Development Policy Centre Podcast

Tess Newton Cain sits down with Colin Tukuitonga the new Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/what-does-the-future-hold-for-spc-an-interview-with-colin-tukuitonga-20140320/

Paul Brockmann is the outgoing Head of Mission for Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) in Papua New Guinea, focusing on providing medical and psychosocial care for survivors of family and sexual violence. Ashlee Betteridge caught up with Paul during his recent visit to Canberra to discuss MSF’s work in PNG and the challenges facing the health sector more broadly. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/pngs-violence-epidemic-and-the-medical-response-in-conversation-with-msfs-paul-brockmann-20140402/

In recent months, the Office of Development Effectiveness, the unit within DFAT that’s responsible for the evaluation of Australia’s aid program, has released three important reports. One is its evaluation of the Australian aid volunteer program. The other are two reports on aid program quality: its review of aid program performance reports, and its Lessons from Australian Aid report. As in past years, the Development Policy Centre hosted a forum to discuss and debate these reports. Presenters included the main authors of the reports and external discussants. Jim Adams, Chair of the Independent Evaluation Committee, was invited to close the forum. Part 2 includes the panel discussion on aid quality and the wrap-up from Jim Adams, Chair of the Independent Evaluation Committee, DFAT.

In recent months, the Office of Development Effectiveness, the unit within DFAT that’s responsible for the evaluation of Australia’s aid program, has released three important reports. One is its evaluation of the Australian aid volunteer program. The other are two reports on aid program quality: its review of aid program performance reports, and its Lessons from Australian Aid report. As in past years, the Development Policy Centre hosted a forum to discuss and debate these reports. Presenters included the main authors of the reports and external discussants. Jim Adams, Chair of the Independent Evaluation Committee, was invited to close the forum. Part 1 includes an introduction from the head of ODE, Dereck Rooken-Smith and the panel discussion on the volunteers evaluation.

A part of the 2014 Asia and the Pacific Policy Society Conference 2014 organised by the Development Policy Centre on infrastructure reforms. Presentations were: The political economy of utility regulation: the case of Vanuatu - James Ryan, Chief Economist, Utilities Regulatory Authority of Vanuatu The Asian experience with energy subsidies and reform - Dr Shikha Jha, Principal Economist, Economics and Research Department, Asian Development Bank Road infrastructure maintenance: lessons from Africa and the Pacific - Sanjivi Rajasingham, Director, Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility

Over 20 per cent of people in Pacific Island Countries (PICS) live in hardship, meaning they are unable to meet their basic needs. Increasing risks from natural and economic shocks also mean many traditional safety nets may not be as effective as they have been in the past. Two new reports shed light on these issues both in the Pacific and worldwide, the World Development Report for 2014, Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development and a new World Bank report, sponsored by the Australian aid program, Hardship and Vulnerability in the Pacific. At the Australian launch of both reports we found out the latest thinking on risk and risk management both worldwide and in our region. Kyla Wethli is a World Bank economist and a lead author of the World Bank flagship World Development Report 2014, Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development. Kyla has a BSc in Government and Economics and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr Truman Packard holds a PhD in Econo

Serena Sumanop is the Executive Director of The Voice Inc, a home-grown Papua New Guinean NGO working to empower young people to contribute to their communities and to development. During her recent visit to Canberra Ashlee Betteridge caught up with Serena to talk about PNG.

Tess Newton Cain sits down with Astrid Boulekone, General Manager of the Vanuatu Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Blog available here: http://devpolicy.org/pacific-conversations-private-sector-development-in-vanuatu-with-astrid-boulekone-20140306/

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is the Founder and Chairperson of BRAC, the world's largest NGO.

Frances Seymour is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development based in Washington, DC, and a Senior Advisor to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In her keynote address, she argued that, while reducing forest loss will depend on domestic political will and profound institutional and governance changes in forest countries, there are also options available to rich country governments, corporations, and citizens to accelerate progressive reform. The actions she outlined and recommended are urgent, affordable, and politically feasible, and constitute a bridge to a future global climate agreement that includes forests.

This plenary session provided updates and new analysis of aid from three emerging superpowers – China, India and Brazil – from three leading experts. Dr. Rani Mullen is Director, Indian Development Cooperation Research and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. Dr. Tongquan Sun is an Associate Professor at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) where he researches Chinese and international development assistance. Dr Sean Burges is a Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Politics and International Relations at the ANU. His research interests cover the area of non-traditional aid, with a particular focus on Brazil. Powerpoint slides are available here: https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/australasian-aid-and-international-development-policy-workshop/abstracts-presentations-and-papers

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/

Julie Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs, delivered the opening address at the 2014 Australasian Aid and Development Policy Workshop. A transcript of her speech is available here: http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/2014/jb_sp_140213.html

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/

In July and August 2013 the Development Policy Centre surveyed 356 stakeholders in the Australian aid program, from the senior executives of Australia’s biggest NGOs and development contracting companies, to the officials of multilateral, partner government and Australian government agencies. The survey asked them what they thought about the Australian aid program, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they thought the future of aid was and what needed to be done to improve our aid. And now the verdict is in. This even launched the results of the 2013 Australian aid stakeholder survey. It’s a unique exercise, with a distinctive set of results. More than a baseline for future improvements, it’s a stocktake on where Australian aid has got to, and a critical input into where it needs to go. The event will tackle questions such as: Is our aid getting better or worse? How do we compare to other donors? What is our biggest strength, and what’s the biggest weakness? How important is the national interest in

As troops withdraw and aid declines, this is a critical period of transition for Afghanistan. At this forum, the speakers questioned what has been achieved to date. The event also included the Australia launch of The Asia Foundation’s Survey of the Afghan People 2013. This is the biggest public opinion poll in Afghanistan, covering all 34 provinces. Through face-to-face interviews, over 9,000 Afghan citizens revealed their opinions on security, political participation, the economy, women’s rights, and development. The forum also scrutinised the 2013 report of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on Australia’s overseas development programs in Afghanistan. This critical report found that while Afghanistan ‘remains in need of substantial and continuing aid,’ to date, Australian achievements in Afghanistan may not be as substantial as initial indicators suggest. Speakers include: Mark Kryzer, Afghanistan Country Representative, The Asia Foundation Palwasha Kakar, Director of the Afg

Ashlee Betteridge sits down with Daisy Plana to discuss her new role as the Senior Social Worker and first CEO of the PNG Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre (CMC).The CMC is a newly registered NGO, currently in the set-up phase. Blog available here: http://devpolicy.org/moving-beyond-the-medical-for-family-and-sexual-violence-survivors-in-png-20131212/ You can read about the rationale for the CMC here: http://devpolicy.org/responding-to-family-and-sexual-violence-in-png-the-case-for-a-case-management-centre-20130711/

The Pacific region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which carry the risk of significant economic costs. The Asian Development Bank’s report on the economics of climate change in the Pacific aims to raise the level of understanding of all sectors and stakeholders on possible impacts of climate change, with analyses that lead to regional strategies supported by national programs linked to local policies and activities. It focuses on Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu with broader regional results also included. In the report, projections of total economic damage to the Pacific due to climate change are provided in various scenarios. Economic assessment associated with climate information is undertaken to identify priority sectors, estimate funding needs, and prepare for economy-wide climate change impacts. In this public seminar, Xianbin Yao, Director General of the Pacific Department of the Asian Development Bank and Cyn-Young Park, Assistant Ch

The unfolding crisis in Syria has left more than eight million people displaced from their homes. Cut off from vital services, desperately in need of water, food and health care, today an entire generation of Syrians are teetering on the brink. How does the international community respond to such a crisis? Luciano Calestini, currently coordinating UNICEF’s humanitarian response in Lebanon where more than 800,000 refugees are struggling to survive, provided a unique insight into the heart of one of the largest humanitarian crises the modern world has known. Luciano Calestini was born in Sydney, Australia to a New Zealand mother and an Italian father. He spent his childhood equally between those three countries, completing his education in Australia before accepting a short-term mission to southern Sudan in the late 1990s to join the famine response. Luciano has also lived and worked in East Timor (in the aftermath of the 1999 referendum), in Kosovo (following the 1999 war), in western Afghanistan (after the No

Tess Newton Cain sits down with Odo Tevi, who was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu for the last 15 years, to discuss the Vanuatu economy. Blog post available here: http://devpolicy.org/in-conversation-with-odo-tevi-on-the-vanuatu-economy-20131329/