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.

Unlocking the economic benefits of gender equality
Unlocking the economic benefits of gender equality
12.30–1.30pm 26 May 2023
Giorgia Demarchi

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New World Bank research recently published in a Bank report, Unlocking the Economic Benefits of Gender Equality, makes a clear economic case for faster action on gender equality in Papua New Guinea. It finds that bridging the substantial difference between men’s and women’s participation in better, more productive paid employment could raise GDP per capita by an additional 20% in the space of a generation. The report also estimates that annual productivity losses from absenteeism related to gender-based violence account for at least 0.5% of GDP, though the real cost is much higher. The report highlights the potentially significant economic gains to be made through efforts to address gender inequality, including improvements in overall family incomes, more substantial education and training, and increased economic productivity. It concludes with a number of important policy recommendations.

Speaker:
Giorgia Demarchi, Senior Social Development Specialist and EAP Regional Gender Coordinator, World Bank

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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2023 aid budget breakfast
2023 aid budget breakfast
9–10am 10 May 2023
Professor Stephen Howes, Dr Terence Wood, Dr Cameron Hill, Huiyuan (Sharon) Liu

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» watch livestream replay
» read blog

Against the backdrop of the global “polycrisis”, the Albanese government is drawing up a new international development policy, a review of Australia’s approach to development finance, and a ten-year capability plan for DFAT. What might this all mean for Australian aid as the Treasurer hands down the 2023-24 Federal Budget on Tuesday 9 May?

The Devpol team present the latest analysis on Australia’s aid budget, aid policy and performance, and the global aid outlook.

Devpol team

Professor Stephen Howes, Director

Dr Terence Wood, Fellow

Dr Cameron Hill, Senior Research Officer

Huiyuan (Sharon) Liu, Research Officer

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Change in PNG’s fresh food marketplaces over the past 60 years
Change in PNG’s fresh food marketplaces over the past 60 years
12.30–1.30pm 28 April 2023
Dr Timothy Sharp, Dr Mark Busse and Dr Mike Bourke OL

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Fresh food marketplaces are vital to food security, livelihoods, and the national economy in Papua New Guinea. They are spaces of both strong continuity with the past, but also of considerable transformation, particularly in the last 20 years. Marketplaces have spread geographically, and operate more often. There have also been shifts in what is being sold, and who is selling the produce, including the gender composition of vendors. Market chains have also grown in complexity. In this seminar, based on our recently published paper in Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, we bring together research on marketplaces from 1961 to 2022, based on our own field studies and an extensive review of the literature. We summarise the changes, examine their causes, and explore their development implications.

Speakers:
Dr Timothy Sharp is a geographer in the Pacific Livelihoods Research Group at Curtin University, Perth. Tim’s research examines fresh food marketplaces, export cash crops, trade intermediaries, informality, and livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea.

Dr Mark Busse is an economic anthropologist and a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Auckland. He has done research in Papua New Guinea since 1982, including in fresh food markets in Western Province and Goroka.

Dr Mike Bourke OL is an agricultural scientist and geographer, and an honorary associate professor at The Australian National University. He has been continuously engaged in research, development and training in agriculture, including marketed fresh food, in PNG since 1970.

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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Interhousehold transfers in urban PNG: a study from the 1980s
Interhousehold transfers in urban PNG: a study from the 1980s
1.30–2.30pm 31 March 2023
Dr Louise Morauta

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Urban household surveys were conducted in 1982 and 1983 in PNG with the aim of describing interhousehold transfers in poorer urban households and the effect of transfers on the wellbeing of those households. Four census units were selected with high proportions of households without wage earners, two in Port Moresby and two in Madang. Although initial findings from the study were issued at the time, the full data and analysis has only recently been published.

The surveys record higher levels of transfers than other urban studies in the period 1975 to 1996. Transfers had the effect of reducing differences in consumption between households, particularly differences in food consumption, and were most important for the welfare of the poorest households.

Despite the system of transfers, many households in the four study areas received less than 100 per cent of their nutritional requirements in relation to both calories and protein.

Speaker
Dr Louise Morauta was a senior research fellow at the PNG Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research at the time of this research. She taught anthropology and sociology at the University of Papua New Guinea, and worked in the Australian Public Service from 1987 to 2009.

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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Workshop on the Microeconomics of Development in the Pacific
Workshop on the Microeconomics of Development in the Pacific
9am 14 February – 1.45pm 15 February 2023
Various speakers

In 2022, the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and The Australian National University (ANU) conducted a joint call for research proposals from early career researchers—final year PhD up to maximum five years post-PhD – to conduct empirical economics research on Pacific Island countries. The three main goals of the call were to (a) encourage the use of promising new microdata for the region, (b) encourage early-career economists to take an interest in and work on the region, and (c) grow the evidence base related to pertinent development issues. The Workshop on the Microeconomics of Development in the Pacific shares the seven selected papers from emerging scholars, provides an update on recent developments in the Pacific data ecosystem, and offers two exciting international keynote presentations of frontier research in development economics.

Program

Day 1: Tuesday 14 February

9.00–9.15am – Opening remarks

Paul J. Burke, Professor of Economics, Head of the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, and Deputy Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU

Ryan Edwards, Deputy Director, Development Policy Centre, ANU

Daniel Suryadarma, Research Fellow, ADBI

9.15–10.00am – Keynote: The psychology of poverty

Victoria Baranov, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne

Moderator: Paul J. Burke, ANU

10.00–10.45am – Paper 1: Mother education and child well-being: evidence from four Pacific countries

Joseph Marshan, ANU
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Moderator: Paul J. Burke, ANU

Discussant: Tristram Sainsbury, ANU

10.45–11.10am Morning tea

11.10–11.55am – Paper 2: Family size and domestic violence: an instrumental variable analysis in the Pacific

Dyah Pritadrajati, ANU
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Moderator: Huiyuan (Sharon) Liu, ANU

Discussant: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

11.55am–12.40pm – Paper 3: Does biomass cooking fuel use affect early childhood development? A case study from Kiribati

Ashar Awan, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
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Moderator: Huiyuan (Sharon) Liu, ANU

Discussant: Debasish Das, ANU

12.40–1.50pm – Lunch

1.50 – 2.35pm – Data Session 1: Introducing the Pacific Observatory

David Gould, Lead Economist, World Bank

Utz Johann Pape, Senior Economist, World Bank

Moderator: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

2.35 – 3.20pm – Paper 4: Global value chains in the Pacific Island countries: patterns and structure

Upalat Korwatanasakul, Waseda University
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Moderator: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

Discussant: Abyaya Neopane, ANU

3.20–3.40pm – Afternoon tea

3.40–4.25pm – Paper 5: How does the Vessel Days Scheme impact tuna catch in the Pacific?

Champa Bati Dutta, University of New South Wales

Moderator: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

Discussant: Eko Sumando, ANU

4.25 – 4.30pm – Closing

Daniel Suryadarma, Research Fellow, ADBI

6.30pm – Conference dinner (by invitation only)

Lemongrass Thai, Melbourne Building (65 London Circuit)

Day 2: Wednesday 15 February

9.00–9.10am – Welcome

Professor Helen Sullivan, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU

9.10 – 9.50am – Keynote: Cash Transfer Timeliness, Mental Health, and Food Insecurity in Pandemic Times

Teresa Molina, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Moderator: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

9.50 – 10.35am – Paper 6: The UN-REDD Programme for conserving tropical rainforests in Papua New Guinea

Warnakulasooriya Lakmini Priyanthi Fernando, Institute of Policy Studies
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Moderator: Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

Discussant: Ryan Edwards, ANU

10.35–11.00am – Morning tea

11.00–11.45am – Paper 7: Natural disasters, extension, and agricultural productivity in Papua New Guinea

Rifai Afin, Doctoral School of Economics, Institute of Statistical and Mathematical Modeling, Corvinus University of Budapest
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Moderator: Ryan Edwards, ANU

Discussant: : Thomas Wangi, ANU

11.45am–12.30pm – Data session 2: Situation and possibilities for the Pacific Data Hub Microdata Library

Peter Ellis, Director, Statistics for Development Division, Secretariat of the Pacific Community

Moderator: Ryan Edwards, ANU

12.30–1.45pm – Closing, followed with lunch

Ryan Edwards, ANU

END OF WORKSHOP

2.00–3.30pm – Special ACDE Seminar, open to the public (optional)

Weston Theatre

Using technology to prevent fraud in high stakes national school examinations: evidence from Indonesia
Daniel Suryadarma, ADBI

Moderator: Ryan Edwards, ANU

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Updated:  21 November 2024/Responsible Officer:  Devpolicy Admin/Page Contact:  CAP Web Team