Past Events

This page provides a list of archived events we have held, including video recordings, related blogs, and (more recently) audio podcasts: Devpolicy Talks.

2022 Australasian AID Conference (AAC2022)
2022 Australasian AID Conference
12pm 28 November – 5pm 30 November 2022
Various speakers

After a break in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australasian AID Conference (AAC) returns in 2022. Having been held in February in previous years, the conference will be shifted to the end of the year, permanently. The 2022 Australasian AID Conference will be held on 28–30 November, in partnership with The Asia Foundation.

As in previous years, the aim of AAC2022 is to bring together researchers from across Australia, the Pacific, Asia and beyond who are working on aid and international development policy (the AID in the conference acronym) to share insights, promote collaboration, and support development within the research community. With more than 650 people registering in 2020, the AAC has established itself as Australia’s premier aid and development conference.

The main emphasis of AAC2022 will be on in-person attendance and presentations, with all the opportunities for interaction and networking thereby afforded. As before, AAC2022 will continue to offer livestreaming via YouTube of the Molonglo Theatre (main theatre) program however questions or comments will not be enabled through the livestream.

See more information about the conference.

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The important, unanswered questions from PNG’s 2022 elections
The important, unanswered questions from PNG’s 2022 elections
1.30–2.30pm 28 October 2022
Dr Terence Wood

» view presentation

Much is already clear about the 2022 elections in Papua New Guinea. They were bad, possibly the worst in the country’s history. Election-related violence was a serious problem, particularly in parts of the Highlands. The roll was inaccurate. Rumours of electoral conspiracies were rife online. Vote buying was a common problem.

Yet while aspects of the troubled 2022 elections are clear enough, there are still big uncertainties – questions that need to be answered if we are to understand what went wrong in 2022, and what can be expected from future elections. These questions cover areas ranging from election results, to parties, to struggles between aspiring prime ministers, to the future plans of international aid donors.

In this presentation, Dr Terence Wood outlined the main questions yet to be answered from the 2022 election, discuss possible answers, and discuss how associated challenges can be overcome.

Speaker
Dr Terence Wood is a Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His work includes the study of electoral politics in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. He maintains the Papua New Guinea Elections Database.

The ANU-UPNG seminar series is part of the partnership between the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and the UPNG School of Business and Public Policy, supported by the PNG-Aus Partnership.

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2022 PNG Update Day One
2022 PNG Update
9am–5pm 20 October 2022
Various speakers

Organised by the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business and Public Policy and the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre, the annual PNG Update is the premier forum for the discussion of research and analysis relating to contemporary economic and public policy issues in PNG.

The 2022 PNG Update will be held at the University of Papua New Guinea Waigani campus on 20–21 October. This year’s theme is “Pathways to development amid COVID-19 and beyond PNG’s 10th election”.

» download the full conference program and abstracts (PNG time)
Times shown are in Papua New Guinea time (GMT+10).

Find further information about the conference.

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The determinants of excess reserves in the PNG banking system
The determinants of excess reserves in the PNG banking system
12.30–1.30pm 30 September 2022
Thomas Wangi

This presentation examines why profit-maximising commercial banks in PNG demand non-remunerated excess reserves. An autoregressive distributed lag model is employed to estimate the determinants of excess reserves using time series data for the period January 2002 to December 2017. The model includes precautionary and involuntary factors that affect excess reserves in commercial banks. The findings suggest that discount rate, volatility of demand deposits and private sector deposits contribute to the accumulation of excess reserves, while foreign exchange reserves, private sector credit and treasury bill rates effectively reduce excess reserves pressure. The required reserve ratio, however, is not effective in influencing the demand for excess reserves. This empirical analysis concludes that involuntary variables are the leading determinants of excess reserves in PNG – and suggests that in order to address persistent excess reserves in the banking system, the central bank could consider potential policy interventions such as paying interest on reserves that commercial banks hold above the required limit and stimulating demand for domestic credit.

Speaker
Thomas Wangi, PhD Scholar, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, ANU

This seminar is free and open to the public. Registration is required to attend the seminar. You can attend at the Brindabella Theatre (Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU), at the MBA Suite (SBPP building, UPNG), or online via Zoom.

The ANU-UPNG seminar series is part of the partnership between the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and the UPNG School of Business and Public Policy, supported by the PNG-Aus Partnership.

» read more
Institutional sources of cooperation, competition and conflict in developing countries
Institutional sources of cooperation, competition and conflict in developing countries
12.30–1.30pm 2 September 2022
Emeritus Professor William Maley

When major problems surface in public policy development and implementation, it is very tempting to look for individuals to blame. In some circumstances, there may indeed be individuals to blame, but there are good reasons to believe that problems often run deeper than individual culpability. The design of institutions, in particular, can significantly influence the incentives which different actors face. Some institutional structures can foster cooperation, some can foster healthy competition, and some can trigger or fuel conflict. This presentation identifies some specific examples in constitutional, political and administrative realms, within the wider context of the divergence in political theory between philosophies that seek to empower people to do good, and those that seek to limit people’s capacity to do bad.

Speaker
Emeritus Professor William Maley, Australian National University

This seminar is free and open to the public. Registration is required to attend the seminar. You can attend at the Brindabella Theatre (Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU), at the MBA Suite (SBPP building, UPNG), or online via Zoom.

The ANU-UPNG seminar series is part of the partnership between the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and the UPNG School of Business and Public Policy, supported by the PNG-Aus Partnership.

» read more

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