Jointly organised by the ANU Development Policy Centre and the USP’s School of Economics, the conference was opened by USP’s Vice Chancellor Prof Pal Ahluwahlia, his Excellency Lionel Rouwen Aingimea, the President of Nauru, and the Hon Pat Conroy MP, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Government of Australia. Keynote addresses included an address by Prof Stephen Howes from the ANU’s Development Policy Centre on “The Pacific post-pandemic – an economic update”. As in previous years, the conference covered a range of topics, including gender equality, aid effectiveness, Fiji’s economy, economic recovery, Papua New Guinea’s economy, social protection, labour mobility in a changing region, maximising development impacts, and understanding social impacts. In economic terms, the experts agreed that the Pacific Region is at risk of a “lost decade”, and that there would be tools available to mitigate the effects of the ongoing pandemic and related border closures. Whilst there were less participants attending the conference in person this time, the number of participants watching the live stream has increased significantly since the event was last held in person (2019). If you missed the conference, you can find recordings and transcripts of the presentations here:

2022 Pacific Update | Development Policy Centre (anu.edu.au)

KAS Australia looks forward to supporting the Pacific Update again next year.