Comments

Readers might be interested in <a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/4129606.pdf" rel="nofollow">this handy compilation</a> of information on offshore processing from 2012 to the end of 2016, prepared by Australia's Parliamentary Library and drawn mainly from Department of Immigration and Border Protection monthly statistical reports. It supports the suggestion above with respect to annual costs, among other things. One point that I would highlight is that of the 2017 people who have now received status determinations from the PNG and Nauru governments, 80% were found to be refugees. The proportion might well have been higher, at least after appeals, if they had been processed within Australia.

Thanks Ash and Garth, I definitely like the idea of annually reviewing. I also think you explanations may be part of the story Ashlee, and they definitely warrant being looked into further. But they still don't explain the religion and board gender correlations. These correlations suggest other issues afoot. Though I'm not 100% sure what they are. There's a great mixed-methods PhD in this for an aspiring researcher. Terence

Yes, great post Terence. And I think Ashlee's comments are also very relevant. Perhaps Devpol could do an annual review of the gender situation in NGO management to keep reminding people.

Great post Terence! I have a few other ideas of what could be part of the issue, obviously just anecdotal but I'd be interested what others think. One is that work-related travel - both domestic and international - is still often difficult for women with children, yet often needed to progress in this space and definitely needed in those leadership roles. Two could be burn-out - I have had several of my mid-career female friends leave the sector or go freelance/consultant because of the huge and unreasonable workloads expected of them in full-time positions in some NGOs - trying to balance that with family or other commitments sometimes becomes too much. It seems there is sometimes an idea that if you are willing to work in a not-for-profit, you are will to sacrifice pretty much everything for the cause, which is pretty problematic. Three, we should remember that DFAT still has issues getting women in leadership as well, and high-level public servants who have worked on aid would also be strong candidates for these NGO leadership roles. And four (like a recent study on the Aust public service highlighted), perhaps the more 'sexy' policy/advocacy/international program roles still tend to go to men, while women (anecdotally, obviously massively generalising) often seem to more predominantly work in areas such as communications, program admin, fundraising or as sector specialists in areas like health, education or gender -- perhaps this kind of experience isn't taken as seriously as that policy/advocacy experience when it comes to appointing NGO leaders? There also does seem to be a bit of a culture nowadays of bringing on outsiders - people from outside the development sector - for some of these leadership roles, so that could be another factor.

May the world understand the poorest countries that already suffer the impact of climate change, can not wait!

Vanuatu made the decision early on to let the "Private Sector" do the recruitment and for the "Employment Services Unit" under the Department of Labour to regulate by Licencing. This concious decision by Hon. Ham Lini was to keep "Politics" at arms length from who was being recruited. I think this has been the critical difference between Vanuatu and PNG and Solomon Islands. The other critical factor is the person of "Lionel Kaluat" who has stuck with the program from day 1. He works hard, provides good leadership and is a good public servant who is the single champion for labour mobility in Vanuatu. I have seen workers coming back with anywhere from 300,000 vatu to 1.5 million vatu in savings after 6 months. The median savings is 600,000 vatu. I have 225 people in Australia at the moment. 20 are female. Yesterday Lionel Kaluat handed out 28 licenses to recruit for Australia and 9 Licensed for NZ. We compete to find farms in Aus and NZ to place workers. We inmovate in Vanuatu to find the funds for birth certificates, passports, police clearances, medical checks, visa costs, airfares, establishment costs and the nomal screening, selection and training costs.

2017 begins as 2016 finished off - more great people checking out - maybe the state of the world broke their hearts!

A sad day indeed - he will be missed. Who else can make numbers jump off the screen and into your heart and brain like Hans?

This is an excellent article. I strongly support the concept of partnerships between commercial and NGO players to deliver win-win outcomes for both sides of the partnership. The Crawford Fund is actively exploring the scope for such partnerships with not for profit and commercial providers and contractors.

This is important work Robin and great that the Centre has embarked on this search for the facts on aid spending. The Policy Brief is an excellent summary.

A thoughtful and insightful article Emma which exposes how reckless and damaging the decisions on immigration and refugees, of successive governments involving both major parties, have been to our (Australia's) reputation, our own record on the rule of law and probity, and our relationships with our closest neighbour PNG. It is hard to overstate the long term consequences to the relationships and to the way in which we are seen now by the people of PNG. In the same process we have probably done untold damage to PNG's image thus potentially further damaging it economically. Thank you.

Thanks Garth - that's a classic victory of numbers over journalist. To be (very) picky, he was being a bit selective once he got onto politics and governance. My understanding (could be wrong; worth double checking) is that WB governance indicators haven't been improving over time in recent years (same true with democratisation). (As an aside, this brings a puzzle: if governance is so important, why are other things still getting better.) Still this is a minor comment. I liked the video, thanks for sharing.