Costing of Recommendations

We provide here an order-of-magnitude estimate of the incremental, first-year costs associated with implementing our Recommendations.

As can be seen, our Recommendations are well within Australia's resources to implement.

Recommendation	Costs
1. Religious freedom as a factor in foreign aid The inclusion of promoting and protecting religious freedom is a matter of principle, incurring no operating costs. There may be administrative costs associated with promulgating this matter within AusAid and DFAT. This type of cost is not considered here.	$0
2. Aid for churches The funding for churches comes from the normal aid budget, hence incurring no additional costs.	$0
3. Advisory Group Assumptions: 2 officials + 2 NGO personnel. Two 2-day trips to Vietnam per year. Two half-day meetings in Canberra and two half-day teleconferences in Australia. Cost per official per trip is $3,000 ($1,500 airfare + $500 accommodation + $1000 allowances plus overheads), and per meeting is zero (no additional travel or allowances). Cost per NGO personnel per trip is $1,500 (airfare only), and per meeting is zero. Cost per teleconference bridge is $100.	$18,200
4. Radio Australia Radio Australia does not incur any additional programming costs as a result of this Recommendation. For community consultation, assume: 2 half-day meetings per year, involving 2 Radio Australia officials at $200 per person per meeting. Sub-total: $800. No additional costs are incurred by reporting in the annual report.	$800
5. Prisoner visits and parliamentary reporting Assumptions: 10 person-trips of 1 day each, involving intra-Vietnam travel only by local DFAT officials. Cost per person-trip is $1,000 ($500 accommodation + $500 allowances plus overheads). Sub-total: $10,000. Assumptions: 2 person-days to prepare 2 six-monthly reports at $250 per person day. Sub-total: $1,000	$11,000
6. Human rights dialogue Assumptions: 2 two-day trips to Vietnam, each involving 2 Australian officials. Cost per official per trip is $3,000 ($1,500 airfare + $500 accommodation + $1000 allowances plus overheads). Sub-total: $12,000. Visits to Australia by Vietnamese officials: it is assumed the Vietnam side pays its own costs including travel, accommodation, and salary. Assumptions: 2 person-days to prepare 2 six-monthly reports at $250 per person-day. Sub-total: $1,000.	$13,000
7. Education aid The review of education aid involves normal review processes, hence incurring no additional costs. The inclusion of legislators and journalists etc. for human rights education is simply the selection of trainees, it does not increase the number of trainees, hence requires no additional budget allocation. Assumptions re. the addition of a half-day introduction to human rights and democracy concepts: 1000 persons per year, at $50 per half-person day. Sub-Total: $50,000.	$50,000
8. Study into religious freedom etc. in multilateral entities Assumptions: 100 person-days of government officials' time, at the rate of $250 per person-day for officials. Non-government officials incur their own expenses.	$25,000
Total	$118,000

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