ANU-UPNG Partnership

Overview
Reports
Seminars

2022 Master of Economic and Public Policy (MEPP) students pictured with their lecturer Dr Nematullah Bizhan (centre).

The partnership between the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business and Public Policy (SBPP) and the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy (Crawford) Development Policy Centre (Devpol) commenced in 2012. In March 2015, a new MOU between these two national universities strengthened the foundation for this collaboration, and in 2018 the MOU was extended for a further three years. In 2023, the MOU was extended beyond the two Schools to cover and encourage all areas of cooperation between the two universities.

In August 2015, a new grant agreement between ANU and the Australian Aid program significantly expanded the partnership until 2020. A second phase of the project, also supported by Australian Aid, currently underway, continues the partnership to 2025.

The ANU-UPNG Partnership provides direct benefit to hundreds of students, some of whom will go on to be future leaders, and also helps strengthen SBPP, especially in the key areas of economics and public policy.

The ANU-UPNG Partnership has a focus on strengthening SBPP teaching and the student experience, collaborative research and outreach, and exchanges for faculty and students in economics and public policy.

Strengthening SBPP teaching and the student experience

Since 2015, ANU staff have been teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses across the Division of Economics and the Division of Public Policy Management. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the teaching staff had to return to Australia at the end of March 2020. Staff continued to deliver lectures to UPNG remotely through 2020 and 2021 – with the support of the remaining staff member still based in Port Moresby. Since 2022, teaching has been a mix of online and in-person.

Collaborative research and outreach

The Development Policy Centre is involved in a variety of collaborative research with SBPP UPNG. The Centre and the School co-host the annual PNG Update which has been held at UPNG’s Waigani Campus (Port Moresby) since 2014.

The PNG Update is the country’s premier forum for the analysis of contemporary economic and social issues and feedback from attendees suggests that participation, discussion and quality of conference has significantly improved over time. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to hold the conference in 2020 and 2021. The PNG Update was held in October 2022 and August 2023, and was opened by PNG Prime Minister James Marape in both years.

We also support a number of other workshops and seminars, and many Devpol faculty undertake PNG-related research under the rubric of the PNG Project. The Centre provides outreach for our collaborative work through a variety of channels, including blog posts and occasional discussion papers. ANU-UPNG public seminars are held monthly, in person at UPNG and ANU and online.

The edited collection Papua New Guinea: Government, Economy and Society was published by ANU Press in March 2022. Edited by Devpol Director Stephen Howes and Executive Dean of the School of Business and Public Policy at UPNG Lekshmi N. Pillai, it features contributors from both the ANU and UPNG. The collection was launched at the 2022 PNG Update by PNG Prime Minister James Marape.

Faculty exchanges

We encourage two-way visits between ANU and UPNG staff, with a particular focus on staff development. We sponsor the best SBPP economics graduates to study the Master’s in International and Development Economics (MIDEC) at the ANU Crawford School and they return to SBPP to lecture.

The summer school program brings ten of the top performing final-year undergraduate students in economics and public policy from UPNG to Canberra to study at Crawford School and meet key figures in the Australia-PNG relationship. The summer school program began in 2018, paused in 2021 and 2022, and resumed in 2023.

Partnership staff

The current Devpol staff involved in the ANU-UPNG Partnership include:

Nematullah Bizhan — Senior Lecturer, ANU-UPNG Partnership Team Leader, and Visiting Lecturer, UPNG
Martin Davies - Professor of Economics, Washington and Lee University, Devpol Associate and Visiting Lecturer, UPNG
Stephen Howes - Devpol Director
Aloha Jeon - Program Officer
Alyssa Leng — Research Officer
Andrew Anton Mako – Project Coordinator and Visiting Lecturer, UPNG
Toan Nguyen – Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, UPNG
Finn Clarke — Research Assistance
Grant Walton - Associate Professor
Terence Wood - Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, UPNG

Phase II reporting and evaluation

Phase I reporting and evaluation

ANU-UPNG seminar series

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

The ANU-UPNG seminars are normally held on the last Friday of each month and can be joined in person at the UPNG campus or at ANU, or online via Zoom.

2024

Factors influencing Papua New Guinea not to implement the death penalty
Friday, 25 October 2024
Moses Sakai, Research Fellow, Papua New Guinea National Research Institute
» view the slides

Otonomi bilong wanem? Autonomy for what? Interfaces between identity, development, and decentralisation in PNG
Friday, 27 September 2024
James Reid Stiefvater, PhD Candidate, Massey University
» view the slides

Impact of excess reserves on monetary policy transmission in PNG
Friday, 5 July 2024
Thomas Wangi, Senior Research Fellow, National Research Institute

Living without electricity in urban communities
Friday, 7 June 2024
Loretta Dilu, Strategic Management Tutor, University of Papua New Guinea

Are government ministers in Papua New Guinea more likely to be re-elected?
Friday, 3 May 2024
Alyssa Leng, Research Officer, Development Policy Centre
» view the slides

Papua New Guinea’s fiscal decentralisation: Lessons from the last 15 years
Friday, 5 April 2024
Maholopa Laveil, Lecturer, University of Papua New Guinea
» read blog series

Pacific remittances: channels, costs, and the potential gains from switching
Friday, 1 March 2024
Ryan Edwards (Development Policy Centre), Hiroshi Maeda and Daniel Suryadarma (Asian Development Bank Institute)
» view presentation

2023

Gender norms, bargaining power and spousal violence in PNG
Friday, 27 October 2023
Alexander Smith, post-graduate student, Crawford School of Public Policy
» view presentation

Benchmarking Welfare Outcomes in Papua New Guinea
Friday, 29 September 2023
Dr Darian Naidoo, Economist, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank
»view presentation

Contemporary macroeconomic issues in Papua New Guinea
Friday, 28 July 2023
Dr Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre
»view presentation

Determinants of coffee production in PNG: challenges and opportunities
Friday, 30 June 2023
Associate Professor Eugene Ezebilo, Deputy Director for Research, PNG National Research Institute »view presentation

Unlocking the economic benefits of gender equality
Friday 26 May 2023
Giorgia Demarchi, Senior Social Development Specialist and EAP Regional Gender Coordinator, World Bank
» view presentation

Change in PNG’s fresh food marketplaces over the past 60 years
28 April 2023
Dr Timothy Sharp, Geographer, Pacific Livelihoods Research Group, Curtin University; Dr Mark Busse, Economic Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland; Dr Mike Bourke OL, Honorary Associate Professor, Australian National University
» view presentation

Interhousehold transfers in urban PNG: a study from the 1980s
31 March 2023
Dr Louise Morauta, Former Senior Research Fellow, PNG Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research
» view presentation

2022

The important, unanswered questions from PNG’s 2022 elections
28 October 2022
Dr Terence Wood, Research Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU
» view presentation

The determinants of excess reserves in the PNG banking system
30 September 2022
Thomas Wangi, PhD Scholar, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, ANU

Institutional sources of cooperation, competition and conflict in developing countries
2 September 2022, 12:30–1:30pm
Emeritus Professor William Maley

Financial inclusion in Papua New Guinea
5 August 2022
Laura Nettuno, PhD Scholar, Vanderbilt University
» view presentation

Real wage growth in Papua New Guinea over three decades
24 June 2022
Dr Martin Davies, Associate Professor of Economics, Washington and Lee University, and Visiting Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU
» view presentation

What has limited preferential voting changed in Papua New Guinea?
27 May 2022
Dr Terence Wood, Research Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Maholopa Laveil, Lecturer in Economics, School of Business and Public Policy, UPNG
» view presentation
» read paper

Making decentralisation work in PNG: lessons learnt and future directions
5 April 2022
Hon. Allan Bird, Governor of East Sepik Province, PNG
» watch livestream replay

Uneven development and its effects: livelihoods and urban and rural spaces in Papua New Guinea
25 March 2022
Dr John Cox, Honorary Lecturer, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU; Dr Grant Walton, Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Joshua Goa, Tutor, Division of Social Work, School of Humanities, UPNG; Dunstan Lawihin, Lecturer, Division of Social Work, School of Humanities, UPNG
» watch livestream replay
» view presentation
» read book chapter

Have living standards improved in PNG over the last two decades?
25 February 2022
Dr Manoj Pandey, Lecturer, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, ANU
» view presentation

2021

Whose right? Forceful evictions of informal settlements from state land in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
26 November 2021
Dr Michelle Nayahamui Rooney, Research Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU
» view presentation

Decentralisation in PNG: a political analysis
29 October 2021
Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Dr Lawrence Sause, Deputy Executive Dean (Resources and Planning), School of Business and Public Policy, UPNG; Dr Lhawang Ugyel, Lecturer, School of Business, University of New South Wales
» view presentation
» read book chapter

State fragility in PNG
1 October 2021
Dr Nematullah Bizhan, Lecturer in Public Policy, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Emanual Gorea, Head of Public Policy Management Division, School of Business and Public Policy, UPNG
» view presentation
» read paper

Communication, information and the media in PNG
27 August 2021
Dr Amanda H A Watson, Research Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU
» read book chapter

PNG’s economic trajectory: The long view
30 July 2021
Professor Stephen Howes, Director, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Rohan Fox, Research Officer, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Maholopa Laveil, Lecturer, Economics Division, UPNG; Luke McKenzie, Analyst, Department of the Treasury; Dr Albert Prabhakar Gudapati, Head of Economics Division, UPNG; Dek Joe Sum, Associate Lecturer and Project Coordinator, Development Policy Centre, ANU
» view presentation
» read book chapter

The path to kina convertibility: study of the foreign exchange market of Papua New Guinea
25 June 2021
Martin Davies, Associate Professor of Economics, Washington and Lee University; Visiting Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Visiting Associate Professor, UPNG
» view presentation
» read paper

Elections and Politics in Papua New Guinea
28 May 2021
Dr Terence Wood, Research Fellow, Development Policy Centre, ANU; Michael Kabuni, Lecturer, Political Science Division, UPNG; Maholopa Laveil, Lecturer, Economics Division, UPNG; Geejay P. Milli, Lecturer, Political Science Division, UPNG
» view presentation
» read book chapter