Comments

I was not aware of these, they are truly excellent resources thank you! And you were right about OMICS. It is validating that someone has put a lot of effort and resources in to a resource like JURN, that uses the same custom search feature. I'm going to give a bit of thought to defining a niche and adding more Pacific-related sources, and re-naming the search function as the Pacific Open Access Research Portal, as the search tool I put together has a number of PNG and Pacific related sites that don't seem to be searched on other portals (e.g. NRI, PNG govt, SSGM, PNGeconomics, and others, not to mention Devpolicy!)

A valiant effort, although you should investigate the reputation of the OMICS publishing group and consider removing them. Are you aware of JURN http://www.jurn.org/ and GRAFT http://www.jurn.org/graft/index.html ?

Thanks Tim, appreciate your comment, and really glad to hear that it has been useful for you!

Excellent initiative and very useful resource! Thanks for setting this up, Rohan. I'm doing quite a bit of research on PNG but I'm not affiliated with an academic institution, so lack access to their academic subscriptions. I did some trial searches on your OARP and already got some good results that would have taken me a fair amount of time to find using the regular Google approach or individual open access portal browsing.

thanks Kerry and family for your kind contribution to seasonal welfare towards the Solomon islanders.

What a great testament to the Seasonal Workers Program! It's been a pleasure for the Australian High Commission in Honiara to work closely with the McCarthy family here and on the Darling Downs. Kerry and Simon are superb ambassadors for the program, and the bond they and their children have formed with a small village in rural Malaita is a terrific bonus. I hope that other Australian farmers will discover the great benefits of employing the strong and reliable workers of the Solomons. As Kerry notes, it's a win-win.

Great story Kerry. Good reminder of all the positive things that can come from the SWP and why we should be aiming for a level playing field for Pacific workers compared with backpackers. Is our priority to support grass roots sustainable development, or holidays?

Great post and a moving story! I cannot wait to see the SWP scaled up. More stories of this nature will prove valuable in convincing policymakers and the public of the mutual benefits of a bigger labour-mobility scheme.

I am reminded of a similar assessment by a Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo who saw aid in Africa as a real 'toxin'. She was upfront in calling this aid "dead aid". Some years earlier an Australian iron lady Helen Hughes saw the same plot in Pacific island countries. I hate to say that unless aid is turned upside down to allow a ground up view, more 'unstable' regions will fall into never ending cycle of corruption, poverty and aid dependency.

This is a really important story that captures some of the detail of how SWP can have meaningful effects on people’s lives so thank you for sharing it. The relationship here mirrors the most positive examples we have seen in Vanuatu with the RSE program in New Zealand. Tanna Farms presents a particularly good example of how this can mature to good effect.

As someone usually buried in the very detailed numbers of gains to GDP of remittance flows, I really loved the personal elements of this post. Thank you Kerry and family! Congratulations to the Development Policy Centre for promoting this as a policy priority. Pleased, as noted by Professor Howes, that this area is getting more prominence in the Government's White Paper. Let's beat the Kiwis! Not just in cricket, netball and in rugby, but also in our labour migration scheme support!

What a exciting and positive story. I really enjoyed reading the story and am thinking, just imagine if more farmers could do that. More Pacific communities could be changed. There is already a strong development process taking place here and both sides are winners. A good development approach when you consider it. Thanks Kerry and your family for your contribution towards this community.