Conversations In Development

‘Sport and development’ refers to the use of sport as a tool for development and peace. It is now being increasingly used throughout the Pacific as a method to drive outcomes in areas such as health, social cohesion, gender equality and disability inclusion. We speak with Aaron Kearney, ABC journalist, broadcaster and member of the International Development team about the programs he has worked on throughout the Pacific and how they are delivering social change.Aaron Kearney is a multi-award winning broadcaster, journalist and sports commentator with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. As a member of the ABC’s International Development team, he has led the communications support for the Pacific Sports Partnership, an Australian Aid program that promotes gender equality, disability inclusion and a variety of health benefits. Aaron has also worked as a commentary lead, training and mentoring female journalists across the Pacific in the Women In News and Sport (WINS) initiative.This podcast is brought to yo

Gender inequality becomes lethal in natural disasters where women die in far greater numbers than men. Patriarchal systems often leave women responsible for children and elderly people in a disaster and exclude women from accessing information that could save their lives. We speak to Melissa Bungcaras, Gender and Resilience Advisor for ActionAid Australia, about how and why women should take a leading role in disaster preparedness planning and how aid agencies and governments both have a role to play in reducing the gender gap. ​Melissa Bungcaras is the Gender and Resilience Advisor for ActionAid Australia. She is currently managing a portfolio of programs across the Asia-Pacific focused on women’s resilience to climate change and disasters, and drives policy advocacy on climate justice and women’s leadership in emergencies. Melissa has over 10 years’ experience in international development and environmental management, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an internati

Releasing 26 November, this episode invites Melissa Bungcaras, the Gender and Resilience Manager for ActionAid Australia, to explore how patriarchal systems often leave women responsible for children and elderly people in a disaster and exclude women from accessing information that could save their lives. With the hosts, Melissa explores how and why women should take a leading role in disaster preparedness planning.Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.

This episode is a departure from the Conversations in Development schedule to discuss the life of Guy Winship, a man who dedicated his life to the development sector.Guy Winship was the founder and CEO of Good Return, an organisation that provides microfinance across the Asia-Pacific region. Good Return delivers programs to those who are financially and socially excluded, empowering through financial inclusion. Guy is a development expert who has worked in Africa, Asia and the Pacific for 30 years. He has consulted and advised governments and NGOs on microfinance, public policy and vocational training. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific.

Volunteer tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry that is increasingly run by for-profit organisations sending millions of volunteers to poor communities around the world. The industry is rarely researched and empirical data is scarce, so what are we missing? We speak with Stephen Wearing about how the industry is changing, how it could be regulated and how the media plays a role in popular perceptions of volunteer tourists.Stephen Wearing is a conjoint professor at the University of Newcastle whose research focuses on sustainable tourism and the importance of community based approaches in the tourism and volunteering sector. For 22 years he ran VOICE Volunteers in Community Engagement (previously known as Youth Challenge Australia), a not-for-profit organisation sending volunteers on grassroots, community-identified development projects since 1992. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .

Releasing 27 September, this episode invites Stephen Wearing, an academic and expert in the field, to explore the multi-billion dollar industry of volunteer tourism. With the hosts, Stephen explores what the industry is missing, how it is changing and how it could be regulated. Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.

Microfinance is a market-driven approach to development, alleviating poverty through the creation of local economies and sustainable livelihoods. But it’s also associated with negative perceptions such as profiting off poverty and creating cycles of debt. We spoke with Mahir Momand, a microfinance expert who pioneered the field in Afghanistan, about how his work reduced poverty, addressed gender inequality and ultimately threatened the basis of the Taliban insurgency. Mahir Momand is a microfinance expert and the CEO of Thrive Refugee Enterprise, an organisation that provides micro-finance and business support to refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. Previously, Mahir served as CEO of the National Association of Credit Unions in Afghanistan, worked for the World Bank, UNHCR and was Financial Adviser to the Federal Ministry of Labour in Afghanistan. The microfinance programs run by Mahir have helped establish a total of 165,000 small and medium business enterprises in Afghanistan that provided a livelihood

Releasing 13 August, this episode invites Mahir Momand, CEO of Thrive Refugee Enterprise, to teach us about a market-driven approach to development - microfinance. He explores both the positive and negative approaches and tells us how he reduced poverty, addressed gender inequality and ultimately threatened the basis of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.

168 million children are in child labour around the world, with almost half engaged in hazardous work. The forces driving child labour are complex and wide-ranging, from criminal intent, to economic necessity, to cultural norms. So how realistic is SDG Target 8.7 that aims to end child labour in all its forms by 2025? We speak with international lawyer Brynn O’Brien about the difficulties involved with regulating child labour and how it fits into structural problems in the global economic system.Brynn O’Brien is an international lawyer and researcher in the area of business and human rights. She started her career as a corporate lawyer and then went on to practise human rights law, representing refugees in Australia’s detention centres and people who had suffered human trafficking and severe exploitation in Australia. Now as Executive Director of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, she holds Australia’s largest companies to account for their impacts on people and the environment.This podcast

Releasing 26 June, this episode invites Brynn O'Brien, Executive Director at the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, to dive into the complex world of child labour. She explores the link between big business and exploitation, consumer behaviour and the possibility of eliminating child labour by 2025.Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.

Aid flows in when conflict erupts but could aid play a bigger role before conflict turns violent? We speak with Aimé Saba from the University of Sydney’s Department of Peace and Conflict Studies about how aid operates in war zones, why the example of Africa offers a case for increasing aid and whether conflict is necessary.Aimé Saba has worked in the field of international development, humanitarian assistance, peacebuilding and peacekeeping for over 10 years. He recently returned to Sydney after serving as a civilian peacekeeper with the UN Mission in Liberia in Monrovia. He has also served on the Iraq desk of the Department of Political Affairs at the UN Secretariat HQ in New York as has worked for the Australian Government’s overseas aid program (AusAID) on humanitarian programmes in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, North Korea, and the Philippines. Aimé is an accredited Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and is currently part of the Australian Civilian Corps Cadre with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs an

Releasing 25 May, this episode sees guest Aime Saba discuss the relationship between aid and conflict, drawing from examples in Myanmar, Syria and multiple countries in Africa. He uses his experience working for DFAT and the UN to investigate and discusses what an aid response to stop conflicts escalating to violence would look like. Can aid prevent conflict escalating? How prepared are we for the conflicts climate change may bring?Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.

Government aid programs are increasingly associated with business interests, blurring the line between philanthropy and financial gain. How does this impact developing countries - both in the short and long term? We speak with journalist Antony Loewenstein who has spent years documenting what he calls ‘disaster capitalism’ in Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Haiti. Antony Loewenstein is an independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. Antony’s best-selling books include My Israel Question, on the Israel/Palestine conflict, The Blogging Revolution, on the internet in repressive regimes, Profits of Doom, about privatisation. His latest book is Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe, about fortunes made from disaster, poverty and catastrophe. His first film is Disaster Capitalism. He’s currently working on a book about the global “war on drugs”.This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .

Coming April 30, our first episode features journalist, author and documentarian, Antony Loewenstein, in conversation about how aid fails and the murky world where politics and aid meets business.Make sure you've subscribed to Conversations in Development to catch all our open and honest conversations with industry experts about issues in foreign aid and the development sector.