Devpolicy Talks

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/

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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:

The 2013 survey launch revealed how Australian aid stakeholders answer these questions, and many others, and discussed the implications of the finding.

Stephen Howes, Director of the Development Policy Centre will present the survey results. Marc Purcell, Executive Director of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), and Mel Dunn, Chair of International Development Contractors (IDC) Australia will discuss the results. Stephanie Copus-Campbell, CEO of the Harold Mitchell Foundation will chair proceedings.

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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/

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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 Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Analysis and Operations Support Division in the Economics Research Department of the Asian Development Bank presented the report’s key findings and discussed its implications

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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 North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervention), in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Baghdad, Iraq. He recently completed a second three-year mission in Kosovo, during which time he was also deployed to support the cholera response in Haiti and the emergency response during the Libyan conflict.

Luciano is currently charged with coordinating UNICEF’s response to the Syrian crisis in Lebanon, and has been based in Beirut since January.

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

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/

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

The small states of the Asia and Pacific region face unique challenges in raising their growth potential and living standards relative to other small states due to their small populations, geographical isolation and dispersion, narrow export and production bases, exposure to shocks, and heavy reliance on aid. Higher fixed government costs, low access to credit by the private sector, and capacity constraints are also key challenges.

The econometric analysis confirms that the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have underperformed relative to their peers over the last 20 years.

Although these countries often face more limited policy tools, policies do matter and can help build resilience and raise potential growth. The Asia and Pacific small states should continue rebuilding buffers and improve the composition of public spending. Regional solutions should also continue to be pursued.

Dr Patrizia Tumbarello, Unit Chief for the International Monetary Fund Pacific Island Unit presented on the IMF’s recent work on small states. Vivek Suri, the World Bank’s Lead Economist for the Pacific, acted as discussant.

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

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

After decades of poor economic performance, Africa is doing much better, with higher economic growth. Why? What role did aid play? And what are the lessons for the Pacific? Jim Adams knows both Africa and the Pacific well. In the 2014 Harold Mitchell Development Policy Lecture, he focussed on how effective economic reform emerged in Africa and related institutional and capacity issues. Drawing on this and his Pacific experience, he reviewed a number of proposals that could be taken by donors in the Pacific to accelerate economic reform and support the emergence of improved government institutions and capacity on policy making.

Jim Adams retired a year ago after 37 years at the World Bank. His last assignment was as the Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific from 2007 – 2012, where he worked on and travelled extensively in the Pacific island region. He spent almost half of his career working on Africa, leading the Bank’s program as the Regional Director in Kenya in the late 1980s and as Country Director in Tanzania and Uganda from 1995-2002. From 2002 to 2007 he served as the head of operational policy in the Bank, overseeing a program directed at making the Bank more responsive to its clients’ needs. Jim is a graduate of Colgate University and received his Masters degree from Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Among his current duties, Jim Adams serves as Chair of AusAID’s Independent Evaluation Committee.

The Harold Mitchell Development Policy Annual Lecture Series, of which this is the second, has been created to provide a new forum at which the most pressing development issues can be addressed by the best minds and most influential practitioners of our time.

This lecture is presented by the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].

The most serious problems that developing countries face are increasingly international in nature. Climate change, water scarcity, communicable diseases, food insecurity and the depletion of forests and fisheries—all these things call for cooperation at the regional or global levels, as well as action at the national level. Such cooperation is often mediated by international organisations and much of it is funded by aid. But global aid is shrinking in this era of austerity and international organisations face strong incentives to direct scarce resources to urgent national priorities. Moreover, international cooperation has had few wins in recent years and international organisations are increasingly facing crises of identity and relevance, with their missions, policies and governance arrangements coming under fire from many directions.

What would it take for international organisations to play a more effective role in dealing with global challenges important for development? Our three panelists addressed this question from complementary perspectives. Warren Evans talked about the financing and management reforms needed for the World Bank to play a more effective role in addressing climate change and providing other global goods. James Moody argued for more effective institutional arrangements to support innovation and the dissemination of knowledge for development. Patrick Weller presented findings emerging from his ongoing work on the governance of international organisations, illustrating how the informal dynamics of strategic decision-making both limit and create opportunities for reform. The panel was chaired by Robin Davies.

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

Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.

Read and subscribe to our daily blogs at devpolicy.org.

Learn more about our research and join our public events at devpolicy.anu.edu.au.

Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X for updates on blog posts, publications and events.

You can send feedback, and ideas for episodes too, to [email protected].