Devpolicy Talks

Last December, the Coalition announced the largest cuts to the aid budget in the history of the Australian aid program: $1 billion or 20 per cent in a single year. How and where will these savings be made? To what extent will key bilateral partners, such as PNG and Indonesia, be protected – and which countries and regions will experience the brunt of the cuts? Will multilateral and NGO allocations...

As in past years, the Development Policy Centre hosted a forum to discuss and debate recent Australian aid evaluations. This year we focused on the new annual report on Australian aid Performance of Australian Aid 2013-14 and on two recent evaluations from the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) on Australia’s responses to humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and Syria. We heared from O...

As in past years, the Development Policy Centre hosted a forum to discuss and debate recent Australian aid evaluations. This year we focused on the new annual report on Australian aid Performance of Australian Aid 2013-14 and on two recent evaluations from the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) on Australia’s responses to humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and Syria. We heared from O...

Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps) for health emerged in the 1990s as a mechanism to improve efficiency of aid delivery and effectiveness of aid. Health SWAps aim to increase recipient government autonomy over aid, allowing greater influence over priority setting. Ultimately, it is hoped changes under SWAps will lead to health improvements, yet evidence on health impacts is scarce. In this talk, Mr Ro...

Development in most Asian countries has taken place through several conventional phases. Economies such as Indonesia have started with agriculture/resource based development; have moved to industrialisation first based on import substitution and then shifting towards export orientation as well as production networks; and have then started to transition towards a knowledge and information based as...

During her first visit to Vanuatu as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), Dame Meg Taylor took some time to chat with Tess Newton Cain for Pacific Conversations. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/regionalism-sub-regionalism-and-womens-empowerment-an-interview-with-dame-meg-taylor-20150308/ Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National Universi...

The Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) was established in 2008, initially as a pilot, then in 2012 as a permanent program, to help meet the labour needs in Australia’s horticultural sector and to provide labour mobility opportunities to Pacific islanders. Despite continuing growth, the SWP remains small in comparison both to the overall number of workers operating in the sectors it covers and to New Ze...

This panel included the following presentations: All talk and no action: has the Pacific regional health architecture improved over the last five years? — Joel Negin, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in International Public Health, The University of Sydney Tertiary scholarships in Pacific Island States: a public policy challenge and emerging responses — Stephen Close, Human Development Spec...

This panel included the following presentations: Understanding conflict, development, and statebuilding: frontier dynamics in central Sulawesi, Indonesia Rachel Diprose, University of Melbourne Drugs and development in the Afghan-Tajik borderlands Jonathan Goodhand, University of Melbourne Anxious integration: development in Sri Lanka’s post-war frontier Bart Klem, University of Melbourne and Thir...

While aid from traditional donors has ebbed and flowed over recent years, countries like India and China, who have been quietly supporting south-south cooperation for more than 50 years, are rapidly scaling up their development assistance. Conservative estimates indicate that non-DAC aid surpasses USD10B per annum and will account for at least USD50B in aid or aid-like flows by 2025. India is at t...

The changing aid landscape has implications both for donors and recipient countries. This panel explores what the new aid landscape means from a partner country perspective. Speakers discussed how the development/aid landscape in their countries has changed over the years with the emergence of new actors and new forms of finance, the opportunities and challenges new modalities and diverse partners...

Kylie Charlton is Managing Director and Co-founder of Unitus Capital. 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 Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram for latest updates on our blogs,...

Drawing on the findings of a multi-decade aid allocation analysis, and of a survey of developing country governments, Robin Davies contests the orthodoxies that the end of aid is night. He foresees a continuing and substantial role for both aid and specialised aid delivery agencies, while arguing for renewed attention to several major aspects of aid effectiveness. Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of...

Tanya Plibersek, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development, delivered the opening address at the 2015 Australasian Aid Conference. 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...

During his recent visit to Canberra, Stephen Howes spoke to Dr Mark Dybul, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/the-future-of-the-global-fund-20150223/ 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 mor...

Tess reached out across the International Date Line to talk with the Premier of Niue, Toke Talagi. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/tourism-regionalism-and-niues-quest-for-self-sustainability-an-interview-with-premier-toke-talagi-20150129/ Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.  Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at d...

Sir Richard Feachem is Director of the Global Health Group at UCSF Global Health Sciences, Professor of Global Health at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. From 2002 to 2007, Sir Richard served as founding Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gabriele Bammer is a Professor at the National Centre for Epid...

Has PNG been able to translate its economic boom into services for ordinary people? Based on research undertaken jointly by the National Research Institute (NRI) and the Development Policy Centre, ANU, the report ‘A lost decade? Service delivery and reforms in Papua New Guinea 2012-2012’ compares two surveys in 2002 and 2012 of some 360 primary schools and health care clinics across the country, f...

The 2014 elections in Solomon Islands brought an intriguing mix of change and continuity. For the first time ever a sitting prime minister lost his seat. Yet the average incumbent survival rate was much higher than usual. The elections were preceded by the passage of legislation designed to promote political parties, and the number of candidates associated with parties increased considerably. Yet...

With the conclusion of the first democratic transition of power in the country’s history and the continuing drawdown of foreign troops, what do the people of Afghanistan think are the most critical issues facing the country? This survey, based on face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of nearly 9,300 Afghan citizens, reveals their views on security, national reconciliation...

Corruption in Papua New Guinea is widely accepted to be a major development challenge. The fight against it was recently bolstered by the introduction of a new anti-corruption taskforce. In 2011 Taskforce Sweep, a multi-agency anti-corruption taskforce, was set up by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to investigate, prosecute and recover the proceeds of crime. The agency was initially successful in rec...

Half of all countries in the world have eliminated malaria, mostly since the Second World War. Ambitious strategies are now being put in place to eradicate human malaria worldwide by 2050 and to eliminate malaria in the Asia Pacific region by 2030. The Asia Pacific goal has recently been discussed at the East Asia Summit in Myanmar. Sir Richard presented the historical progress with malaria elimin...

Tess Newton Cain and Lalotoa Mulitalo, who is a Law Lecturer at the University of the South Pacific, met recently in Vanuatu. This is a recording of their conversation. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/legal-challenges-law-reform-and-legal-education-an-interview-with-lalotoa-mulitalo-201401204/ Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy...

Inequality is on the rise globally and in Australia. The richest 85 people own the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people. World leaders and global economic institutions are increasingly raising the alarm about the risk extreme economic inequality poses to social stability and the strength and sustainability of economic growth itself. While some economic inequality is essential to drive gro...

Joe Nathan is the Prime Minister of Vanuatu. Tess Newton Cain is a Research Associate at the Development Policy Centre. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/political-instability-the-msg-and-regional-politics-an-interview-with-prime-minister-joe-natuman-of-vanuatu-20141113/ Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.  Read and su...