Development Policy Centre Podcast

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.

Tess Newton Cain caught up with the Hon Ralph Regenvanu on Vanuatu’s foreign policy priorities, challenges, and getting through to voters.

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.

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.

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.

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 Fellow at the ANU Department of Pacific Affairs. This was followed by closing remarks by Peter Versegi, First Assistant Secretary of DFAT's Office of Development Effectiveness.

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.

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 Professor at ANU.

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 Policy Centre

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 chaired by Peter Versegi, First Assistant Secretary of the Office of Development Effectiveness, DFAT, and closing comments were provided by Jim Adams, Chair of DFAT's Independent Evaluation Committee.

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. This is followed by comments from Senator Claire Moore, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific; Michael Fryszer, Managing Director of Connect Group; Melissa Denning, Assistant Labour Attache at the Timor-Leste Embassy; and Michel Kerf, World Bank’s Country Director for PNG & the Pacific Islands.

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 decision-making. In this podcast of a seminar, held at ANU on Monday 26 March 2018, he shares insights from his distinguished career combatting labour exploitation and human trafficking in global supply chains, and discusses decent work as a development and counter-trafficking objective.

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 influences her voice. They also discusses PNG’s literary landscape, particularly what the future might hold for literature and publishing in Papua New Guinea.

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 action and financing of the sort the MDBs are well-suited to provide but have been handicapped in doing so effectively. Presenter: Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global Development Discussants: Susan Engel, University of Wollongong Yasuyuki Sawada, Asian Development Bank The 2018 Australasian Aid Conference was 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 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, including the advantages and risks for the sector. This panel presents some of those findings bring together key players to discuss the issues outlined in the think piece, particularly the appropriateness and viability of establishing a joint funding mechanism in the Australian context. Panellists: Kate Sutton, Humanitarian Advisory Group (Chair) Peter Walton, Australian Red Cross Jamie Isbister, DFAT Manisha Thomas, Emergency Appeals Alliance Marc Purcell, ACFID Melissa Gill, The Behaviour Architects The 2018 Australasian Aid Conference was held at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, on 13-14 February, and was or

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 Foundation.

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 and humanitarian organisations have been relatively slow to address the rights and needs of LGBTIQ+ people within their programs. Amongst the challenges is the lack of research to inform program design. Recognising this, the UNDP and The World Bank have called for the creation of a bespoke LGBTI index to sit alongside the SDGs, and a research revolution into LGBTI inclusion based on indicators in development over 2017-2018. Panellists: Stephen Close, DFAT (Chair) Lee Badgett, University of Massachusetts Amherst Gillian Fletcher, La Trobe University Niheer Dasandi, University of Birmingham Emily Dwyer, EdgeEffect Joves

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 13-14 February, and was organised by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with The Asia Foundation.

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 some of the poorest countries of the world. Nick also gives insights into his own life and career, his advocacy efforts, and reflects on the global development agenda as seen from the ground. Some of Nick’s stories will draw on his Revisited 2005-2010-2015 project, which will be exhibited in Canberra at ANU Drill Hall Gallery with the support of the Development Policy Centre from Thursday 15 February to Sunday 8 April 2018.

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, most recently with the launch of the Australian Government’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This panel discussed the concept of health security, how health security investment should be shaped to strengthen public health systems, and how vulnerable communities can help to shape solutions to health security threats. Panellists: Helen Evans, Global Health Alliance Melbourne (Chair) Robin Davies, DFAT Barbara McPake, Nossal Institute for Global Health Amanda McClelland, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [via Skype] Nicholas Thomson, Nossal Institute for Global Health The 2018 Aust