Devpolicy Talks

As part of the 2018 Pacific Update (held in Suva on 5 and 6 July), in this panel on health, we heard about spending better on health in the region, food and nutrition security, reorienting towards people-centres integrated care, and knowledge translation for SDG implementation. https://crawford.anu.edu.au/devpolicy/events   Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Dev...

Tess Newton Cain caught up with the Hon Ralph Regenvanu on Vanuatu’s foreign policy priorities, challenges, and getting through to voters. Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.  Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org. Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au. Follow us on Twitte...

As part of the 2018 Pacific Update (held in Suva on 5 and 6 July), this panel on gender and social analysis included presentations on child protection systems in the Pacific, gender and politics in Tonga, and menstrual hygiene in Fiji. https://crawford.anu.edu.au/devpolicy/events Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.  Read and subscr...

The 2018 Mitchell Oration was delivered by Professor Sir Richard Feachem on 28 June at ANU. He spoke about reengineering the aid industry, the aid debate, some inconvenient truths, and the case of Australia. https://crawford.anu.edu.au/devpolicy/events Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.  Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at de...

The 2018 Pacific Update was held on 5 and 6 July at the University of the South Pacific's Laucala Campus. In Panel 3a - Labour mobility, presenters discussed various aspects of labour mobility in the Pacific region, including new sectors and markets, and the PACER Plus Agreement. https://crawford.anu.edu.au/devpolicy/events Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Dev...

This aid evaluation forum on 30 May focused on the evaluation of funding from Australia's bilateral health aid program to multilateral organisations to increase and extend their support to the health sector in PNG. The evaluation was presented by one of its authors - Ian Anderson, an Associate at the Development Policy Centre - and discussed by an expert commentator - Colin Wiltshire, a Research F...

This aid evaluation forum on 30 May focused on the evaluation of Australian support for PNG's road infrastructure through the PNG Australia Transport Sector Support Program. The evaluation was presented by one of its authors - David Slattery, Director, ODE, DFAT - and discussed by an expert commentator - Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre. Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Aust...

This aid evaluation forum on 30 May focused on the evaluation of Australia's response to the drought in PNG in 2015-16. Following opening remarks by Wendy Jarvie, a member of DFAT's Independent Evaluation Committee, the evaluation was presented by one of its authors - Bernard Broughton, an Independent Consultant - and discussed by an expert commentator - Mike Bourke, an Honorary Associate Professo...

For the sixth edition of Devpolicy's aid budget breakfast on Wednesday 9 May 2018, we expanded our analysis, covering not only the Australian aid budget, but also aid trends in Australia and overseas. Following the eighth straight year of aid cuts, this podcast also looks at how Australia compares to other countries, where the money is going, and more. Speaker: Stephen Howes, Director, Development...

This forum on 11 April focused on the recent DFAT evaluation of effectiveness and credibility of Australian support for advocacy and disability-inclusive development. The evaluation was presented by Karen Ovington, one of the authors, and commented on by Mika Kontiainen, Director of the Disability Section at DFAT, and Colin Allen, Chair of the International Disability Alliance. The event was chair...

Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme has delivered over A$144 million in net income gains to the Pacific, according to a new World Bank report. In this podcast of the report launch, Jesse Doyle, Social Protection Economist at the World Bank, presents the report, examining the costs and benefits of the scheme for Pacific households, and workers experiences, and making recommendations for reform. T...

We are all touched by slavery, according to Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, one of the most decorated federal prosecutors in the United States. Former Ambassador-at-large and senior advisor to the Secretary of State on trafficking in persons, Ambassador CdeBaca built his legislation in to policy, transforming US anti-trafficking efforts and including the voices of victims, workers, and communities in dec...

In 2017, Rashmii Bell edited the first-ever anthology of writing by Papua New Guinean women: My Walk to Equality. It captures the daily challenges faced and positive contributions being made by the women of PNG to improve the livelihoods of self, community and nation. In this vein, Tess Newton Cain caught up with Rashmii to talk about her background and experiences as an author, including what has...

This session at the 2018 Australasian Aid Conference, presented the recent report by CGD's High-Level Panel on the Future of Multilateral Development Banking, offering a frank assessment of current MDB policies and practices and situating them in the context of new development challenges. It also discussed how MDBs should respond to the new banks and new challenges that call for global collective...

In a time where the humanitarian funding gap is greater than ever before, humanitarian agencies are required to think innovatively and creatively about how to meet this need to meet current and future mandates. Humanitarian Advisory Group’s recent desk research and subsequent think piece present an exploration and critical examination of evidence of the effectiveness of joint funding mechanisms, i...

The 2018 Australasian Conference, held on 13-14 February at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, was opened by Senator Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. She discussed Labor's vision for Australian aid and development policy if they are elected to government in the next Federal election. The conference was organised by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with The Asia...

This panel explored the rationale and methodology for LGBTIQ+ inclusion within humanitarian and development programs. In the decade since the Yogyakarta Principles were developed in 2007, global human rights mechanisms have addressed sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) with increased sophistication. However, rights-based development organisations a...

The 'strugglers', those who are not poor by conventional international poverty measures, but are nevertheless far from the middle class, are a large but neglected group in development discourse. In her keynote address at the 2018 Australasian Aid Conference, Nancy Birdsall discussed the challenges they face and their prospects. The Conference was held at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, on 1...

This public lecture by Nick Danziger was a pre-conference event at the 2018 Australasian Aid Conference, held at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, on 13-14 February, and was organised by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with The Asia Foundation. In this lecture, Nick Danziger provides a human face to development issues and share his experiences documenting the lives of people in s...

Populations in the Asia Pacific region, and globally, face increasingly complex health threats, which call for stronger, locally relevant and high-quality health systems capable of addressing prevailing public health issues including emerging infectious diseases. The global response has included the G7-endorsed Global Health Security Agenda, while the Australian response is continuing to evolve, m...

This panel provided a launch for 'Inside the black box of political will', which presents key findings from the past ten years of the Developmental Leadership Program’s (DLP) work. The panel also presents highlights from DLP’s recent research on the role of politics and power in developmental change, with case studies from Myanmar and Fiji, as well as a practitioner’s perspective. Panellists: Mich...

Ebola, MDR-TB, malaria. Infectious diseases will continue to threaten the health and well-being of people across our region and the world. The Australian government has announced a major regional health security fund. How can Australia best support countries to prevent and respond to infectious disease? What is a health security approach in any case? What should the balance be between research and...

What does Australian aid and international development policy need more or less of? This panel presents the best, the most original, the most transformational, the most innovative ideas to get more bang from the $4 billion buck that is the Australian aid program. And to get some new ideas on how to do international development policy differently and better. Following the 3-Minute-Thesis format, ri...

Too often there has been a gap between academic analysis seeking to explain the how and why of corruption and the reality of activists trying to address it on the ground. We need to recognise not only that corruption is complex and multi-faceted, but also that to have any real impact requires sensitivity to the specific contexts in which it takes place, and especially what is politically possible....

Unprecedented levels of need, biggest aid cuts ever, humanitarian catastrophe — all too familiar to hear about in the news, but does the average person care? There are more media outlets and information available than ever before, yet investment in quality international reportage has dropped off as traditional media has been destabilised. Citizen journalism, blogging and social media have stepped...