Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 71 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. This episode is focused on the impact COVID19 will have on both developing countries and the aid and development sector. This week, I spoke on ABC’s Radio National Saturday Extra Program, on the topic of the Pacific and COVID19. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/ In today’s episode I’m speaking to Fiona Tarpey and Chris Roche. Fiona Tarpey is the Head of Advocacy for the International Programs Department of the Australian Red Cross. She is also Co-Chair of ACFIDs Development Practice Committee. Chris Roche is the Director of the Institute for Human Security and Social Change at La Trobe University, and a Senior Research Partner of the Developmental Leadership Program. Chris and Fiona jointly authored an article for the Devpolicy blog this week, titled ‘COVID19, localisation and locally led development: A critical juncture’. In sum, the article argued that COVID19 will force a large-scale transfor

Welcome to Episode 70 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Radhika Coomaraswamy. Radhika is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and human rights advocate. She has held a range of appointments within the United Nations, including as Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict from 2006 to 2012, as lead author on a global study into Women, Peace and Security in 2014, and most recently as a Member in the United Nations Fact Finding Mission to Myanmar, following atrocities committed against the Rohinyga. Radhika was a keynote speaker at the recent Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre and The Asia Foundation on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, which we discuss in this episode. It was an incredibly powerful speech. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6eQlF5MYUQ#t=26m20s Radhika and I talk about her experience growing up in Sri Lanka, including her reflections on having Indian independence leader Mahatma Gand

Welcome to Episode 69 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today's guest is Mark Sullivan. Mark is a drug development expert and the founder of Medicines Development for Global Health (https://www.medicinesdevelopment.com). Along with his colleague John Reeder, Mark was featured in the Development Policy Centre’s Aid Profile Series in 2019 and was nominated for the Mitchell Humanitarian Award, which he they jointly won in Canberra in February of this year. Mark’s Aid Profile, authored by Robin Davies of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, detailed the incredible efforts Mark and John have undertaken to end river blindness, a debilitating and historically neglected diseases afflicting tens of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. https://devpolicy.org/aidprofiles/2020/01/31/really-ending-river-blindness-mark-sullivan-and-john-reeder/ In this episode we discuss what river blindness is, and why some diseases are neglected by the pharmaceutical sector. Mark explains why h

Welcome to Episode 68 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Sally Lloyd. Sally was featured in the Development Policy Centre’s 2019 Aid Profiles, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Mitchell Humanitarian Award. Cleo Fleming documented Sally’s life in Mogulu, PNG, as part of the Devpol Aid Profiles series: https://devpolicy.org/aidprofiles/2019/09/12/sally-lloyd-the-essence-of-community-development/ I interviewed Sally at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre and the Asia Foundation a few weeks back - we were lucky to get her in Canberra for a few days, as she spends much of her time in PNG. Sally grew up in Mogulu, in the Western Province of PNG, after her parents moved there as missionaries in the late 1960s. At the time, PNG was still under Australian administration, which it remained until independence in 1975. By the age of 9, Sally had learned to assist her mum in delivering babies, and by age 16 Sally had established the first pre

Welcome to Episode 67 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Lant Pritchett. Lant is described as a ‘Rock Star’ of the aid world. He is an American development economist, famous for challenging contemporary beliefs on development. Lant recently spoke at the Australasian Aid Conference, hosted by the Development Policy Centre, on why great intentions and great policies don’t always lead to great outcomes - he speaks about the importance of contextualising development approaches, or in other words, why we all can’t just adopt Finland’s education policies. What works in one spot, may fail to work in another, if it doesn’t account for the real, lived experience of locals and the nuances of the social, economic and political system - it sounds rather obvious - we’d all agree that development approaches need to be relevant for the local context - but it doesn’t always play out in practice. Lant’s views are challenging, and often controversial, and he delivers each point with

Welcome to Episode 66 of Good Will Hunters, from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Virisila Buadromo. Virisila is a Pacific feminist and political activist, who co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights for Asia and the Pacific, which is a rapid grant making facility to support female-identifying activists who need urgent assistance. Prior to joining the Urgent Action Fund, Virisila was at the helm of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement for 14 years. Virisila recently presented at the Australian Aid Conference, on the topic of donor funding for women and girls throughout the Pacific. She also appeared on Q&A in November 2019, alongside former guests of this program, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Alex Hawke and the Honourable Enele Sopoaga, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu. In this episode, Virisila and I discuss human rights in Fiji, and whether climate change is used to deflect scrutiny away from other issues, including the treatment of women, girls and

Welcome to Episode 65 of Good Will Hunters. In this episode, I’m chatting to Eric Peck, the Co-Founder and CEO of Swoop Aero, a company revolutionising access to healthcare, by providing on-demand aircraft, or drones, to deliver urgent medical supplies to rural and regional areas. They’re currently deployed in Vanuatu, as well as a couple of other countries which you’ll hear about in this episode. I’m not going to tell you too much about their story - I want to let Eric tell you for himself. What I will say, is that this episode is really important. I have worked in the Pacific over the last 6 or so years, and I’ve visited some really remote and rural places, particularly in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Some villages that I’ve visited are only accessible on foot - they might be a 3-day walk from the nearest town, or in the case of some of the Pacific Island Countries, they may be a three-day boat trip from the nearest medical facility. And yet many of these countries have some of the highest rates of i

Welcome to Episode 64 of Good Will Hunters, our Third Impact Investment Masterclass with Rosemary Addis, and the fourth time we’ve had Rosemary on the show. Rosemary is one of the world’s preeminent impact pioneers. She has helped to shape the system to deliver innovation and investment that benefits people and the planet. Her global portfolio includes Trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Senior Advisor to United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Impact and she has been an expert reviewer for impact initiatives of the OECD and World Economic Forum. Rosemary’s 30+ years track record spans sectors, disciplines and geographies from a global legal career with Allens-Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis NY, where she ranked among the world’s leading lawyers, to the first Social Innovation Strategist for the Australian Government and member of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK Presidency of the G8 where she was invited to represent Australia as the only partici

Welcome to Episode 63 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. I’m loving the opportunity to air these episodes from the Forum with you, as we confirm our interview line-up for the coming months. We’ll also be airing two new interviews before the end of January, and then kick-off our full interview line-up from February onwards. So - today’s episode is a panel discussion on monitoring and evaluation. You’ll hear three speakers - the first is me! And the following two are former guests of this show - Stephen Howes from the Development Policy Centre and Georgina Camp from Huber Social. I chat about some basic questions to consider when discussing M&E, Stephen discusses the roles of academics and how they can assist with evaluating your international programs, and Georgie discusses the research methodologies employed by Huber Social. This episode is a great one for anyone looking to understand M&E for international development organisations better. I always love speaking

Welcome to Episode 62 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. You’ll hear three speakers in this episode discussing partnerships between donors and NGOs. Emily Fuller, Director, Mundango Abroad, Emily Wellard-Baring, Senior Philanthropy & Non Profit Services Manager, Perpetual and Luke Branagan, Director of Philanthropic Services, JBWere. They discuss private, strategic and corporate philanthropy, providing great insights for any organisation looking to grow their donor network, or diversify their funding sources. We’ve got a few more episodes to air that were also recorded at the NGO Forum - I’m really excited to be sharing them with you all, and to be able to preserve some of the great learnings of the event. I also wanted to add that we have a pretty huge year ahead of us here at Good Will Hunters - I’ll share more about it with you in the coming weeks, but one thing I will say now is that you’ll see and hear a lot more guests from our region - I’m committed to am

Welcome to Episode 61 of Good Will Hunters, recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum in October 2019. You’ll hear three speakers - Mat Tinkler, Director of Policy and International Programs, Save the Children, Sophie Jenkins, Partnerships and Performance Group Leader, Mary Mackillop Today and Brayden Howie, CEO, Action on Poverty. The discussion focuses on the challenges and opportunities orgs face partnering, consolidating and merging. I’ve always loved the example of Save the Children - they’ve made some high profile acquisitions in recent years, as well as launched a couple of social enterprises to diversify their revenue. We’ve had CEO Paul Ronalds on the show, so if you’d like to hear more about consolidation you’ll find Paul’s episode on our website and all of podcast platforms. Mary McKillop Today and Action on Poverty have also had interesting experiences with mergers and partnerships and I trust you’ll find the commentary of Mat, Sophie and Brayden insightful. Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 60 of Good Will Hunters. In this episode, I’m chatting to Bridi Rice. Bridi is Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Australian Council for International Development – Australia’s peak body for aid and international development. Prior to joining ACFID, Bridi was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, delivering strategy, policy and project advice for domestic and international governments on social justice matters. She also worked in Papua New Guinea for three years as the Australian Government’s Senior Legal Adviser on anti-corruption and money laundering. Bridi has over 12 years’ experience in human rights and international development, having worked in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, Uganda, Qatar and the Pacific. She is currently completing postgraduate research with La Trobe University on counterpart perspectives of expatriate advisers in Papua New Guinea. Bridi is an emerging leader in the sector who is passionate about the intersection of development and human security – putting hum

Welcome to Episode 59 of Good Will Hunters, with Nigel Spence, the Outgoing CEO of ChildFund Australia. Nigel retired from ChildFund at the end of 2019, after 14 years with the organisation. Under his leadership, ChildFund has expanded its programs to children and young people in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, and commenced new operations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Timor-Leste. Nigel is taking some time off to continue his studies into child protection policies in Vietnam, before continuing his work in the social sector in Australia. You may recall a few weeks back I aired the talk that Nigel delivered at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum organised by the Kokoda Track Foundation in Sydney in October 2019. In this episode Nigel and I dive a bit deeper into some topics that are very important to our sector, including Sport For Development, our Aid Review and Child Sponsorship. In this episode, you’ll hear Nigel and I talk about ChildFund’s work in the area of sport for development. It feels like sport and aid

Welcome to Episode 58 of Good Will Hunters, with Bob McMullen! Bob was recommended to me by another one of our former guests, Rosie When, the CEO of WaterAid. Rosie and Bob have worked together, including through Bob’s role as the Chair of the Australian Water Partnership Advisory Committee. Bob was elected national secretary of the Australian Labour Party in 1981 and directed the ALPs 3 successful election campaigns in the 1980s. Between 1996 and 2007 Bob held a number of Shadow Ministerial positions including Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Finance and Small Business and Shadow Minister for Federal and State Relations, and after the election of the Rudd Government in November 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance. Bob is now a member of the high-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, which was mobilized during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Crawford School of the Aust

Welcome to Episode 57 of Good Will Hunters with the Honourable Pat Conroy. Pat is the Member for Shortland in NSW. He is also the Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Shadow Minister Assisting for Climate Change and the Shadow Minister Assisting for Defence. Pat has held the portfolios since June of 2019. In this episode, Pat responds to the comments made by Minister Alex Hawke on this show a few weeks back. We chat about the intersection of our aid program and climate change, the consequences of reducing our aid budget along with our presence in many regions of the world, the focus on infrastructure in the Pacific, matters of natural security and regional stability, and a lot more. As you would know, it’s a really pivotal time to be discussing aid and what our new aid policy should look like. The ALP and the Coalition have different perspectives on our aid program, and I hope that through these episodes we can unpack what those differences are and contribute to a more informe

Welcome to Episode 56 of Good Will Hunters, with Stephen Howes. Stephen is a Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. Stephen is also the Director of the Development Policy Centre. The Centre is a leading think tank on aid and development, undertaking independent research and promoting practical initiatives to improve the effectiveness of Australian aid. A few weeks back Stephen and I were on a panel together at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum organised by the Kokoda Track Foundation, and following that I asked him to be on the show. More recently, Stephen wrote an article for the Lowy Institute on our recent interview with Minister Alex Hawke - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/stepping-pacific-expense-pakistani-women-and-girls In this episode, we discuss the Australian Aid program, including the Pacific Step-Up, InnovationXChange, Biltaeral Aid Investment Plans, and the refresh of the aid policy that’s on the horizon. We also discuss t

Welcome to Episode 55 of Good Will Hunters, with Nigel Spence, the outgoing-CEO of ChildFund Australia. This episode was recorded at the Pawa Liklik NGO Forum hosted by the Kokoda Track Foundation in October 2019. KTF launched the forum as a platform to discuss the challenges facing small and medium NGOs working in international development. Visit https://www.ktf.ngo to learn more about KTF and the forum. Nigel was one of the keynote speakers at the forum, and reflected on his time as ChildFund CEO, including the drive for innovation, collaboration and strengths-based approaches. I am interviewing Nigel in a few weeks, so I'd love for you to listen to this episode and send me some questions to ask him! He is a wealth of knowledge and insight, as you'll hear. Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team

Welcome to Episode 54 of Good Will Hunters, with Watna Mori, Papua New Guinean-Australian human rights lawyer. Watna and I attended the Australia-PNG Emerging Leader's Dialogue together a few weeks ago. I met Watna at Brisbane Airport and I think about 10 seconds into our conversation we were already laughing - which you’ll certainly hear us do more of in this episode. Watna grew up between Papua New Guinea and Australia. She studied law, and now works primarily in the area of human rights law. She has also worked in the Manus Island and Nauru Detention Centres representing asylum seekers. Watna also does a whole lot more, which we’ll start to unpack in this episode. You’ll hear us chat about growing up between Australia and PNG, Australia’s colonial legacy and the impact of offshore detention on that legacy, the need for more locally owned tourism in PNG, the future of Australian aid to PNG, and more. This episode gets to the heart of a few topics that are very important to me, and so many of us - offs

Welcome to Episode 53 of Good Will Hunters, with the Right Honourable Alex Hawke, Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Assistant Minister for Defence. The Minister was sworn into office on May 28, 2019. He has spent much of the last 6 months travelling throughout the Pacific Islands and PNG, understanding the concerns of our nearest neighbours. In this episode, we cover a whole range of topics relating to the aid and development agenda in Australia, including the nexus of defence and development, climate change support to the Pacific, debt sustainability, funding for infrastructure versus funding for health and education, the role of China, our agenda in PNG, the future of our aid program, the role of NGOs, and also the advice the Minister would have liked to give himself ten years ago. This interview was a fantastic opportunity to ask the Minister many of the questions that I, and others in the sector, have been wanting to know. As always, we welcome your feedback. You can get in

Welcome to Episode 52 of Good Will Hunters. This is a special episode, summarising the four resolution that were passed at the ACFID Annual General Meeting, held in late October in Sydney. I chat to Mat Tinkler from Save the Children, Jane Edge from CBM Australia, Simon Bradshaw from Oxfam Australia and Jeremy Hobbs from ActionAid Australia. To learn more about the resolutions, visit https://acfid.asn.au/about/acfid-council Enjoy, Rachel and the GWH Team