Keynote speakers included the Hon Prof Biman Prasad - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of the Government of Fiji, Prof Pal Ahluwalia – Vice Chancellor of USP, and Stuart Watts, Chargé d’affaires of the Australian High Commission in Fiji (on behalf of the Hon Pat Conroy - Minister for International Development and the Pacific of the Australian Government).

Transmitted live to all of USP’s locations in the region, the conference covered a variety of topics, including gender and family violence (Panel 1a), tourism and human development (Panel 1b), foreign aid (Panel 2a), gender transformative practice (Panel 2b),educational exchange (Panel 3a), climate change and environment (Panel 3b), politics and governance (Panel 4a), private sector and economic development (Panel 4b), Fiji care economy (Panel 5a), economic resilience (Panel 5b), Fiji economy (Panel 6a), and Indigenous community empowerment (Panel 6b). The third day of the conference was dedicated to Pacific migration, within and beyond the Pacific region. There were panels on the economic impacts at home and abroad (Panel 7), reflections on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (Panel 8), Australia’s Pacific Engagement Visa (Panel 9), and regional perspectives on labour mobility in the Pacific (Panel 10).

The conference dinner hosted by KAS Australia provided the participants with the opportunity to continue their discussions in an informal setting. Themes included Fiji and the Pacific region’s ongoing economic recovery after the pandemic. Likewise, climate change, rising sea levels and the rising number of cyclones and other natural disasters were at the core of the conversations, as were the implications of “brain drain” for the seasonal workers’ home countries, and ongoing gender and family violence for regional development.

For more information and a recording of the event:

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