Timor-Leste is one of the most petroleum-export dependent countries in the world. However, oil and gas revenues will end soon, and the Petroleum Fund may only carry the country for another decade. Time is running out for decisions critical to the nation’s future.

Charles Scheiner presents the 2021 economic survey of Timor-Leste, outlining the current economic situation, particularly in relation to the state budget, and the dominance of the Petroleum Fund in state finances. He also looks at future oil and gas possibilities, including Greater Sunrise and the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure project, and argues regardless of the paths Timor-Leste chooses to follow, investing in its people – through education, health and nutrition – is essential.

The presentation is a draft of a forthcoming paper in the Pacific Survey series, published in the Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies journal.


Speaker: 
Charles Scheiner is a researcher at La’o Hamutuk, the Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, an independent, non-partisan, Timorese civil society research organisation. He specialises in the effects of oil and gas extraction, including on economics, governance, environment and revenue management.
 
>> view presentation at https://devpolicy.org/Events/2021/Timor-Leste-2021-economic-survey-10Feb/presentation-Scheiner.pdf

>> view presentation with notes at https://devpolicy.org/Events/2021/Timor-Leste-2021-economic-survey-10Feb/presentation-with-notes-Scheiner.pdf

Chair:
Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University

Photo credit: Charles Scheiner

Timor-Leste: 2021 economic survey

Australian foreign aid has changed considerably in the last 20 years. Dr Terence Wood discusses the findings of a recently published report that examines the changing nature of Australian government aid through the lens of publicly available data on aid flows, which provide evidence of change and allow direct comparisons between Australia and other OECD Development Assistance Committee donors. These comparisons help highlight where Australian aid conforms with international norms of good giving, where Australia lags behind the global community, and where it is a global leader.

Speaker:
Dr Terence Wood is a Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His research focuses on the domestic political economy of aid in donor countries, public opinion about aid, NGOs, aid effectiveness in poorly governed states, and Melanesian electoral politics. 

>> view presentation at https://devpolicy.org/Events/2021/Change-and-continuity-in-Australian-aid-what-the-aid-flows-show-24Feb/presentation-Wood.pdf 

>> view report at https://devpolicy.org/publications/reports/Wood-Dornan-Muller_Change_and_continuity_in_Australian_aid_January-2021-FINAL.pdf 

Chair:
Ashlee Betteridge, Manager,  Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University
 
Photo Credit: DFAT/Timothy Tobing/CC BY 2.0

Change and continuity in Australian aid: what the aid flows show

The Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC) is a major Australian government foreign aid initiative that commenced in 2008, that has spent over $350 million, and that has turned out over 15,000 graduates with Australian qualifications. In a recent Devpolicy Discussion Paper, Richard Curtain and Stephen Howes analyse graduate tracer surveys and show that employment outcomes for APTC graduate job-seekers have worsened over the last decade. This is mainly because of falling demand for the trades and hospitality qualifications APTC has offered since inception. They suggest a more demand-led approach to course selection and a greater focus on promoting international migration opportunities to improve employment outcomes for APTC graduates. In a related Policy Brief they propose that APTC should redirect its labour mobility efforts and focus on the Temporary Skill Shortage visa and those graduates who are eligible to migrate to Australia as skilled workers.

>> view presentation at https://devpolicy.org/Events/2021/Worsening-employment-outcomes-for-Pacific-technical-graduate-job-seekers-and-one-possible-solution-10Mar/PPT-presentation-Curtain-Howes.pdf 

>> view Discussion Paper at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3785672 

>> view Policy Brief at https://devpolicy.org/publications/policy_briefs/PB20-Helping-APTC-trades-graduates-to-migrate-to-Australia-under-the-TSS-Feb-2021.pdf


Speakers:
Dr Richard Curtain is a Research Fellow specialising in Pacific labour mobility at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University.

Professor Stephen Howes is Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

Chair:
Sadhana Sen is Regional Communications Adviser at the Development  Policy Centre, The Australian National University.

 

Photo credit: Flickr/DFAT

Worsening employment outcomes for Pacific technical graduate job-seekers, and one possible solution

On the eve of the 2021–22 Federal Budget, Stephen Howes set out three tests for Australia’s aid budget: Will there be any further increases in aid next year? Will the government sustain any aid increases beyond this year and next? Will the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provide an estimate of this year’s and next year’s Official Development Assistance (ODA)? In this ninth edition of Devpolicy’s aid budget breakfast, he answers those questions, provides analysis on the broader budget context and compares aid and defence spending. He also looks at specific aid updates, including how the Pacific Step-up has been funded, regional and sectoral trends, multilaterals and NGO aid. The analysis finishes with a look at some of the major aid initiatives in response to COVID-19 and Australian aid in the global context over the past decade.

>> view presentation at https://devpolicy.org/Events/2021/2021-aid-budget-breakfast-12May/presentation_Howes.pdf

>> read blog at https://devpolicy.org/2021-aid-budget-blog-20210512/

Speaker:
Professor Stephen Howes is Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
 
Photo credit: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

2021 aid budget breakfast

Helen Clark sat down with Robin Davies on her March 2024 visit to the Australian National University to talk about whether governments and global institutions are ready to change the way they respond to pandemics.

Clark has had a long career in public service as New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and co-chair of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

With this episode, we're relaunching our podcast after a more than two-year hiatus. In this new season, we'll bring you a mix of interviews, event recordings, and more in-depth documentary features relating to the topics we research at the Centre, namely Australia's overseas aid, development in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific, and regional and global development issues.

You can also listen to a public lecture that Helen Clark delivered at the ANU by visiting our sister Crawford School of Public Policy podcast, Policy Forum Pod.

Helen Clark will return to Australia to address the 2024 World Health Summit Regional Meeting, which will be held in Melbourne from 22 to 24 April 2024.

Can the world’s governments agree on a better framework for pandemic response?

Few would argue that a country’s development trajectory is not crucially influenced by its government’s ability to manage public resources. The stability of the economy, the delivery of basic services such as education and health - even the legitimacy of the state itself - all greatly depend on effective and equitable public finance management. In fragile and conflict-affected states, public finance reforms have been high on the agenda for both donors and governments alike -- and a key part of the picture has been how aid is delivered and managed. But what kinds of reforms and what kind of instruments have proved the most successful? And how can the international community best support the governments of fragile states?

This seminar will explore these questions from the perspectives of both research and practice. Marcus Manuel and Alastair McKechnie will talk on the lessons emerging from ODI’s Budgets Strengthening Initiative, a project which provides ‘arms-length’ support to the governments of fragile states to build better budgets through a team of international experts and in-country advisors. Edward Hedger will present the findings of a major Overseas Development Institute (ODI)/World Bank study into public finance reforms in post-conflict countries.

This seminar was presented by the Development Policy Centre at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. The seminar was moderated by Crawford School Senior Lecturer and Devpolicy Research Associate Bjoern Dressel.

Presentation slides are available from the Devpolicy events page: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/event-extra/past

Public expenditure and financial management in fragile states

Tess Newton Cain sits down with Katy Leroy, a constitutional lawyer who has lived on Nauru for seven years. Until very recently she was Parliamentary Counsel for Nauru with responsibility for drafting legislation and advising the Speaker of Parliament and parliamentary committees.

A full transcript of the interview is available here: http://devpolicy.org/pacific-conversations/6.%20Transcript%20of%20interview%20with%20Katy%20Le%20Roy.docx

Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/nauru-politics-asylum-seekers-more-20130920/

Pacific Conversations with Katy Le Roy

Tess Newton Cain sits down with Kolone Vaai, Principal Consultant at KVAConsult Ltd and former Financial Secretary for the Government of Samoa (1984-1990).

Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/pacific-conversations-the-economy-of-samoa-with-kolone-vaai-20140122/

Pacific conversations with Kolone Vaai

Roger Ridell is an associate at Oxford Policy Management and is a development and aid specialist with some 40 years’ experience. His 2008 book Does Foreign Aid Really Work? was the first attempt in more than 20 years to survey the evidence around whether aid actually works. Roger’s keynote address provided an updated assessment on aid’s impact, discussed what impact we ought to expect aid to have and outlined ways in which its impact could be improved.

A summary blog of his speech, which includes links to a full transcript and related discussion paper, is available here: http://devpolicy.org/does-foreign-aid-really-work-an-updated-answer-20140214/

2014 AAIDP Workshop - Roger Riddell - Does aid really work?

Tess Newton Cain and Amanda Donigi, publisher of Stella magazine, met recently in Vanuatu. This is a recording of their conversation.

Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/telling-stories-of-and-for-melanesian-women-an-interview-with-amanda-donigi-20140910/ 

Telling stories of and for Melanesian women: an interview with Amanda Donigi

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/ 

Political instability, the MSG and regional politics – an interview with PM Joe Natuman of Vanuatu

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/ 

Legal challenges, law reform and legal education – an interview with Lalotoa Mulitalo

Dr Linda Van Leeuwen is a Capacity Building Specialist for Anitua, a landholder company based on the island of Lihir in Papua New Guinea that provides a wide range of services to resource companies. She also heads their corporate social responsibility work, predominantly focused on eliminating violence against women (EVAW). Linda has also been involved heavily with the PNG Business Coalition for Women, as a founding board member and chair of its addressing violence working group.

During her recent visit to Australia as part of the ANZ PNG gender parity symposium, Linda discussed with Ashlee Betteridge the challenge of gender violence for businesses operating in Papua New Guinea, and the steps that businesses, particularly in the resource sector, could take to assist their staff and wider communities. 

Gender-based violence and PNG business: a conversation with Linda Van Leeuwen

Vincent Bernard is the Geneva-based head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Forum for Law and Policy, and Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of the Red Cross. During his recent visit to Canberra as part of the ICRC’s global cycle on the principles guiding humanitarian action, Vincent sat down with Camilla Burkot to discuss the militarisation of aid and the role of humanitarian actors in contemporary conflicts.

Humanitarian principles amid the militarisation of aid: an interview with Vincent Bernard

In this installment of Pacific Conversations, Tess Newton Cain interviews Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi about green growth, activism & Pacific regionalism. Fe'i Tevi is a Port Vila-based sustainable development consultant with experience in diplomacy, international relations and civil society activism and advocacy.

Pacific Conversations - interview with Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi

In a keynote address at the 2016 PNG Update (held at the University of Papua New Guinea, November 3-4), Professor Betty Lovai, Dean of the UPNG School of Humanities and Social Science, discussed the challenges and barriers facing Papua New Guinean women leaders.

You can find a transcript of Prof Lovai's presentation, and more information about the conference, here: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-and-pacific-updates/png-update

Development Policy Centre

Betty Lovai Keynote - Women in Leadership - 2016 PNG Update

Disaster risk reduction, and its interface with climate risk management and adaptation, is a topic of increasing interest in international development, particularly for those working in the Pacific. Robert Glasser is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction in the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, otherwise known as UNISDR. Camilla Burkot spoke with Robert about developments in disaster risk reduction globally and in the Pacific, links between disaster and climate risk, and the role that UNISDR plays.

From managing disasters to managing disaster risk: an interview with Robert Glasser

For generations of young Australians with a passion for social justice, volunteering in developing or indigenous communities has been a rite of passage. Bill Armstrong has been deeply involved in this movement since the 1960s, working with organisations such as the Overseas Service Bureau (now Australian Volunteers International), and Indigenous Community Volunteers. Robin Davies discussed his work in an interview for our Aid Profiles series.

View the story here: http://devpolicy.org/aidprofiles/2016/12/12/bill-armstrong-volunteering-with-attitude/

Robin Davies interviews Bill Armstrong

The independent Tax Review Committee (TRC) established by the Government of PNG recently completed a comprehensive review of the country’s tax system involving extensive and transparent stakeholder consultation over the course of two years. This culminated in two volumes of reports (inclusive of significant economic and tax reform recommendations) which were formally presented to the PNG Government in November, 2015.

The final report highlighted the high risks of PNG’s overdependence on the extractive sector and its vulnerability to the cyclical vagaries of global commodities pricing and recommended a ‘paradigm shift’ in the governance, management and stimulation of sustainable economic development. PNG’s vulnerability has become pronounced in recent months with the sudden drop in the oil price resulting in fiscal distress, lack of foreign exchange, and economic slowdown.

PNG is at a precarious crossroads and tax reform provides an opportunity for a strategic transformation. The report provides some realistic and practical policy, legal, institutional, and structural reforms to mitigate economic risk and vulnerability by diversifying the economic base to more sustainable sectors like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism.

Sir Nagora Bogan, KBE, is Chancellor of the University of Technology, Chairman of the Papua New Guinea Tax panel of experts. He began his career with the PNG Taxation Office and during the 1980s and 1990s took a leading role in modernising tax administration in PNG. From 1991-1995, he was non-salaried Chairman of the London-based Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators and from 1996 to 2002 Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to the United States of America with concurrent accreditation as Ambassador to Mexico and High Commissioner to Canada. He served as Chairman of the Nambawan Super Fund Limited for more than a decade and is a director or board member of a number of PNG and regional corporations.

The seminar was presented as part of the Development Policy Centre’s PNG Project, which receives funding from the Australian Aid Program through the Pacific Governance and Leadership Precinct.

Economic diversification and tax reform in Papua New Guinea - Sir Nagora Bogan Podcast

In this podcast, you'll hear a discussion forum, jointly organised by the Development Policy Centre and the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE), which is the latest in a series on the evaluation of Australian aid.

The event focuses on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT)new aid evaluation policy and two recent evaluations.

Recently, DFAT has overhauled its approach to evaluation, with a new Aid Evaluation Policy and, for the first time, an Annual Aid Evaluation Plan - both available on the ODE website. The Head of ODE will explain what these mean, and what difference they will make.

The $336 million, ten-year Eastern Indonesia Roads Improvement Program was one of Australia's largest ever aid projects, and one of the most successful. This recent ODE evaluation assesses its results, and draws out the lessons for aid-funded infrastructure programs elsewhere.

Remote service delivery in PNG is always a challenge. But a recent evaluation of remote health patrols run by Australian Doctors International (ADI) in New Ireland from 2011 to 2015 suggests that this is a model that works. Hear from the evaluator on her findings, and from the ADI Chief Executive Officer on how ADI is responding.

ODE is an operationally independent unit within DFAT that measures and reports on the effectiveness of the Australian aid program.

Australian aid evaluations: new aid evaluation policy, Indonesia roads and PNG health

In this talk Professor Fforde will discuss how risk and uncertainty are best coped with in development practice. In doing this, he will examine the theories of change that underpin aid practitioners’ use of tools such as the logical framework approach. He will contend that in many situations we should explore methods of devising policy and organising practice that formally assume context is unpredictable and unsuited to tools like the logical framework approach. He will argue that aid work can often benefit from reconsidering the theories of change it draws upon.

Professor Adam Fforde is Professorial Fellow, Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University. He has a long career in development practice and research. His forthcoming book is Reinventing ‘development’ – the sceptical change agent.

Coping with high risk and uncertainty in aid policy design and practice - Adam Fforde

In 1938 three Australian patrol officers – Jim Taylor, John Black and Pat Walsh – set off on an epic journey into the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Their purpose: to make contact with highland tribes who until then, had no contact with the outside world, and to explain to them that their lives were about to undergo incredible change.

Fifty years later, Jim’s daughter Meg retraced her father’s steps and met people who remembered the day the patrol arrived. Meg’s observations are combined with excerpts from her father’s journal to provide a personal and poetic narrative about an extraordinary meeting of cultures. [extract from In My Father’s Footsteps]

Dame Meg Taylor is a Papua New Guinean lawyer and diplomat. She studied at the University of PNG, received her LLB from Melbourne University and her LLM from Harvard University. She practiced law with the Office of the Public Solicitor and in the private sector, and served as a member of the Law Reform Commission of PNG. She was Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada in Washington, DC and then worked at the World Bank Group for 15 years. In August 2014, she was appointed Secretary General to the Pacific Islands Forum. Dame Meg is also Pacific Ocean Commissioner.

This podcast features the Q&A session that preceded a film screening of Dame Meg's documentary, 'My father, my country', on 22 June. The screening was presented as part of the Development Policy Centre’s PNG Project, which receives funding from the Australian Aid Program through the Pacific Governance and Leadership Precinct.

My Father, My country - Q & A session of documentary screening with Dame Meg Taylor

The Australian aid program faces a fundamental dilemma: how, in the absence of deep popular support, should it generate the political legitimacy required to safeguard its budget and administering institutions?

A new book by Jack Corbett entitled 'Australia’s Foreign Aid Dilemma: Humanitarian Aspirations Confront Democratic Legitimacy', tells the story of the actors who have grappled with this question over 40 years. It draws on extensive interviews and archival material to uncover how ‘court politics’ shapes both aid policy and administration. The lesson for scholars and practitioners is that any holistic understanding of the development enterprise must account for the complex relationship between the aid program of individual governments and the domestic political and bureaucratic contexts in which it is embedded. If the way funding is administered shapes development outcomes, then understanding the ‘court politics’ of aid matters.

In this podcast and subsequent Q&A of the Canberra book launch, author Jack Corbett discusses the book. Michael Wesley, Professor of International Affairs and Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, provides opening comments and launches the book. Stephen Howes chairs the session.

Jack Corbett is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Southampton, UK; Honorary Associate Professor at The Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs; and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia.

He is the author of Being Political Leadership and Democracy in the Pacific Islands (2015, University of Hawaii Press); Australia’s Foreign Aid Dilemma: Humanitarian Aspirations Confront Democratic Legitimacy (2017, Routledge); and with Wouter Veenendaal, Democracy in Small States: Why It Can Persist Against the Odds (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).

Australia's foreign aid dilemma - Jack Corbett

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

Pacific regionalism, climate finance, women in politics: in conversation with Hon Ralph Regenvanu

Tess Newton Cain interviews Yasmine Bjornum, an activist for women's rights and empowerment in Vanuatu. They discussed Yasmine's background and journey thus far, including Sista, an online platform that provides content that aims to raise the visibility of women and their achievements in Vanuatu's society and economy.

Navigating feminism and amplifying women’s voices in Vanuatu: in conversation with Yasmine Bjornum

Family is the basic foundation for social and economic development across the world, and particularly in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, this foundation is often challenged by family and sexual violence (FSV). In order to support policymaking that fosters healthy, safe and secure families, research was conducted in Lae in 2018 and 2019 to better understand men’s and women’s perspectives of FSV. 

Joshua Goa and Dunstan Lawihin of the University of Papua New Guinea discuss the research findings including men’s perspectives of the effects of FSV on their families; how men’s and women’s access and responses to recently established services and laws differ; men’s roles in addressing FSV and its effects on school children; and the strategies men have used for a harmonious home.

The discussion is introduced by research project members Miranda Forsyth, Associate Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at The Australian National University, and Dora Kuir-Ayius, Lecturer in social work at the University of Papua New Guinea.

>> Download the slides at: https://devpolicy.org/Events/2019/FSV-in-Lae-12-Nov/Mens-perspective-on-FSV.pdf 
 
Joshua Goa is a Tutor at the University of Papua New Guinea Social Work Strand. 

Dunstan Lawihin is a Lecturer in Social Work and Coordinator of Field Education at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Men’s perspectives on addressing family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea

In 2019 the Nobel prize for economics went to three economists who have promoted the use and importance of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) in development economics and interventions. But how useful are RCTs in the real world of development assistance? And what more generally needs to be done to improve the quality and impact of impact evaluations, and to promote learning in aid?

Panellists:
The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Member for Fenner, ACT
Dr Lant Pritchett, Research Director, RISE Programme; Fellow, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University
Dr Jyotsna Puri, Head, Independent Evaluation Unit, Green Climate Fund
Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, ANU (Chair)

2020 Australasian AID Conference - Keynote panel: Debating RCTs and impact evaluation

The language and theory of ‘aid’ is outdated. But something like it is still needed as the world faces huge common challenges, new and old. In this keynote address, Jonathan Glennie sets out a new approach for the 21st century: global public investment. He proposes five paradigm shifts for the future of concessional international public finance, as the world of international development moves on from an old-fashioned ‘aid’ mentality.

Keynote speaker:

Jonathan Glennie, Principal Associate at the Joep Lange Institute, and writer and researcher on poverty and human rights 

Chair:

Elizabeth Peak, First Assistant Secretary, Human Development and Governance Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Introduced by: 

Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University

2020 Australasian AID Conference - Keynote address: The future of aid in the 21st century

In the Pacific over the past three decades, women’s domestic violence services have led advocacy for policy for increased gender equality, women’s human rights and in engaging men and boys as allies and advocates in prevention of violence against women. In partnership with regional governments, development partners and Australia’s aid and development resources, this model has provided agency, leadership and generated a significant shift towards building support and a more strategic approach. This panel of experts discuss their views on how best to engage men and boys for primary prevention of violence against women.

Panellists: 

Melkie Anton, male advocate for ending violence against women and development project adviser

Abigail Erikson, Program Specialist, UN Women 

Amy Gildea, Managing Director Asia and Pacific, Coffey International Development 

H.E. John Kali CMG OBE, High Commissioner for Papua New Guinea to Australia

Chair: 

Glenn Davies, Director, Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Asia and Pacific, Coffey International Development

2020 Australasian AID Conference - Panel 5a: Working with men and boys to end violence against women

Diplomacy, aid, development and foreign policy intersect in this panel event that explores the role of diplomatic engagement in reducing violent conflict, a feminist approach to foreign policy, food aid and the expansion of Australia's foreign aid program, and the challenges associated with balanced public reporting on aid program performance.  

Presenters:

‘Security through sustainable peace’ (at 2:50 in)
Professor John Langmore AM, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Dr Tania Miletic, Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Government, University of Melbourne 

‘Feminist foreign policy: a new approach for a new era’ (at 15:38 in) 
Joanna Pradela, Director, Knowledge Translation, International Women's Development Agency (IWDA), and Alice Ridge, Research Policy and Advocacy Adviser, IWDA 

‘‘‘Send them a shipload of rice’’: Food aid and Australia-Indonesia bilateral relations, 1960s–70s’ (at 29:35 in)
Dr Pierre van der Eng, Associate Professor, Research School of Management, The Australian National University

‘Where’s the dirty laundry? DFAT APPRs and the public diplomacy imperative’ (at 44:24 in)
Dave Green, Principal Consultant, Clear Horizon and Kaisha Crupi, Consultant, Clear Horizon

Chair: 
Professor Caitlin Byrne, Director of the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University


Presentation slides can be found at: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/annual-australasian-aid-conference/2020/abstracts

2020 Australasian AID Conference - Panel 5b: Australian aid and foreign policy

It is time to fundamentally reframe the research agenda on migration, remittances, payments and development. Many policymakers in the developing world, and researchers, tend to view migrant remittances as windfall income, rather than as returns on investment, which is how families with migrants tend to see remittances. Migration is thus, among other things, a strategy for financial management in poor households: location is an asset, migration an investment.

Some of the most basic questions about remittances and their effects remain inadequately answered, in part because of a blinded research agenda. Asking better questions is a step towards better policies, programs and regulations and, above all, to enable people on low incomes to improve their lives.

In this webinar, based on the article “Migration and household finances: How a different framing can improve thinking about migration”, Timothy Ogden discusses some of the new and alternative research questions that emerge from the shift of perspective on remittances – from windfall to return on investment.

Speaker:
Timothy Ogden is Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative, a research centre housed at New York University’s (NYU) Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service focused on how financial services can better meet the needs and improve the lives of low-income households.

>> View presentation at: https://devpolicy.org/Events/2020/Migration_and_Household_Finance_10_June/Slides.pdf

Chair:
Dr Ryan Edwards, Deputy Director, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University


Photo credit: AU/UN Ist Photo/Stuart Price (Flickr CC0 1.0)

Migration and household finances: How a different framing can improve thinking about migration

Historically, Australia has lacked a coherent policy to attract immigrants with less extensive formal training and education, despite the needs of its ageing population and labour market. 

The Center for Global Development has recently concluded a project with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has produced two papers. Michael Clemens outlines the findings of the first paper, which estimates the demand for vocational workers in Australia by 2050 will exceed native supply by over two million. While there will be ample skilled labour available within Pacific Island countries, facilitating this movement in a managed way that maximises the development potential of migration will be key. To that end, Satish Chand discusses the second paper, which proposes the development of a ‘Pacific Skills Partnership’, a model that would facilitate skills creation across 14 low-income Pacific Island countries, with the greatest development potential lying in Papua New Guinea.

Speakers:

Michael Clemens is Director of Migration, Displacement, and Humanitarian Policy and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he studies the economic effects and causes of migration around the world. 

>> Related paper:  Skill Development and Regional Mobility: Lessons from the Australia-Pacific Technical College – Working Paper 370

Satish Chand is a Professor of Finance in the School of Business at the University of New South Wales and based at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. His research interests include labour migration, fragile states, and the challenges of development.

>> View presentation at: https://devpolicy.org/Events/2020/How_to_meet_Australian_demand_for_Pacific_foreign_vocational_workers_12Aug/slides_SC.pdf

>> Related paper: A Pacific Skills Partnership: Improving the APTC to Meet Skills Needed in the Region

Chair:
Dr Ryan Edwards, Deputy Director, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University

Photo: Hohola Youth Development Centre, PNG (DFAT/Flickr CC BY 2.0)

How to meet Australian demand for Pacific foreign vocational workers

The economic costs of COVID-19 continue to mount, globally and in the Pacific. But what is the damage in the Pacific, and how are Pacific governments responding? In this webinar, panellists explore the economic damage caused by COVID-19 and the responses Pacific governments are taking. Professor Stephen Howes presents an overview based on the Pacific Covid Economic Database compiled by the Development Policy Centre. Dr Jenny Gordon, Chief Economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, assesses pathways to recovery post COVID-19 in Pacific Island economies. Dr Neelesh Gounder and Maholopa Laveil present their perspectives on Fiji and PNG, respectively.

Panellists:

Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University

Dr Jenny Gordon, Chief Economist, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Dr Neelesh Gounder, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of the South Pacific

Maholopa Laveil, Lecturer in Economics, University of Papua New Guinea

Chair:
Sadhana Sen, Regional Media Adviser, Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University
 
>> View Pacific Covid Economic Database and the presentation slides at: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/pacific-research-program/pacific-covid-economic-database
 
Photo credit: Gail Hampshire on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

COVID-19: Economic costs and responses in the Pacific

The Development Policy Centre is a think tank for aid and development policy based at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University. We undertake independent research and promote practical initiatives to improve the effectiveness of Australian aid, to support the development of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island region, and to contribute to better global development policy. 

Our events are a forum for the dissemination of findings and the exchange of new ideas. You can access audio recordings of our events through this podcast, as well as interviews from the Devpolicy Blog (www.devpolicy.org).

Development Policy Centre

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