This is our final blog for the year. We’ll start up again from 6 January 2025.
The editorial team of Robin Davies, Amita Monterola, Jackie Hanafie and Sadhana Sen would like to thank everyone who has written for, read, commented on, promoted and supported the Devpolicy Blog in 2024.
We would also like to thank those who listened to and shared episodes of our relaunched Devpolicy Talks podcast, which appeared fortnightly through the year. We are grateful to Finn Clarke for joining our team as a production assistant during 2024. The podcast will continue in 2025 and we are happy to take suggestions for podcast guests and topics. Please email devpolicy@anu.edu.au with your suggestions or comment below.
Here are our suggestions for your summer reading and a recap of the year with some of our favourite and most popular blogs.
Summer reads and listens
Dan Honig’s book Mission Driven Bureaucrats caused a buzz this year. Honig argues in the book and related podcast interviews that better government lies in empowerment and trust, rather than stricter controls and oversight.
The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development by former DFID head Mark Lowcock and economist Ranil Dissanayake figured in many conversations at the 2024 Australasian AID Conference. It’s available as an open access document on the Center for Global Development’s website.
If you are looking for some fiction, Praying for Sunlight, Waiting for Rain: a New Guinea Story by former AusAID officer Kieran Donaghue is worth a read. Blog author Irene Wettenhall recommends the book as a compelling story about a young Lutheran missionary couple in the central highlands from 1933 to 1943.
You can find further book, film and exhibition recommendations at Devpolicy reviews.
If you prefer an audio option, you could listen to some of our most popular podcasts of 2024: interviews with Helen Clark about pandemic preparedness, with Sania Nishtar about the work of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and with Masood Ahmed about, well, many things. (You can subscribe to the series in any major podcast app: just search for “Devpolicy Talks”.)
You might also listen to the Good Will Hunters 2024 podcast series SDG3 – Good health and wellbeing, which just added a bonus episode featuring Australasian AID Conference keynote speaker Lady Roslyn Morauta.
Australian aid
2024 Australian aid spending and effectiveness update by Stephen Howes
Australia’s multilateral aid: crunch time? by Cameron Hill
Opposition is rising but most Australians still don’t want aid cut by Terence Wood
Trump vs Biden: the aid dimension by Cameron Hill
Australian aid: no looking back? by Cameron Hill
2024 Australasian AID Conference blog series and YouTube playlist
Global development
Impacts of the Taliban’s ban on women’s work and education by Matiullah Qazizada
Mangroves, migration, and family reunions: a story of resilience [photo essay] by Ahmad Jayadi, Manu Dresta and Edd Wright
Chinese infrastructure development in Uganda: triumphs and trials by Joel Odota
After the downfall of Bangladesh’s Iron Lady: it’s time for dialogue by Subrata Banarjee
Myanmar requires a radically new aid paradigm by Morten B. Pedersen
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders Australia series
Pacific affairs
Science says Tuvalu will drown within decades; the reality is worse [photo essay] by Niuone Eliuta
Crisis in New Caledonia by Nic Maclellan
Facebook use in the Pacific: all over the place by Estelle Stambolie
The Panguna lawsuit: a search for justice or for cash? by Aubrey Belford
Responding to Vanuatu’s emerging economic emergency by Peter Judge
Solomon Islands elections: who won on the night and why? by Terence Wood
Papua New Guinea
January riots in PNG: underlying causes, implications and the future by Andrew Anton Mako
Polygamy is spreading in PNG by Kingtau Mambon and Stephen Howes
PNG’s progress since independence: 3 out of 10 by James Marape
PNG’s latest revenue projections: defying gravity? by Alyssa Leng
Child abuse in PNG: time to step up by Stephen Howes and Estelle Stambolie
Working with patronage in Papua New Guinea by Mark Moran
History repeats itself in Western Province by Colin Filer and Michael Wood
Ten years of Femili PNG by Elly Toimbo
Pacific migration and labour mobility
Remittances from Tongan Migrant Workers series by Hiroshi Maeda, Ryan Edwards and Daniel Suryadarma
PEV quotas: winners and losers by Stephen Howes
Fiji’s emigration boom: will it last? by Stephen Howes and Sharon Liu
Time for a PNG engagement visa by Natasha Turia and Stephen Howes
Why Kiribati should say yes to the Pacific Engagement Visa by Akka Rimon
Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme asylum seekers series by Stephen Howes
Personal stories
Life is challenging but also rewarding by Marcia Wak
A journey worth reflecting on – growing up in PNG by Aquila Warai
Farewells
Aid as a two-way street: Bill Hayden on aid, development and PNG by Development Policy Centre
Father of geology in Papua New Guinea dies at 89 by Anonymous
Tribute to PNG’s John Waiko: scholar and politician by Keith Jackson
