“I am grateful for the opportunity and learning experience made possible by the scholarship. It is an amazing opportunity for young Pacific researchers like me to explore in-depth on issues facing the Pacific region. I would recommend any other researcher to take-on the opportunity to apply for the scholarship. I am very thankful for the scholarship!”, Bobby Kunda

The Greg Taylor scholarship entitles the awardee to undertake research at the ANU Crawford School as part of the Development Policy Centre for a period up to three months on a topic relating to the economic development of PNG and the Pacific.

The scholarships are made possible by a generous donation from an anonymous donor, and are named in the honour of Greg Taylor AO, whose former positions include: Executive Director of the IMF for both Australia and PNG, Secretary of various Australian Government Departments, advisor to the PNG Treasury Secretary, Chairman of the PNG Superannuation Task Force, and Director of PNG’s largest superannuation fund. Read more about Greg Taylor’s work in these two interviews with Stephen Howes.

2023 / 2024 round

David Poka and Anna Kapil 

David and Anna are currently undertaking a Master of International & Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University supported by the ANU-UPNG partnership.

David is researching local water governance in PNG, and Anna is researching changes in income taxation in PNG.

2022 / 2023 round

Moses David
Moses is currently undertaking a Master of International & Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.

Moses’ research interests are in the area of PNG’s financial sector development, with a particular focus on the current state and structure of the superannuation industry. Prior to commencing his postgraduate studies, Moses was Senior Economist for Kina Bank. In this role, he was responsible for leading the Bank’s work on research and publications for its clients, as well as liaising with key economic agencies with the PNG Government, particularly on economic sector reforms concerning the banking and finance industry. Moses has over 14 years of experience across government, economic development, and the private sector, focusing on banking and finance.

Under the scholarship, Moses will continue his research on PNG’s superannuation industry.

2021 / 2022 round

Kingtau Mambon
Kingtau Mambon is currently studying Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. Through the Partnership between ANU and the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), he was awarded a scholarship to pursue his master’s degree. He completed his bachelor’s degree in economics at UPNG in 2019. From 2019–2021, he was a tutor in the Economics Division of School Business and Public Policy, UPNG. He contributed to the compilation of the PNG Economic Database, which helped in the publication of the book titled, Papua New Guinea: Government, Economy, and Society.

Kingtau’s research focus is on economic development in Papua New Guinea and Pacific Island countries with particular interest in macroeconomics policy. Under supervision of Professor Stephen Howes, he is conducting research on major PNG political parties and their economic policies. During his research, he will also assist in updating the PNG Budget Database and PNG MP Database, and contribute to the documentation of the economic history of PNG.

2020 / 2021 round

Bobby Kunda
Bobby graduated at the end of 2021 from the Master of International and Development Economics (MIDEC) at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU). He completed his Bachelor of Economics in 2018 from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and was awarded a scholarship under the ANU-UPNG partnership to study at the ANU. Prior to joining MIDEC, he worked for a year as a tutor in the Economics department at UPNG. Bobby Kunda has returned to UPNG to lecture in Economics.

Bobby is a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Rubayat Chowdhury
Rubayat Chowdhury is currently undertaking his PhD in Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU). He is a recipient of Australia Awards Leadership Program (2013) and ODI Fellowship Scheme (2017). Rubayat was awarded the Helen Hughes prize by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific for being the top student in the graduating classes of 2013 and 2014 in his graduate diploma and master’s, respectively. He has previously worked at the central bank of Papua New Guinea as Economist (ODI Fellow) and the central bank of Bangladesh as Joint Director (Research).

Rubayat’s research is focused on open economy macroeconomics, monetary policy, and foreign exchange market in Asia and the Pacific.

Rubayat has contributed to a PNG economic time series project to document the economic history of PNG.

Ephraim Feto
Ephraim Feto completed his Masters in Environment and Resources Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. His research was focused on PNG’s resource sector.

With the support of the Scholarship, Ephraim contributed to the documentation of the economic history of PNG, to be published in a forthcoming book.

Ephraim works in the PNG Treasury.

2019 / 2020 round

Jollanda Mathew
Jollanda Mathew completed her Master of International and Development Economics at Crawford School of Public Policy, Australia National University (ANU). With the ongoing partnership program between ANU and University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), she was awarded a scholarship to pursue her Masters degree at ANU. Jollanda completed her Bachelor of Economics at UPNG and worked for a year as a tutor in the Economics department at UPNG.

Jollanda is passionate to do research that focuses on agricultural economics and development economics, mainly on the development progress of Papua New Guinea.

Jollanda is a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Kelly Samof
Kelly Samof completed a Master of International and Development Economics at the Australian National University (ANU). Under the current ANU-UPNG partnership program Kelly was awarded a scholarship to pursue his Master’s degree at the ANU. Before this, he completed a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and worked for a year as a tutor in the economics department at UPNG.

His current research interests are in development economics and international trade, with a focus on the natural resources sector and its impacts on developmental outcomes.

Kelly is a lecturer in Economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

2017 / 2018 round

Maholopa Laveil
Maholopa (Maho) Laveil holds a Masters of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy. He was the first recipient of the ANU scholarship, which funds a Masters scholarship at ANU for academics in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Maho’s research focuses on trade policy in Papua New Guinea and the application of trade protections.

He is a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

2016 / 2017 round

Neelesh Gounder
Neelesh Gounder is Senior Lecturer in economics and Deputy Head of School (Research and International) at the University of the South Pacific, Suva. He has PhD in economics from Griffith University.

Neelesh’s research areas include tourism, trade and growth in Pacific Island countries, poverty and economic performance of Pacific Island countries and banking sector and financial development in Pacific Island countries.

Neelesh is a recipient of Australian Leadership Awards (2009) and Australian Prime Ministers Pacific Australia Award (2012).

2015 / 2016 round

Serena Sumanop
Serena Sumanop completed the Master of Business from the Queensland University of Technology. She is a lawyer by profession and practiced with Gadens Lawyers before co-founding The Voice Inc., a dynamic youth development organization that runs leadership programs with young people in educational institutions in the country.

She was previously on the Management Committee for Femili PNG a non-government organisation that assists survivors of family and sexual violence to access the services they need. Serena reviewed the current legislation in PNG that relates to family and sexual violence and assisted with research on the current case management model.

She is currently CEO of PNG’s Digicel Foundation.

2014 / 2015 round

Logea Nao
Logea completed the Masters of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

Logea’s research focused on the important problem of domestic, family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea. Logea used the recent PNG Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) to understand its prevalence in PNG and identify how the problem relates to family and community characteristics, and how victims of violence respond to the problem.

Logea is a Research Fellow in the Sustainable Land Development Program at PNG National Research Institute.

Futua Singirok
Futua completed the Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

Futua analysed the HIES to understand the characteristics of internal migrant households in PNG, such as their prevalence, ethnicity, relative education and income, and contribution to meeting costs of living of extended family members through remittances.

Futua now works at Bank South Pacific in PNG.

2013 round

Thomas Wangi
As the 2013 recipient of The Greg Taylor scholarship, Thomas researched public-sector pay in PNG, producing this discussion paper and blog. He holds a Master of Economics from James Cook University, and was a lecturer in the economics division at The University of Papua New Guinea.

Thomas has since completed a PhD at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, and is working at PNG’s National Research Institute.