Giving Compass' Take:

• Madeleine Keck shares four ways that Australia made progress for citizens' health and wellbeing in 2018. 

• How can funders help to build on this progress in 2019? What are Australia's most pressing issues? 

• Learn about a concerning health trend in Australia. 

Australia Invests Millions to Fight Polio Outbreak: In October, newly appointed Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced Australia would provide $6 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to help tackle the escalating vaccine-derived polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea.

Australia Legislates End to Modern Slavery: To combat the issue, Australia introduced new legislation, suitably named the Modern Slavery Bill. Under the new bill, companies that have a turnover of more than $100 million annually will be made to publicly report on the risks of modern slavery within their operations and supply chains at the end of each financial year.

CHOGM Puts Girls Education and Health Funding on the Agenda: Rihanna and Global Citizens called on former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to invest in the Global Partnership for Education in an effort to help get an additional 870 million children in school. This resulted in AUD $90 million being committed.

Australia Eradicated Rubella: This year, the World Health Organisation officially confirmed that rubella had been eradicated throughout Australia.

Read the full article about Australia in 2018 by Madeleine Keck at Global Citizen.