Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 66 of Good Will Hunters, from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Virisila Buadromo. Virisila is a Pacific feminist and political activist, who co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights for Asia and the Pacific, which is a rapid grant making facility to support female-identifying activists who need urgent assistance. Prior to joining the Urgent Action Fund, Virisila was at the helm of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement for 14 years. Virisila recently presented at the Australian Aid Conference, on the topic of donor funding for women and girls throughout the Pacific. She also appeared on Q&A in November 2019, alongside former guests of this program, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Alex Hawke and the Honourable Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu. In this episode, Virisila and I discuss human rights in Fiji, and whether climate change is used to deflect scrutiny away from other issues, including the treatment of women, girls and

Welcome to Episode 65 of Good Will Hunters. In this episode, I’m chatting to Eric Peck, the Co-Founder and CEO of Swoop Aero, a company revolutionising access to healthcare, by providing on-demand aircraft, or drones, to deliver urgent medical supplies to rural and regional areas. They’re currently deployed in Vanuatu, as well as a couple of other countries which you’ll hear about in this episode. I’m not going to tell you too much about their story - I want to let Eric tell you for himself. What I will say, is that this episode is really important. I have worked in the Pacific over the last 6 or so years, and I’ve visited some really remote and rural places, particularly in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Some villages that I’ve visited are only accessible on foot - they might be a 3-day walk from the nearest town, or in the case of some of the Pacific Island Countries, they may be a three-day boat trip from the nearest medical facility. And yet many of these countries have some of the highest rates of i

Welcome to Episode 64 of Good Will Hunters, our Third Impact Investment Masterclass with Rosemary Addis, and the fourth time we’ve had Rosemary on the show. Rosemary is one of the world’s preeminent impact pioneers. She has helped to shape the system to deliver innovation and investment that benefits people and the planet. Her global portfolio includes Trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Senior Advisor to United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Impact and she has been an expert reviewer for impact initiatives of the OECD and World Economic Forum. Rosemary’s 30+ years track record spans sectors, disciplines and geographies from a global legal career with Allens-Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis NY, where she ranked among the world’s leading lawyers, to the first Social Innovation Strategist for the Australian Government and member of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK Presidency of the G8 where she was invited to represent Australia as the only partici

Welcome to Episode 63 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. I’m loving the opportunity to air these episodes from the Forum with you, as we confirm our interview line-up for the coming months. We’ll also be airing two new interviews before the end of January, and then kick-off our full interview line-up from February onwards. So - today’s episode is a panel discussion on monitoring and evaluation. You’ll hear three speakers - the first is me! And the following two are former guests of this show - Stephen Howes from the Development Policy Centre and Georgina Camp from Huber Social. I chat about some basic questions to consider when discussing M&E, Stephen discusses the roles of academics and how they can assist with evaluating your international programs, and Georgie discusses the research methodologies employed by Huber Social. This episode is a great one for anyone looking to understand M&E for international development organisations better. I always love speaking

Welcome to Episode 62 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. You’ll hear three speakers in this episode discussing partnerships between donors and NGOs. Emily Fuller, Director, Mundango Abroad, Emily Wellard-Baring, Senior Philanthropy & Non Profit Services Manager, Perpetual and Luke Branagan, Director of Philanthropic Services, JBWere. They discuss private, strategic and corporate philanthropy, providing great insights for any organisation looking to grow their donor network, or diversify their funding sources. We’ve got a few more episodes to air that were also recorded at the NGO Forum - I’m really excited to be sharing them with you all, and to be able to preserve some of the great learnings of the event. I also wanted to add that we have a pretty huge year ahead of us here at Good Will Hunters - I’ll share more about it with you in the coming weeks, but one thing I will say now is that you’ll see and hear a lot more guests from our region - I’m committed to am

Welcome to Episode 61 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. You’ll hear three speakers - Mat Tinkler, Director of Policy and International Programs, Save the Children, Sophie Jenkins, Partnerships and Performance Group Leader, Mary Mackillop Today and Brayden Howie, CEO, Action on Poverty. The discussion focuses on the challenges and opportunities orgs face partnering, consolidating and merging. I’ve always loved the example of Save the Children - they’ve made some high profile acquisitions in recent years, as well as launched a couple of social enterprises to diversify their revenue. We’ve had CEO Paul Ronalds on the show, so if you’d like to hear more about consolidation you’ll find Paul’s episode on our website and all of podcast platforms. Mary McKillop Today and Action on Poverty have also had interesting experiences with mergers and partnerships and I trust you’ll find the commentary of Mat, Sophie and Brayden insightful. Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 60 of Good Will Hunters. In this episode, I’m chatting to Bridi Rice. Bridi is Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Australian Council for International Development – Australia’s peak body for aid and international development. Prior to joining ACFID, Bridi was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, delivering strategy, policy and project advice for domestic and international governments on social justice matters. She also worked in Papua New Guinea for three years as the Australian Government’s Senior Legal Adviser on anti-corruption and money laundering. Bridi has over 12 years’ experience in human rights and international development, having worked in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, Uganda, Qatar and the Pacific. She is currently completing postgraduate research with La Trobe University on counterpart perspectives of expatriate advisers in Papua New Guinea. Bridi is an emerging leader in the sector who is passionate about the intersection of development and human security – putting hum

Welcome to Episode 59 of Good Will Hunters, with Nigel Spence, the Outgoing CEO of ChildFund Australia. Nigel retired from ChildFund at the end of 2019, after 14 years with the organisation. Under his leadership, ChildFund has expanded its programs to children and young people in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, and commenced new operations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Timor-Leste. Nigel is taking some time off to continue his studies into child protection policies in Vietnam, before continuing his work in the social sector in Australia. You may recall a few weeks back I aired the talk that Nigel delivered at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum organised by the Kokoda Track Foundation in Sydney in October 2019. In this episode Nigel and I dive a bit deeper into some topics that are very important to our sector, including Sport For Development, our Aid Review and Child Sponsorship. In this episode, you’ll hear Nigel and I talk about ChildFund’s work in the area of sport for development. It feels like sport and aid

Welcome to Episode 58 of Good Will Hunters, with Bob McMullen! Bob was recommended to me by another one of our former guests, Rosie When, the CEO of WaterAid. Rosie and Bob have worked together, including through Bob’s role as the Chair of the Australian Water Partnership Advisory Committee. Bob was elected national secretary of the Australian Labour Party in 1981 and directed the ALPs 3 successful election campaigns in the 1980s. Between 1996 and 2007 Bob held a number of Shadow Ministerial positions including Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Finance and Small Business and Shadow Minister for Federal and State Relations, and after the election of the Rudd Government in November 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance. Bob is now a member of the high-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, which was mobilized during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Crawford School of the Aust

Welcome to Episode 57 of Good Will Hunters with the Honourable Pat Conroy. Pat is the Member for Shortland in NSW. He is also the Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Shadow Minister Assisting for Climate Change and the Shadow Minister Assisting for Defence. Pat has held the portfolios since June of 2019. In this episode, Pat responds to the comments made by Minister Alex Hawke on this show a few weeks back. We chat about the intersection of our aid program and climate change, the consequences of reducing our aid budget along with our presence in many regions of the world, the focus on infrastructure in the Pacific, matters of natural security and regional stability, and a lot more. As you would know, it’s a really pivotal time to be discussing aid and what our new aid policy should look like. The ALP and the Coalition have different perspectives on our aid program, and I hope that through these episodes we can unpack what those differences are and contribute to a more informe

Welcome to Episode 56 of Good Will Hunters, with Stephen Howes. Stephen is a Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. Stephen is also the Director of the Development Policy Centre. The Centre is a leading think tank on aid and development, undertaking independent research and promoting practical initiatives to improve the effectiveness of Australian aid. A few weeks back Stephen and I were on a panel together at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum organised by the Kokoda Track Foundation, and following that I asked him to be on the show. More recently, Stephen wrote an article for the Lowy Institute on our recent interview with Minister Alex Hawke - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/stepping-pacific-expense-pakistani-women-and-girls In this episode, we discuss the Australian Aid program, including the Pacific Step-Up, InnovationXChange, Biltaeral Aid Investment Plans, and the refresh of the aid policy that’s on the horizon. We also discuss t

Welcome to Episode 55 of Good Will Hunters, with Nigel Spence, the outgoing-CEO of ChildFund Australia. This episode was recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum hosted by the Kokoda Track Foundation in October 2019. KTF launched the forum as a platform to discuss the challenges facing small and medium NGOs working in international development. Visit https://www.ktf.ngo to learn more about KTF and the forum. Nigel was one of the keynote speakers at the forum, and reflected on his time as ChildFund CEO, including the drive for innovation, collaboration and strengths-based approaches. I am interviewing Nigel in a few weeks, so I'd love for you to listen to this episode and send me some questions to ask him! He is a wealth of knowledge and insight, as you'll hear. Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 54 of Good Will Hunters, with Watna Mori, Papua New Guinean-Australian human rights lawyer. Watna and I attended the Australia-PNG Emerging Leader's Dialogue together a few weeks ago. I met Watna at Brisbane Airport and I think about 10 seconds into our conversation we were already laughing - which you’ll certainly hear us do more of in this episode. Watna grew up between Papua New Guinea and Australia. She studied law, and now works primarily in the area of human rights law. She has also worked in the Manus Island and Nauru Detention Centres representing asylum seekers. Watna also does a whole lot more, which we’ll start to unpack in this episode. You’ll hear us chat about growing up between Australia and PNG, Australia’s colonial legacy and the impact of offshore detention on that legacy, the need for more locally owned tourism in PNG, the future of Australian aid to PNG, and more. This episode gets to the heart of a few topics that are very important to me, and so many of us - offs

Welcome to Episode 53 of Good Will Hunters, with the Right Honourable Alex Hawke, Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Assistant Minister for Defence. The Minister was sworn into office on May 28, 2019. He has spent much of the last 6 months travelling throughout the Pacific Islands and PNG, understanding the concerns of our nearest neighbours. In this episode, we cover a whole range of topics relating to the aid and development agenda in Australia, including the nexus of defence and development, climate change support to the Pacific, debt sustainability, funding for infrastructure versus funding for health and education, the role of China, our agenda in PNG, the future of our aid program, the role of NGOs, and also the advice the Minister would have liked to give himself ten years ago. This interview was a fantastic opportunity to ask the Minister many of the questions that I, and others in the sector, have been wanting to know. As always, we welcome your feedback. You can get in

Welcome to Episode 52 of Good Will Hunters. This is a special episode, summarising the four resolution that were passed at the ACFID Annual General Meeting, held in late October in Sydney. I chat to Mat Tinkler from Save the Children, Jane Edge from CBM Australia, Simon Bradshaw from Oxfam Australia and Jeremy Hobbs from ActionAid Australia. To learn more about the resolutions, visit https://acfid.asn.au/about/acfid-council Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 51 of Good Will Hunters, with Sally Hetherington, author of 'It's Not About Me' - a manifesto on the realities of short term volunteering, based on Sally's lived experience in Cambodia. Sally and I have a brilliant, and deeply important, conversation about why short term, unskilled volunteering often does more harm than good. We chat about the need to change the narrative around volunteering, to be more aligned with principles of local-ownership and sustainable livelihoods. As always, we welcome your feedback via our socials or our website www.goodwillhunterspodcast.com.au Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 50 of Good Will Hunters! I cannot believe we made it this far - I'm so proud of this show and so proud of us as a community. I had wondered who would be our guest on this momentous episode, and I'm incredible humbled to say it is the Former Prime Minister of Tuvalu, the Right Honourable Enele Sopoaga. This episode is sponsored by Spark Strategy. Spark Strategy is an agency for strategic thinking, transformation and sustained action. Bringing together ideas, capability and capital, Spark helps the not for profit, government, corporate and philanthropic sectors with strategic planning, sustainable business model design and government engagement... to unleash their potential and to transform themselves and the societies in which they work and live. Go to sparkstrategy.com.au to find out more. I heard Enele speak at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) conference earlier this week. If you don't already know ACFID - you should! Enele gave the keynote address in the mor

Welcome to Episode 49 of Good Will Hunters, with Angus Crowther and Neil Pharaoh from Spark Strategy. This episode is sponsored by Spark Strategy. Spark Strategy is an agency for strategic thinking, transformation and sustained action. Bringing together ideas, capability and capital, Spark helps the not for profit, government, corporate and philanthropic sectors with strategic planing, sustainable business model design and government engagement... to unleash their potential and to transform themselves and the societies in which they work and live. Go to sparkstrategy.com.au to find out more. This week, I chat to Angus and Neil from Spark Strategy! We chat all things government engagement - what it means for NGOs and how to do it. This episode is a practical guide to how your organisation can articulate your value proposition to government, and advocate for change. To learn more, check out Spark's whitepaper on the topic here http://info.sparkstrategy.com.au/whitepaper-beyond-government-relations If you

Welcome to Episode 48 of Good Will Hunters, with Shaun Star. This episode is sponsored by Spark Strategy. Spark Strategy is an agency for strategic thinking, transformation and sustained action. Bringing together ideas, capability and capital, Spark helps the not for profit, government, corporate and philanthropic sectors with strategic planning, sustainable business model design and government engagement ... to unleash their potential, and to transform themselves and the societies in which they work and live. Go to sparkstrategy.com.au to find out more. Shaun Star is an Associate Professor & Assistant Dean (International Collaborations) at Jindal Global Law School and Executive Director, Centre for India-Australia Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University, and has been working in India since 2010. Shaun is passionate about promoting the Australia-India relationship and is co-founder and Chair of the Australia India Youth Dialogue, a forum which hosts young politicians, entrepreneurs, policy-makers and d

Welcome to Episode 47 of Good Will Hunters, with Rosemary Addis. This episode is sponsored by SolarBuddy, the organisation bringing solar lights to children living in energy poverty. The future is brighter with SolarBuddy! This is the second of our quarterly podcast where get concrete about impact investment – what can grow the market, what you can do and where investment for impact is making a difference. In today’s episode we’re talking the focus on impact with the rapid acceleration in impact management practice and governance, putting the spotlight on corporates the big shake up in the debate about shareholder vs stakeholder primacy following the US Business Roundtable statement, considering where investment is driving impact for development and inclusive growth including wrap up of G7, G20 and UN General Assembly and we’ll look at what’s shaping up for conference season. Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team