Welcome to Episode 84 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre.

Today on the show I speak to Jonathan Pryke and Roland Rajah from the Lowy Institute. The Lowy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan international policy think tank located in Sydney, Australia.

Jonathan is the Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program, a program that investigates the contemporary challenges facing the Pacific Islands region in areas including sustainable economic development, governance and leadership, and poverty alleviation. Jonathan’s research is interested in all aspects of the Pacific Islands, including economic development in the Pacific Islands region, Australia’s relationship with the Pacific, the role of aid and the private sector in Pacific Islands development and Pacific labour mobility.

Roland is the Lead Economist and Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Economics Program, a program that aims to explain developments in the international economy and influence policy by undertaking independent analytical research. Before joining the Lowy Institute Roland was a Senior Economist and Country Manager at the Asian Development Bank, where he worked on macro-fiscal policy, economic growth, and development issues in the Pacific region.

Jonathan, Roland, and I discuss the Pacific Aid Map, a major initiative by the Lowy Institute that charts aid flows across the pacific region. We also talk about China’s and Australia’s evolving aid engagement within the Pacific region, particularly in relation to supporting the Pacific’s economic stability and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, we discuss the new Partnerships for Recovery Strategy.

You can find recent coverage on the Pacific region via https://devpolicy.org and https://www.lowyinstitute.org/about/programs-and-projects/melanesia.

The Development Policy Centre is running its annual fundraising appeal. The Centre provides critical support to this podcast and of course runs the Devpolicy Blog and undertakes critical research around aid and development. If you appreciate this podcast and the Devpolicy blog, please make a tax deductible donation at devpolicy.org/donate.

Once again, we hoped to bring you coverage of the new aid strategy however this interview has again been delayed and we hope to bring it to you soon.

Enjoy the episode,

The GWH Team