.
Coming up
The EU meets on Wednesday to agree rules on food speculation, and next week to vote on biofuels. In the meantime, Alberto Acosta revisits the Yanusà cause, arguing that the oil can still stay in the ground of Ecuador's Amazonian forest.
What you said: some of the best reader comments
Les Roopanarine's blog asked if the reality of development through sport can live up to the rhetoric?
GreenKnighht responds:
"As an activity to learn something, as a means to improve health, as an activity taking seven hours a week, sport is great. But as focus for life, as a means of earning a living, sport is something for a very tiny minority.''
MrCollery shares his experience in east Africa:
"I spent some time with an NGO in east Africa that used football to promote 'knowledge' about HIV ... Boys who like football would turn up; boys who didn't like football would not; girls who liked football would turn up till they reached puberty. But donors and church groups loved it because there were lots of kids out playing football, which was produced as evidence that this must be a good thing … pointing to a lot of obviously happy children playing some sport is not an evaluation. It's PR."
Monica Mark's report on child brides in Nigeria sparked a wide debate among our readers.
Rozina says:
"The only way to eliminate the practice of child marriage in northern Nigeria is to understand what role this custom plays in the communities and society of the area, what the pay-off might be for families or community leaders who force the girls into early marriage, and to find alternative solutions that plug the needs that child marriage fulfils for the people.''
hollyqueen points out:
"Nigerian activists in Nigeria are opposing this violation of human rights and are asking for the support of the international community ... Why should anyone respect the version of the culture coming from the oppressors and discount the voices of the oppressed?''
Highlights from the blogosphere
Large dam projects can be messy, inequitable and often have negative impact on those living downstream. Is there another way? asks Jamie Skinner on the IIED blog.
Do immigrants fill public coffers, or drain them? Michael Clemens examines the latest OECD research on the CGdev blog.
And finally …
Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and the team – @MaeveShearlaw, @ClaireProvost, @LizFordGuardian and @MarkTran – on Twitter, and join Guardian Global development on Facebook.
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