2016 Australasian Aid Conference: last chance for papers
Our call for papers for the 2016 AAC is closing on 30 October – this is your last chance to submit an abstract, and join the stellar line-up of speakers we already have confirmed. With 300 participants this year, the conference has become the region’s leading gathering for aid and development practitioners and analysts, and represents an excellent chance to present and gain feedback on your latest aid and development research.
Registration is also open, with early bird pricing until 10 November. More details about the conference are on our website.
Resources-to-cash: Mongolia’s cautionary tale
Oil-to-cash, or more broadly resources-to-cash, is often touted as the new and improved way to avoid a resource curse. But does it work? Mongolia is one of the few, if not the only, developing countries to actually have tried to implement a resources-to-cash scheme. A recent Devpolicy discussion paper by Ying Yueng and Stephen Howes for the first time sets out the cautionary tale of Mongolia’s experience with (and subsequent move away from) resources-to-cash. The lesson of the Mongolian experience, they conclude, is not that one should dismiss the potential benefits of resources-to-cash on the basis of one, poorly designed and implemented instance. Rather resources-to-cash needs to take its place alongside, rather than be favoured over, other policy instruments that have been recommended for resource-dependent economies. Read a summary blog here.
Pathways from potential crisis in PNG
Join us on Monday 26 October (12.30pm–1.30pm) to hear Paul Flanagan’s analysis of the current state of the PNG economy. Paul, a visiting fellow at the Development Policy Centre, a former senior executive at the Australian Treasury, and former senior advisor to the PNG Treasury, will present the current challenges and risks facing the PNG economy in a historical and international context, and will outline the options open to the government to avoid an economic crisis, focusing on revenue, expenditure and financing. Register here.
PNG’s free education policy and exam results
What do student exam results tell us about free education policy in PNG? Find out on Monday 9 November (12.30pm – 1.30pm) from Anthony Swan, Devpolicy Research Fellow. This public seminar will be held at the Miller Theatre, Old Canberra House, ANU. Register here.
New NRI Issues Paper on PNG road management
Devpolicy Research Fellow Matthew Dornan last week spoke at the well-attended launch in Port Moresby of the National Research Institute (NRI) Issues Paper he authored, titled ‘Road Management Reform: The Papua New Guinea Road Fund and National Roads Authority’ (download the paper here as a PDF). The paper argues that a lack of support and engagement from successive political leaders and parts of the civil service has undermined the potential impact of the PNG Road Fund and National Roads Authority, and that the newly established road management organisations remain marginal as a result.
Femili PNG Annual Report
For those who have been following Femili PNG’s work with survivors of family and sexual violence in PNG, its first Annual Report is now available on the website, detailing the achievements of the first 12 months of operations in Lae.
50 years of ACFID
Our friends at ACFID recently celebrated their 50th anniversary, and their annual conference was held in Sydney last week. On the blog, Patrick Kilby reflected on ACFID’s past, and some of the challenges ahead. (We also recently reviewed Patrick’s book on the history of ACFID). And for those who couldn’t make it to Sydney for the conference, Camilla Burkot summarised some of the highlights here.
The future of development policy and finance: the view from Washington
Todd Moss and Ben Leo of the Centre for Global Development will be delivering a lecture on ‘The future of development policy and finance: the view from Washington’ on Wednesday 28 October from 12:30pm at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 255 London Circuit, Civic (Training Rooms 1 and 2). RSVP by Tuesday 27 October to william.rowell@dfat.gov.au.
Dispelling the White Knight Complex: volunteering event in Melbourne
For our Melbourne readers, Red Cross Australia is hosting a panel on volunteering on Thursday 19 November (6pm–9pm, David Pennington Building, Melbourne Uni) featuring Devpolicy’s Ashlee Betteridge, Marc Purcell of ACFID, Peter Devereux of Curtin University and Christanta Muli of Oxfam. The panel will debate whether volunteering is a genuine asset to development or just a way to meet our own desire to save the world, and whether there is a ‘right way’ to run a volunteer program. Register here.
2016 PNG Update
The call for papers for the 2016 PNG Update on 15–17 June 2016 at UPNG in Port Moresby is now open. Find out more details on the website.
Upcoming events
Papua New Guinea: pathways from a potential crisis
Monday 26 October, 12.30–1.30pm, Crawford Seminar Room 9. Register here.
What do student exam results tell us about free education policy in PNG?
Monday 9 November. 12.30pm – 1.30pm, Miller Theatre. Register here.
2016 Australasian Aid Conference
10–11 February 2016. Call for papers and registrations now open. Details here.
Blog highlights
The cost to PNG business of GBV
Microsavings better than credit
Asia’s depressing TB story
On the blog
Papua New Guinea’s exchange rate trading bands: the first year impact by Rohan Fox
Resources to cash: a cautionary tale from Mongolia by Ying Yeung and Stephen Howes
An overview of women candidate performance in Papua New Guinea elections by Theresa Meki
More than credit – giving savings the benefit by Michelle Lettie
Gender-based violence: hurting the bottom line for business in PNG by Lindy Kanan
Towards a Melanesian way of beating the resource curse by Glenn Banks
Happy 50th ACFID by Patrick Kilby
Funding and furthering the fight against TB: an interview with Lucica Ditiu by Camilla Burkot and Lucica Ditiu
The Supreme Court’s ‘vote of no confidence’ decision: game on in Waigani by Bal Kama
What next for Nauru? By Tess Newton Cain
In brief
Fortnightly links: Deaton’s Nobel, Canada votes, global poverty guesstimates, and more…
Dispelling the White Knight Complex: Melbourne event on volunteering
PNG, gender parity and education in the news
2015 ACFID National Conference
Falling through the net? Gender and social protection in the Pacific
This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, published every second Friday.
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