The Centre has recently made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into Australia's response to the priorities of Pacific Island countries and the Pacific region.
In its submission, the Centre outlines four lessons from its work which should inform Australia's response to Pacific priorities:
- Start with understanding Pacific values and its existing knowledge and capacities.
- Recognise the diversity of aspirations and priorities across the Pacific and between groups.
- Understand that what is valued and how things work across the Pacific may be different to how development agencies see the world.
- Take into account the role of power and politics in shaping not only priorities but also underlying relationships.
The Centre then calls on the Australian government to:
- Prioritise action on issues we know the Pacific cares most about, but also focus on the process by which priorities are arrived at.
- Get our house in order in Australia with Indigenous people and their world views.
- Learn from development programs that have partnered well and respected locally led development priority setting and use the lessons to amplify effective practice.
- Address some of the well-known obstacles to being more partner led in terms of program management, design and monitoring and evaluation.
Read the submission here.
