Lessons to be learned from RAMSI: report

IN an era of tight budgets and slashed aid spending, it's hard to imagine the Australian government handing out hundreds of millions of dollars, year after year, to prop up one of its tiny Pacific neighbours.

But in the 10 years to 2013, the government did just that, spending almost $2.6 billion heading the 15-nation Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

A diplomat who served with RAMSI says the Abbott government could learn a lot from that mission as it realigns its foreign policy to the Asia-Pacific region and looks for returns on aid spending.

In a new report for the Lowy Institute, Jenny Hayward-Jones examines RAMSI successes and failures and questions the merit of spending so much on a country of little strategic importance.

"I think the lessons of RAMSI have shown perhaps there was a bit of an over response," the diplomat turned Lowy Institute researcher told AAP.

There was fear in July 2003 that the Solomons, reeling from ethnic violence and economic malaise, could become a haven for terrorists and criminals if allowed to collapse.

Ms Hayward-Jones admits Honiara was in trouble when she arrived in the capital as a policy adviser to find gangs running the city.

"The government couldn't function because it was being held at gunpoint to hand over government cheques and so forth to thugs and criminals," she said.

RAMSI quickly helped restore order, stabilise the economy and rebuild the bureaucracy.

But the mission had no exit plan and Australia ended up footing the bulk of the bill for 10 years.

When Ms Hayward-Jones went looking for a breakdown of government spending on RAMSI years later, she was shocked to find such detailed numbers didn't exist.

"Australia along the way was not counting up how much it was costing to do all of those things," she said.

It appears a decade worth of bankrolling the mission earned Australia little recognition, with most Solomon islanders surveyed last year unaware Australia was the biggest contributor.

This should ring alarm bells for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who wants more visibility for Australia's aid programs and to be the "partner of choice" for Pacific nations.

Ms Hayward-Jones said the government should also not assume the region at large is peaceful simply because the military-component of RAMSI had concluded.

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