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Australia has announced an increase in its development assistance to Africa by 90 million Australian dollars. The increment will bring its total support to the continent to 291.3 million Australian dollars. Over the years, Australia has been supporting Africa through direct aid and grants to help build capacity and undertake development projects. The Acting Australian High Commissioner, Joanna Adamson, said �a major benefit to Ghana and other West African countries will be the expansion of the Australia Awards Program.� Annually African students, as part of the Australia Awards, are provided scholarships for both long-term and short-term courses in Australian universities. The Australian Awards is intended to strengthen human resource capacity within governments and institutions in Afric, which is firmly aligned with the priorities of those governments. A statement issued by the Australian High Commission in Ghana, said more than 750 people from at least 40 African countries will benefit from the Australian Awards. �Australia will also share experience and expertise with countries in the region in areas such as agriculture and natural resource management,� Ms Adamson added. Between 2011 and 2012, Australia�s engagement with the Africa is expected to increase in the area of food security which has been identified as crucial to the continent�s development. It noted that in West and Central Africa, Australia�s Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO) has formed partnership with CORAF/WECARD, the Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, as well as Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA) to ensure food security in Africa. These partnerships focus on increasing crop productivity through more efficient use of water to improve animal disease management and increase services for smallholder farmers. Australia will also maintain strong support for humanitarian needs on the continent including providing assistance to Cote d�Ivoire, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Australian Government�s announcement reaffirms its ongoing commitment to scale up development assistance programs to 0.5 percent of Gross National Income by 2015-16 and increase its assistance to Africa. The Australian Government, the statement said, would remain committed to ensure that every dollar spent on aid improves poverty and economic development.