New thinking about Pacific labour mobility
A full-day workshop on June 2 will present a range of new policy-relevant research on Pacific labour mobility for review and discussion. The draft program is available here. Places are limited. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please send an expression of interest to Richard Curtain richard.curtain@anu.edu.au as soon as possible.
In the evening (5.30pm, Brindabella Theatre) Dr Richard Bedford, Emeritus Professor at the University of Waikato and President of the Royal Society of New Zealand will present a public lecture titled “Towards an integrated labour migration strategy in our Pacific neighbourhood”. Professor Bedford will discuss the prospects for a more coherent Australia-New Zealand policy approach to Pacific labour mobility, particularly for those from Pacific atolls. Professor Brian Opeskin of the Macquarie University Law School will act as discussant. Register here.
Femili PNG Australia tour
Femili PNG is a PNG NGO that provides integrated case management to survivors of family and sexual violence in Lae, PNG’s second largest city. Devpolicy supports their operations and research. Femili PNG’s Operations Manager Denga Ilave has been on a speaking tour in Australia this week spreading the word about the organisation’s innovative approach and initial results.
In Cairns, Stephen Howes and Denga spoke at the Australia-PNG Business Forum. Denga then went to Melbourne, where she spoke to Oxfam Australia, Radio Australia (listen here) and ABC News 24’s The World (watch here). In Canberra yesterday, Denga – along with Anna Solomon, Secretary of the PNG Department for Community Development and Religion, and Kymberly Kepore, CEO of Oil Search Foundation – spoke at our panel event hosted in conjunction with the Lowy Institute. You can catch up with the video here. Today she will be speaking with the same panel at an event in Sydney.
Denga also authored an op-ed on Australia and PNG’s shared domestic violence challenge that was published by ABC’s The Drum.
Stephen, his wife Clare and their son Matthew are running the Canberra Half Marathon on Sunday to raise funds for Femili PNG. To sponsor them, donate here.
PNG Update draft program available
The draft program for the PNG Update is now available here. The Update will be on 16-17 June, and will feature more than 50 presentations over some 18 panel and keynote sessions. With topics from the macroeconomy to women in business, the drought to public-private partnerships, health, education, and more, the PNG Update is PNG’s premier forum for contemporary economic and policy analysis.
Welcome baby Maeve
Those who are regulars at Devpolicy events and the aid conference will know our Program Officer Macarena Rojas (Maca), and will have seen her growing bump over the past nine months. We were all thrilled to hear on Tuesday of the safe arrival of a beautiful baby girl, Maeve Irene. Everyone is happy, healthy and doing well. We wish Maca, her husband Matthew and baby Maeve all the best. Congratulations!
Upcoming events
Towards an integrated labour migration strategy in our Pacific neighbourhood
Thursday 2 June, 5.30pm, Brindabella Theatre. Register here.
2016 PNG Update
16-17 June, University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. Details here.
2016 Pacific Update
18-19 July, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Details here.
Blog highlights
‘Behind the Blockade’ in Bougainville
How much spin in the latest aid performance report?
PNG aid inquiry: much recommending, little action likely
On the blog
Why I will be attending the World Humanitarian Summit (even if MSF is not) by Darren Brunk
Performance of Australian aid: is it that good? By Stephen Howes
Temporary migration in the Pacific: a substitute for more inclusive migration opportunities? By Alessio Cangiano and Andreea R Torre
Australian aid to PNG: plus c’est la même chose? By Camilla Burkot
Democracy in Nauru under threat by Stewart Firth
Memories of the Bougainville crisis: Veronica Hatutasi’s ‘Behind the Blockade’ by Thiago Cintra Oppermann
Structural barriers limit impact of scholarships by Rose Amazan
The distortion of MDR-TB in Papua New Guinea by Anna Maalsen
Moving on from PNG’s UNITECH saga: an interview with Albert Schram by Albert Schram and Grant Walton
Jackson’s last gasp: global programs in Australia’s aid budget by Robin Davies
In brief
Fortnightly links: pirates, polls, Brazil, #allmalepanels, Kunduz bombing, and more
This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, published every second Friday.
Leave a Comment