Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 86 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Jacqui De Lacy. Jacqui is the Managing Director of Abt Associates Australia, one of Australia’s major development contractors. Prior to joining Abt, Jacqui was the head of AusAid in Indonesia, and she’s had a range of other high level roles in the aid program. Jacqui is also on the board of UNICEF Australia. Jacqui and I discuss the criticisms of facilities and managing contractors, in particular in the context of PNG. We also discuss the reform that’s required in our aid program, to promote partnerships over economic dependence. Jacqui shares her strong views on why aid to Indonesia should not be reduced. Finally, Jacqui reflects on her extensive career in development and how she remains positive, as well as her advice for the next generation looking to forge their careers. Jacqui’s advice is some of the most tangible and actionable advice I’ve ever heard so definitely stay tuned until the end! S

Welcome to Episode 85 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Elizabeth Peak. Elizabeth currently serves as the Co-Head of the COVID Development Response and Recovery Taskforce and First Assistant Secretary of the Human Development and Governance Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Prior to this she was Minister-Counsellor (Economic) at Australia’s at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade embassy in Beijing, China. She has previously held the role of Assistant Secretary South-East Asia Services and Investment Branch. Elizabeth has been instrumental in the Australian Government’s recent development policy Partnerships for Recovery — Australia’s COVID-19 Development Response and performance framework, which outlines Australia’s approach to tackling COVID-19 in our region, pivoting our development program to focus on the virus, together with our partners. This interview is an exciting and rare opportunity to unpack the new policy with

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 u

Welcome to Episode 83 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Ofa Guttenbeil-Lilkiliki and Konnie Yoifa. Ofa is a women’s rights activist and filmmaker from Tonga. She has advocated for equality in women's economic and educational empowerment, in their political involvement and representation, in land reform, protection from violence, and has advocated for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women for over a decade. She has twice been nominated for the U.S. Secretary of State International Women of Courage Award (2012,2013) recognising her work in advocating for women and childrens rights in Tonga. Ofa and I discuss the Women and Children’s Crisis Centre in Tonga, and their work to support women who have experienced violence, whilst simultaneously advocating for policy reform at a national level. You can learn more about Ofa and the Centre via these links: https://www.spc.int/sdp/70-inspiring-pacific-wom

Welcome to Episode 82 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Martha Macintyre. Martha is an anthropologist who initially studied History at The University of Melbourne and then moved on to postgraduate study in Anthropology at The University of Cambridge (UK) and gained her PhD at The Australian National University. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2012. Martha has undertaken research in Papua New Guinea for over 30 years. Martha has combined anthropological and historical scholarship with practical and policy concerns as an advisor and consultant to the Papua New Guinea government and several multinational corporations. She has particular interest in questions about changes in women’s power, health and well being in the context of rapid social change and has written extensively on gender, human rights and violence against women. In this episode, Martha and I discuss why healthcare in PNG continues to be inadequat

Welcome to Episode 81 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. I’m your host Rachel Mason Nunn. Today I’m speaking with Graham and Glenyys Romanes. This is the last of our interviews recorded at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with the Asia Foundation back in February. Through their long careers, and through their lives, both separately and as a couple, Graham and Glenyys have been trailblazers in a range of areas from gender equity, to disaster response, to Indigenous progamming. In the 70s, Graham became famous for being a stay-at-home Dad, a rare species even today, but practically unheard of then. In the 80s, the couple took the equally radical step of job sharing the role of Victorian State Secretary of Oxfam Australia In the early 80s, Graham led Oxfam’s response to the famine in the Horn of Africa, a pivotal event for Australia’s development NGOs. He again became a media figure, this time exposing the fact that the Ethiopia

Welcome to Episode 80 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. The focus of today’s episode is Chinese Aid, with our guests Ji Hongbo and Denghua Zhang. China’s aid has been on the rise for years, not only in the Pacific, but around the world. And with China-US rivalry taken to a new level as a result of COVID-19, China’s aid is set to become more important and more controversial than ever. We often hear from experts on China about Chinese aid, but rarely from Chinese experts themselves. Yet given China’s complexity, not to mention the language barriers, hearing from those who understand the country and its systems is obviously critical In this episode I chat with two experts who have both worked in the past for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ji Hongbo is the Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in China, in Canberra for the year at the ANU, but normally based in Beijing. Hongbo’s prior experience includes 5 years of diplomatic experience with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Welcome to Episode 79 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the program we have Richard Curtain and Elizabeth Naru Pechan. Richard is a Research Fellow with the Development Policy Centre, with a focus on Pacific Labour Mobility. Liz is the Founder and Co-Owner of the multi-award winning resort The Havannah in Vanuatu. Within four days of Australia closing its borders to international travel, Liz’s resort had zero income. Over the last two months, she’s been contributing to Vanuatu’s response to both Covid-19 and Cyclone Harold by devising a tourism sector recovery plan. Liz, on the Devpolicy blog - https://devpolicy.org/vanuatu-a-tourism-sector-perspective-on-potential-recovery-from-covid-19-and-tc-harold-20200506-1/ Richard, on the Devpolicy blog - https://devpolicy.org/a-travel-pathway-to-revive-pacific-tourism-20200522/ In this episode Richard and I discuss the Trans-Pacific Travel Bubble, including whether the benefits outweigh the risks for Pacific Island countries. We

Welcome to Episode 78 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show we have Diana Fernandez and Faisal Bin Seraj. Diana is the Deputy Country Representative for the Asia Foundation in Myanmar and Faisal is the Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. Myanmar and Bangladesh, like all countries, have been hit by Covid-19. At this stage, the economic impacts are outweighing the health impacts, despite both countries having fragile health systems. Diana and I discuss Myanmar’s economic dependence on China, and how this has impacted on Myanmar’s response to Covid-19 including the closure of their borders along with the emergence of Chinese NGOs. We discuss why Myanmar’s healthcare system is ranked as one of the worst in the world, and why the Ministry of Health recognises that it cannot cope with a Covid-19 outbreak. We also discuss the internet blackout occurring in Myanmar, as revealed by a private telecommunications provider, Telenor, who was ordered by the Minis

Welcome to Episode 77 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today we’re bringing you two experts from Port Moresby, to give a snapshot of the state of PNG at this unprecedented time. First, I speak with Michael Kabuni, Research Fellow in Politics at UPNG and contributor to the Devpolicy blog. Michael and I discuss the prevalence of police brutality outside of Covid-19, and the role of policing in containing the pandemic. We also discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on crime rates, including in the settlements, which are being hit the hardest. Following Michael, I speak to Maho Leveil, Economics Lecturer at UPNG, and we look more closely at the economic impacts of Covid-19 on informal sector workers, as well as the income guarantees made by the Government of PNG. We discuss the popularity of the Marape Government and the likelihood they’ll get through 2020 without a Vote of No Confidence. Maho raises some interesting points about the lack of investment in health infrastructure in PNG and the

Welcome to Episode 76 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I’m speaking with Jonathan Glennie. Jonathan is the Director of the Ipsos Sustainable Development Centre. He is also a prominent writer and researcher on international development and cooperation, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the International Development Institute at King’s College London, as well as worked at the Overseas Development Institute, Save the Children UK and Christian Aid. I interviewed Jonathan in February - pre Covid-19 - at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Devpolicy Centre in partnership with the Asia Foundation. Jonathon gave a keynote address on ‘The Future of Aid in the 21st century - five paradigm shifts’. Jonathan spoke at the conference about global public investment in aid and the future of concessional international public finance, as we move from what he refers to as the ‘old fashioned aid mentality’. In this interview, we take a deep dive into some of those poin

Welcome to Episode 75 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today I'm speaking with Odo Tevi and Dan McGarry. Odo is Vanuatu’s Representative to the United Nations based in New York, and Dan is an independent journalist living in Vanuatu since 2003. Both Odo and Dan contribute to the Devpolicy blog, on matters relating to development in Vanuatu and the broader Pacific region. It’s been a big month for Vanuatu. They’re one of the few remaining countries on Earth without Covid-19, but at the beginning of April, were hit with by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold, which caused widespread destruction through the North of the country. Due to travel restrictions, the usual surge response didn’t occur, and so Vanuatu has been left to deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Harold without the usual international actors flying it. At the same time, Vanuatu has formed a new Government and has a new PM as of a few days ago, and has announced a stimulus package to support the country to recover from the

Welcome to Episode 74 of Good Will Hunters, from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I’m speaking to newly appointed Oxfam Australia CEO Lyn Morgain, and Director of Programs Anthea Spinks. Oxfam of course is one of Australia’s and the world’s biggest and most influential development NGOs. But it’s had some rough times lately with a decline in donations, and in Australia the closure of the iconic Oxfam shops. In this interview, we discuss how the organisation is responding to the challenges it is facing. Lyn unveils Oxfam Australia’s new strategy that focuses on the connection between poverty and climate change, champions the integral role Indigenous Australians play in Oxfam, and outlines how Oxfam will transform its operating model as the world of INGOs continues to be “utterly redefined” as Lyn puts it. Of course, we also discuss COVID19. In the last few weeks, Oxfam Australia has called on G20 Leaders to cancel or postpone the debt repayments of developing countries to help their econo

Welcome to Episode 73 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Shane McLeod. Shane is a Research Fellow working with the Lowy Institute’s Australia-PNG Network. Before joining the Institute, he was a senior editor at ABC News in roles where he managed its Sydney newsroom and the flagship radio programs AM, The World Today, and PM. He is a former foreign correspondent with postings in Japan and Papua New Guinea, as well as reporting assignments throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He has also worked as a journalist in regional Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra. As we go to air today, PNG has two confirmed cases of COVID19. Whilst the first case was brought in by a foreigner who had recently arrived in the country, the second case is of a Papua New Guinean. In this episode, Shane and I discuss the relationship between Australia and PNG since independence in 1975, including whether Australia is in fact an “embarrassed" former colonialist. We also discuss, as we have

Welcome to Episode 72 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Our guest today is Terence Wood. Terence is a Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre, at the Australian National University. Terence undertakes research on Australia and New Zealand’s aid programs, in particular the domestic political economy of aid. He also undertakes research on Melanesian politics, with a focus on the Solomon Islands. We recorded this episode in late February, before COVID19 was declared a pandemic and before mass unemployment began in Australia, so naturally the context in which we had this conversation six weeks ago is very different to the context we find ourselves in today. None the less, we address some topical issues, including the effectiveness of aid in the Pacific versus in the rest of the world, and why many donors and NGOs find working in the Pacific more difficult than working in other regions. We also discuss Terence’s view that the main motivator behind Australia’s focus in the Pa

Welcome to Episode 71 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. This episode is focused on the impact COVID19 will have on both developing countries and the aid and development sector. This week, I spoke on ABC’s Radio National Saturday Extra Program, on the topic of the Pacific and COVID19. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/ In today’s episode I’m speaking to Fiona Tarpey and Chris Roche. Fiona Tarpey is the Head of Advocacy for the International Programs Department of the Australian Red Cross. She is also Co-Chair of ACFIDs Development Practice Committee. Chris Roche is the Director of the Institute for Human Security and Social Change at La Trobe University, and a Senior Research Partner of the Developmental Leadership Program. Chris and Fiona jointly authored an article for the Devpolicy blog this week, titled ‘COVID19, localisation and locally led development: A critical juncture’. In sum, the article argued that COVID19 will force a large-scale transfor

Welcome to Episode 70 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Radhika Coomaraswamy. Radhika is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and human rights advocate. She has held a range of appointments within the United Nations, including as Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict from 2006 to 2012, as lead author on a global study into Women, Peace and Security in 2014, and most recently as a Member in the United Nations Fact Finding Mission to Myanmar, following atrocities committed against the Rohinyga. Radhika was a keynote speaker at the recent Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre and The Asia Foundation on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, which we discuss in this episode. It was an incredibly powerful speech. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6eQlF5MYUQ#t=26m20s Radhika and I talk about her experience growing up in Sri Lanka, including her reflections on having Indian independence leader Mahatma Gand

Welcome to Episode 69 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today's guest is Mark Sullivan. Mark is a drug development expert and the founder of Medicines Development for Global Health (https://www.medicinesdevelopment.com). Along with his colleague John Reeder, Mark was featured in the Development Policy Centre’s Aid Profile Series in 2019 and was nominated for the Mitchell Humanitarian Award, which he they jointly won in Canberra in February of this year. Mark’s Aid Profile, authored by Robin Davies of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, detailed the incredible efforts Mark and John have undertaken to end river blindness, a debilitating and historically neglected diseases afflicting tens of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. https://devpolicy.org/aidprofiles/2020/01/31/really-ending-river-blindness-mark-sullivan-and-john-reeder/ In this episode we discuss what river blindness is, and why some diseases are neglected by the pharmaceutical sector. Mark explains why h

Welcome to Episode 68 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Sally Lloyd. Sally was featured in the Development Policy Centre’s 2019 Aid Profiles, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Mitchell Humanitarian Award. Cleo Fleming documented Sally’s life in Mogulu, PNG, as part of the Devpol Aid Profiles series: https://devpolicy.org/aidprofiles/2019/09/12/sally-lloyd-the-essence-of-community-development/ I interviewed Sally at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre and the Asia Foundation a few weeks back - we were lucky to get her in Canberra for a few days, as she spends much of her time in PNG. Sally grew up in Mogulu, in the Western Province of PNG, after her parents moved there as missionaries in the late 1960s. At the time, PNG was still under Australian administration, which it remained until independence in 1975. By the age of 9, Sally had learned to assist her mum in delivering babies, and by age 16 Sally had established the first pre

Welcome to Episode 67 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Lant Pritchett. Lant is described as a ‘Rock Star’ of the aid world. He is an American development economist, famous for challenging contemporary beliefs on development. Lant recently spoke at the Australasian Aid Conference, hosted by the Development Policy Centre, on why great intentions and great policies don’t always lead to great outcomes - he speaks about the importance of contextualising development approaches, or in other words, why we all can’t just adopt Finland’s education policies. What works in one spot, may fail to work in another, if it doesn’t account for the real, lived experience of locals and the nuances of the social, economic and political system - it sounds rather obvious - we’d all agree that development approaches need to be relevant for the local context - but it doesn’t always play out in practice. Lant’s views are challenging, and often controversial, and he delivers each point with