The Readout

Aid is not development. Dame Meg Taylor, former Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, argues that most aid to the Pacific “comes in, it’s filtered through the system, and then it goes back to Australia”. According to Meg, Australia needs to change the way it does aid to ensure transparency and effectiveness. Read Dame Meg Taylor and Soli Middleby’s “Aid is not Development: Th...

Welcome to the latest series of the Readout. The Readout is the Development Intelligence Lab's podcast hosted by CEO Bridi Rice. Each episode, you'll meet one development leader, hear their big idea and discover how it can shape the future of Australian development assistance. The show features Australian and international development leaders at the top of their fields. Visit the Development Intel...

Welcome to episode five of the latest Readout series. In this episode, the Lab’s CEO, Bridi Rice, sits down again with Jo Choe and James Gilling. The group discuss recent development headlines: staffing moves at DFAT including Ambassadorial appointments and bureaucratic shuffles of Rod Brazier, Elizabeth Peak and Ewen McDonald, reactions to the recent visit by the Indonesian President , Joko Widod...

Welcome to episode four of the latest Readout series. In this episode, The Development Intelligence Lab’s CEO, Bridi Rice, chats virtually with Jo Choe and James Gilling about recent development news. The trio unpack recent headlines: the Foreign Minister’s announcement of an increase in humanitarian aid to Sudan; the release of Overseas Development Institute's new Principled Aid Index ; and Japan...

Welcome to episode three of the latest Readout series. In this episode, Bridi again sits down with Jo Choe and James Gilling to chat about the development debates that have surfaced in the past few weeks. The group discuss Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's speech in Singapore at the International Institute for Strategic Studies earlier this month, where he talked about Australia's commitment to th...

Jo Choe and James Gilling return to discuss the Biden no-show, "all tools of statecraft", and the need for effective country planning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our new series of The Readout, we sit down with long-time friends of The Lab, Jo Choe and James Gilling to discuss budget, capability and the imminent development policy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our one-off special episode of The Readout. Recent events have put aid, China and the Indo-Pacific squarely on the map for many Australians. So there was no better a time for The Lab to host Anka Lee, USAID’s acting Deputy Assistant Administrator and Senior Advisor for the PRC, at our Situation Room just last week. He was in Australia on behalf of USAID who are creating a policy on coun...

Welcome to Part Five of our Democracy Series, with Blake Chrystal ( USAID ).   We’ve heard a lot about the different approaches of the US compared with Australia. So how does the US go about democracy promotion?   Series host Bridi Rice shares her conversations with Blake, including what’s on the agenda for USAID as they look to the future.   Want to learn more? Find our essay publi...

Welcome to Part Four of our Democracy Series, with Dr Nicola Nixon and Peter Yates ( The Asia Foundation ).   What exactly does ‘democracy promotion’ mean in real terms? How do practitioners approach the work? And critically – what’s the challenge with adopting a US-style approach to the issue?   Series host Bridi Rice shares her conversations with Nicola and Peter, where she gets stuck...

Welcome to Part Three of our Democracy Series, with Professor John Blaxland ( Australian National University ).   So we’ve heard why governance support is critical for prosperity in the region. But just how seriously should Australia take this? According to one of Australia’s top security experts – very .   Series host Bridi Rice shares her conversations with John, where she learns that...

Welcome to Part Two of our Democracy Series, with Serena Sasingian (The Voice).   To learn more about the state of democracy, and what the Summit will mean for the region, let’s start where we should – with a Pacific perspective.   Series host Bridi Rice shares what she’s learnt from her conversations with Serena – including how a particular speech at APEC in 2018 paints an interesting p...

Welcome to Part One of our Democracy Series, with Richard Maude ( Asia Society ) and Bryce Wakefield ( Australian Institute for International Affairs ).   President Biden has just held the first Summit for Democracy. What will it mean for the Indo-Pacific? Before we dive into the complexities for our region, let’s find out what happened at the Summit.   Series host Bridi Rice speaks to B...

We’re stoked to introduce the first series of the Readout: Democracy. Hosted by Lab CEO Bridi Rice, this short series takes you behind the scenes of our latest project, investigating what US President Biden’s Summit for Democracy will mean for the Indo-Pacific. Nationalism, populism, political polarisation and identity politics are challenging liberalism and institutions in democracies w...

The Readout is a podcast hosted by the Development Intelligence Lab. At the Lab, we’re tackling the big issues of development cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. We take one gnarly issue at a time, gather the best of the best from the region, Government, and academia, and dive deep to unpack the issue – and find the way forward. And our favourite part of these projects is the conversations we have al...