Development Policy Centre Podcast

The Opening Session from the 2015 Pacific Update, held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, in July. More details: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/pacific-update

Emeritus Professor Ron Duncan presents a keynote address on 'Drivers of Growth Spurts in Pacific Island Economies' at the 2015 Pacific Update, held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, in July.

Christopher Edmonds of the Asian Development Bank presents the Pacific economic outlook at the 2015 Pacific Update, held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, in July.

2015 PNG Update: Welcome addresses by Professor Albert Mellum and Professor Veronica Taylor, and Inaugural Address by Her Excellency Deborah Stokes, Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea.

2015 PNG Update - Keynote Address by Dr Gae Kauzi, Assistant Governor, Bank of Papua New Guinea. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea. More details: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

2015 PNG Update: Keynote Address by Dr Glenn Banks, Associate Professor, Massey University on the topic of 'From wealth to wellbeing: translating resource revenue into sustainable human development'. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea. More details: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

2015 PNG Update: Opening Address by the Hon James Marape, Finance Minister, Government of Papua New Guinea. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea. More details: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

Presentation of the Survey of Recent Developments by Michael Cornish, Rohan Fox, Win Nicholas, Albert Prabhakar and Ani Rova of the Economics Division, UPNG, and Stephen Howes, Development Policy Centre, ANU. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea.

2015 PNG Update - Keynote Address by Jim Adams, former Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, World Bank, on the topic of 'Lessons from reform in Africa and Asia'. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea. More details, including a transcript of this speech, available here: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

PNG Update 2015 - Keynote Address by Mr Michael Uiari, General Manager, Oil Search Ltd. Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business Administration and the ANU Development Policy Centre, the 2015 PNG Update was held in Port Moresby on June 18-19 2015, at the Main Lecture Theatre at the University of Papua New Guinea. More details: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

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 be protected, or savaged? Which sectors will be cut? Will humanitarian aid again be compressed? On Wednesday 13 May, experts delivered detailed analysis and commentary during the third Development Policy Centre 2015 Aid Budget Breakfast. Speakers included: Prof Stephen Howes Director of the Development Policy Centre, and colleagues, who discussed aid volumes, allocations and policies. Dr Anthony Swan Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre, who analysed the macro and fiscal context of the budget. Dr Julia Newton-Howes AM CEO of CARE Australia, and Ms Jacqui de Lacy, General Manager for Global Strategy at Ab

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 ODE and the Chair of the ODE’s Independent Evaluation Committee. Speakers included: Mr Jim Adams Chair of DFAT’s Independent Evaluation Committee and former World Bank Vice President. Mr Scott Dawson First Assistant Secretary, Contracting and Aid Management Division, DFAT. Mr Simon Ernst Office of Development Effectiveness, DFAT. Professor Stephen Howes Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. Mr Jamie Isbister Acting First Assistant Secretary of the Humanitarian Division, DFAT. Dr Karen Ovington Assistant Director for the Office of Development Effect

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 ODE and the Chair of the ODE’s Independent Evaluation Committee. Speakers included: Mr Jim Adams Chair of DFAT’s Independent Evaluation Committee and former World Bank Vice President. Mr Scott Dawson First Assistant Secretary, Contracting and Aid Management Division, DFAT. Mr Simon Ernst Office of Development Effectiveness, DFAT. Professor Stephen Howes Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. Mr Jamie Isbister Acting First Assistant Secretary of the Humanitarian Division, DFAT. Dr Karen Ovington Assistant Director for the Office of Development Effect

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 Rohan Sweeney spoke to a paper in which he analysed a unique dataset of health‐aid recipient countries over 1990‐2011 to investigate the impact of the implementation of SWAps on infant mortality rates. Mr Sweeney discussed his findings, in particular evidence suggesting that SWAp implementation facilitated about a 7 per cent reduction in infant mortality rates compared to the counterfactual. However, it has taken time for SWAps to mature before health impacts have been realised. Mr Rohan Sweeney is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics, Monash University. He has a particular interest in health economics

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 well as a more services oriented economy. The ‘new economy’ continues to evolve beyond knowledge and information based sectors; the fourth wave of change is known as the creative economy. At the same time developing countries are facing external and globalisation challenges. Technology disruptions have led to greater interdependence and changing models of international business engagement. Just what can be transacted and exchanged between countries in today’s context is so vastly different from the situation just a decade ago. How has a country like Indonesia developed over the course of these different phases of dev

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/

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 Zealand’s equivalent Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme. For the SWP, the binding constraint remains low employer demand. Why aren’t more employers demanding SWP workers? And what reforms would increase employer demand? Jesse Doyle from The World Bank and Stephen Howes from ANU presented findings from a joint World Bank-ANU survey undertaken in 2014 of employers and industry associations across the Australian horticulture industry, and it was followed by a panel discussion with stakeholders involved with seasonal migration. Mr Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific, chaired this publ

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 Specialist, World Bank Trends in aid to the Pacific islands: Budget support, conditionality and effectiveness — Matthew Dornan and Jonathan Pryke, The Development Policy Centre

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 Thiruni Kelegama, University of Zurich

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 the forefront of this sea change. India’s commitment to south- south cooperation has its historical roots in the Non Aligned Movement which provided an instrument through which national governments could assert their sovereignty and that of others outside of the cold war power blocs. Today this soft power tool of Indian foreign policy is supporting the development of its neighbours and friends including Afghanistan, Myanmar, and increasingly partners in Africa. This panel explores the evolution and contemporary influence of India’s soft power in development cooperation and its impact on the global dynamics of aid.