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Consider for instance:

It is vital that food is made available to the famine areas

OR

It is vital that food is available to the famine areas.

Another example:

Old sources of major components of Magenta are still made available on my GitHub.

OR

Old sources of major components of Magenta are still available on my GitHub.

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    "Is available" refers to status. It means to be in a state of availability, either currently or at the time it is needed. It may already be available, in which case nothing needs to be done to make it that way. "Is made available" refers to action. It means that it is normally not available and action must be taken to make it available.
    – fixer1234
    Mar 5, 2017 at 21:13

2 Answers 2

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TLDR: No difference, apart from tiny change in sentiment

The difference between the two is small. When you say:

Something is made available ...

It implies that someone has taken the effort to make it available. When you say:

Something is available ...

It is more direct and removes a small piece of personality from the text, however for almost all circumstances they are the same as each other and I would use either although you will find that is available is more common because of it's directness.

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    Agreed. The end result is the same, to make something available is an action, by someone, that results in a condition where that thing is available. I don't know if one is more common than the other. Instead you use these in different ways.
    – Andrew
    Jul 28, 2017 at 21:41
  • No, the two sentences are completely different. What does "removes a small piece of personally to the text" even mean?? I'm afraid you have missed a basic grammar point here...
    – Lambie
    Jul 28, 2017 at 21:43
  • Sorry that was an error, I meant "personality" not "personally" .
    – T0m
    Jul 29, 2017 at 12:19
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The difference between: to be made available and to be available is the difference between a passive and an active verb.

Food is made available [by relief organizations].= A PASSIVE sentence or:

Food is available.=ACTIVE sentence

That said, this sentence beginning with /it is vital/:
It is vital that food is available in famine areas really should really be phrased using the "subjunctive":

It is vital that food be available to the famine areas. [active]

It is vital that food be made available to the famine areas. [passive]

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