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From Sadhana Sen on The diabolically difficult mid-term review
Bula Vinaka Michael.
And the AEC and your PIANZEA/BRIDGE legacy lives on across the Pacific with many a Pacific Islander taking charge of election administration and electioneering in their home country's.
Unfortunately, not so in Fiji. The dictatorship, as we locals perceive and experience it, still rules, despite the successive post coup election technical assistance received from well meaning NZ and Australian Advisors.
Your poor name sake experienced the wrath of electorate/candidate/Party frustration at the Elections he tried to help administer. And my, he was oh so diplomatic about it!
Your combined experience's will sure be worth a blog or book or two on shared learnings, not to mention the laughs.
I sure would love to read more.
Warmest of regards
Sadhana
From Tony Higgins on How to get from response to recovery in the Pacific
Thanks David, Steve. Yes, a reassessment of domestic value added is warranted. I started in development in MoF in Vanuatu in 1985, supporting business licence and foreign investment proposals, just in time to see the 'import substitution' mantra give way to the free trade export orientation and dogma, under considerable pressure from the Bretton-Woods institutions and the bi-laterals. Its been interesting to watch how many industries disappeared while a few thrived. But the fallout from COVID-19 should encourage PICT governments to re-evaluate their frameworks for trade, taxation, incentives and licencing. The growing dominance of on-line consumerism which shifts the tax base overseas should also cause some PICTs to re-consider whether turnover taxes or cash flow taxes (which also largely died in the 1980s) might have a role in protecting if not broadening their tax base. Finally the current USA-China trade war and development of separate supply chains may provide PICTs with new opportunities, but maybe also threats.
From Walter Cameron Malau on Constituency Development Funds and electoral politics in Solomon Islands: part one
Thank you Wiltshire et al.
CDF in the Solomons while still unregulated, it is also very politically sensitive and selective in its disbursements to the “Communities”. With the never-ending regularised reporting requirements both from the Ministry concerned and the Auditor-General’s Office (OAG), CDF had always been speculative when it comes to transparency and accountability. Some sectors of the “Communities” have included beneficiaries of Honiara dwellers for purposes of paying off loans, acquiring personal lands, tax payers themselves and other whispers in the community that politicians have diverted CDF projects outside of the CDF boundaries for personal housing and abroad for real estates. There are alot of speculations where politics have taken this CDF to new heights which never before occurred to 1990s politicians. But regularised reporting by an independent body such as the OAG or through outsourcing will help to bring about new attitudes to voters’s perceptions and educating of the mass. With these and the gigantic share CDF has in a budget of a nation that is struggling economically to deliver service is just irrational and unsustainable.
From Rhency Legaspi on How Tuvalu is doing repatriation
Did the repatriation flight from NZ push through?
From Michael Maley on The diabolically difficult mid-term review
Actually, towards the end of my career I sought whenever possible to configure projects cheaply, and with the smallest possible foreign footprint. Partly that was to try to keep the cost under the AusAID threshold which took one from relatively un-bureaucratic work into the world of grandiose designs, reviews, reports, M&E matrices etc. But I also wanted to avoid the situation in which a large international team becomes a structure within a structure, talking among themselves rather than working with those they are supposed to be helping.
From Gordon Peake on The diabolically difficult mid-term review
Couldn't agree with you more, Michael. So much time spent on trying to measure the immeasurable.
One figure that sticks in my mind is 60% - the amount of time Martha McIntyre estimated she spent in her job in a police program writing reports and describing achievements. It doesn't seem a good use of anyone's time.
Thanks for the positive feedback
From Gordon Peake on The diabolically difficult mid-term review
Thanks so much, Stacey. I appreciate your kind feedback and will check out the Tonga report. And you are right: all credit to MFAT for putting the report on line. (By contrast, few reports of Australian funded policing programs make their way online)
From having received lots of private feedback on the blog, my sense is that this is not a problem restricted to law and justice programs alone! Some of the tales I heard were very much in the 'not sure whether to laugh or cry' category. All best, and thanks again
From Mike Rose on Food as if by magic: how can Australia thank its seasonal workers?
Hi Satish. Thanks for engaging. You're absolutely right that making sure our seasonal workers are paid and looked after properly has to be the first priority. As far as I can see, with the occasional unfortunate exception, so far the SWP has worked pretty well in making sure this happens, and now seems poised to grow further. This being the case, I hope that it will increasingly foster closer economic and person-to-person ties between Australia the Pacific- public recognition of the essential work that seasonal workers do could be part of that.
From Mike Rose on Food as if by magic: how can Australia thank its seasonal workers?
Hi Carol. People such as yourself who are willing to go the extra mile to help out are an often unheralded part of what makes the SWP possible- rural Australia at its best. Regulation and monitoring are essential, but a supportive community is necessary if either are to be really effective.
From Michael Maley on The diabolically difficult mid-term review
Thanks for an interesting post. One thing that has struck me over the years is that while most people agree that governance support is a long-term undertaking, people too often seek to meet bureaucratic requirements by specifying short-term, often quantitative, performance indicators. And too often, what's important isn't measurable, and what's measurable isn't important. For example, in the field in which I used to work, electoral assistance, by far the most crucial (though usually unstated) objective was to build a culture of honesty and independence, of the type which would cause an administrator faced with political pressure to stand up for proper practice. This is the sort of thing which can only be tested when it actually happens, and one lived in hope that it never would.
From Carol on Food as if by magic: how can Australia thank its seasonal workers?
Local communities can be of help. I sourced 12 blankets for Ni Van in the neighbourhood. I have requested they return them to me for storage for next winter.
From Carol on How Tuvalu is doing repatriation