It’s been a massive year for aid and development in Australia and globally. The Development Policy Centre was proud to host events and publish a stream of blog articles and podcasts that brought together academics, policy makers, development practitioners and younger researchers to discuss global and regional changes and debate ideas for a more generous, peaceful and sustainable future.
Ahead of the federal election, we published a blog series based on an important piece of research by Alyssa Leng, Ryan Edwards and Terence Wood which found that people’s perceptions of migrants are inaccurate, but can be changed when additional information is provided. We also co-produced a special election podcast to provide a comprehensive look at the competing priorities and policy proposals shaping the aid debate with the Australian Council for International Development, the International Development Contractors Community and the Safer World for All Campaign.
Our Pacific labour mobility research team launched Wave Two of the Pacific Labour Mobility Survey while continuing to track Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme changes and the scheme’s impacts on regional communities — as well as reporting on the outcomes of the first and second round of the Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) allocation process. Catch up with Natasha Turia’s PEV analysis via blogs and a podcast.
We brought together academics and government representatives at the 2025 Pacific Update, co-hosted by the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, from 3-5 July. Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Baron Waqa called for Pacific unity and Tovi Amona brought us a story of hope as PNG businesses fund the fight against violence. Stephen Howes and Rubayat Chowdhury launched a discussion paper which argues that GDP is a misleading indicator of economic performance in the Pacific, and that the focus should be on Gross National Disposable Income.
The 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence on 16 September was an important milestone which the Centre celebrated in a number of ways in PNG and Canberra. Stephen Howes led a team of ANU and University of PNG (UPNG) economists which co-authored a new economic history of PNG, Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust. We co-hosted a special program at the 2025 PNG Update on 21-22 August at UPNG which featured reflections from significant public figures such as Bougainville’s John Momis, Dame Carol Kidu and Sir Bart Philemon.
Looking towards the future, Grant Walton and Michael Kabuni launched a comprehensive report on anti-corruption efforts in PNG at the August Update. We supported the PNG Canberra Students Association to host a symposium in September at the Crawford School of Public Policy featuring eminent academics, former UPNG Vice-Chancellor Albert Mellam and Ron May in conversation with members of the new generation of PNG researchers.
At the start of the year, while everyone was reeling from the dismantling of USAID, Robin Davies mapped the donor funding landscape to assess whether we are really seeing the end of foreign aid. Blog authors were concerned about the sudden gaps in aid funding and also humanitarian leadership, citing multiple protracted crises such as Africa and the Middle East, in particular the conflict in Gaza, and close to home in Myanmar. Yet some saw grounds for optimism.
So from 3-5 December, when we held the 2025 Australasian Aid and International Development Conference in Canberra with our long-time co-hosts, The Asia Foundation, more than 600 people joined us to reflect and look ahead. The conversation ranged over topics from the recent International Court of Justice ruling on climate inaction to continuing human rights violations in places like Afghanistan. And Eric Olander gave us a reality check during the annual Mitchell Oration — saying that China will not replace aid from Western donors but is rebuilding the international development arena in its own way.
Finally, Robin Davies, Finn Clarke and I produced the 12th season of the Devpolicy Talks podcast this year. We had excellent guests including Helen Durham who delivered the AAC dinner keynote, Biman Prasad on Pacific economics and Nina Schwalbe and Judith Cefkin on the Trump-era aid landscape. We started the year with a series on the important issue of food security in the era of climate change and end with the voices from our region talking about the strength of Pacific democracy.
Aid and Development
The casual cruelty of USAID’s demise by Bob McMullan
Burden-shedding: the unravelling of the OECD aid consensus by Robin Davies
“Manufactured chaos”: Trump 2.0 puts his stamp on US foreign aid by Cameron Hill
A Silver Linings Playbook for the aid sector in 2025 by Lisa Denney
2025 federal election special Devpolicy Talks podcast
Have Trump’s cuts made Australians kinder? 2025 aid attitudes survey by Terence Wood and Cameron Hill
The Beyond Aid series on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development by Nicola Nixon, Mandakini D. Surie, Su Lae Yi and Ojashwi KC
China, the Global South and the post-American international order by Eric Olander
The continuing ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan by Matiullah Qazizada
Beyond the rhetoric: youth and anti-corruption efforts in Indonesia by Garry Rosario da Gama
Message for Myanmar: “If you need anything, let me know, naw.” by J Hlaing
How should Australia respond to the starvation of Gaza? by Annabel Dulhunty
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders Australia series
The Pacific
Public opinion on immigration: more malleable than you think by Alyssa Leng, Ryan Edwards and Terence Wood
Understanding Pacific communities in Australia: where do they live? by Huiyuan Liu and Toan Nguyen
GNDI: a new approach to measuring economic performance in the Pacific by Stephen Howes and Rubayat Chowdhury
The 2025 Pacific Engagement Visa is open — how did it go in 2024? by Natasha Turia and Stephen Howes
No evidence SWP affected domestic farm worker earnings by Ryan Edwards and Toan Nguyen
Women in New Zealand’s RSE scheme: a small but stable workforce by Charlotte Bedford
Pregnancy, parenting and the PALM scheme by Lindy Kanan
The burden of chairing the Pacific Islands Forum by Sione Tekiteki
Vindicating Pacific climate leadership: what does the ICJ decision mean? by Bal Kama
Papua New Guinea
Struggle, reform, boom and bust: a profound wake-up call for PNG by Ian Ling-Stuckey
Papua New Guinea at 50 – a reflection by Maholopa Laveil
50 years of independence has failed the Polopa people by Busa Jeremiah Wenogo
Ten things to celebrate on PNG’s 50th anniversary of independence by Luke McKenzie
PNG’s fight against corruption must draw on its culture by Yuambari Haihuie
Political will and anti-corruption reform in PNG: between hope and reality by Grant Walton and Michael Kabuni
Bel isi PNG: a public-private partnership responds to family and sexual violence by Tovi Amona
Respectful relationships: the missing piece in PNG’s education curriculum by Michael Suau
Gendered differences in student attitudes to gender by Anna Kapil and Stephen Howes
What women want: water access and representation in PNG by Safa Fanaian, Grant Walton and John Cox
Unwanted births and fertility in Papua New Guinea by Kingtau Mambon
To you, who hold power and will listen by Naomi Woyengu
Reflections
Vale Charles Lepani by Stephen Howes
Honouring our sister, Agnes Titus by Helen Hakena, Julie Bukikun, Shamima Ali and Sabet Cox
Ovu ga hoe! I will not go! by Gordon Peake
Join the conversation
The Devpolicy Blog is produced by Robin Davies and Amita Monterola. We are pleased to be able to share our content daily with the Pacific media outlets thanks to our regional consultant Sadhana Sen.
We welcome blog submissions from a range of authors including academics outside ANU, policy makers, development practitioners, journalists and students. Please read our guidelines carefully before submitting a blog.
We are taking a break from publishing from Friday 19 December until Monday 12 January. However you can submit at any time via our article submission form and, for new authors, the associated contributor profile form. We will get back to you in the New Year.
We are happy to take suggestions for podcast guests and topics. Please email your suggestions to devpolicy@anu.edu.au.
This is the 15th article in the annual Best of the Blog series, which started in 2011.
Thank you for this fantastic resource, keeping Pacific issues alive and in focus.