Join us to hear from two leading campaigners for land rights in Melanesia about the impacts of land reforms on Melanesian peoples, their cultures, economies and livelihoods.
Join us to hear from two leading campaigners for land rights in Melanesia about the impacts of land reforms on Melanesian peoples, their cultures, economies and livelihoods.
Throughout Melanesia, customary land tenure is under pressure from aid agencies such as AusAID, which want to instigate land reforms as a means to accelerate economic growth in the region. However, local indigenous peoples have significant concerns about the transformation of land ownership practices through registration and privatisation. Customary ownership remains central to the lives of Melanesian peoples and land reforms threaten to undermine their livelihoods, cultures, environments and economies.
Joel Simo is the Director of the Land Desk at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Joel has published numerous works on Land in Vanuatu and has extensive experience leading grassroots community education and organising at a national level. He has played a key role in facilitating regional networks and collaborations on land.
Steven Sukot is the Campaigns Manager for the Bismarck Ramu Group, a local community development and conservation NGO based in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Protecting Melanesian customary land is a major focus of BRG’s campaigns at present. Steven has been instrumental in facilitating the formation of the Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance (MILDA).
For more information about the tour contact Gary Lee on (02) 9557 8944; 0416 373 621; email gary [at] aidwatch [dot] org [dot] au
JOHN Dinsdale, a former clerk of a court in Melbourne, is being paid more than half a million dollars a year, tax-free, as Australia's law and justice adviser to Papua New Guinea, where crime and corruption keep rising as aid increases.
AID/WATCH Committee of Management member, Dr. Tim Anderson, was one of the guest speakers talking about Australia’s overseas aid program on Radio National’s Australia Talks program.
This edition (October 2009) focuses on the Pacific Islands. It features articles on the traditional economy in Vanuatu, customary land in Melanesia, land reform in Timor Leste, climate change adaptation funding, PACER Plus, and aid for trade.
This AID/WATCH briefing paper provides an overview of the land situation in Vanuatu from pre-independence to today. The paper highlights how Australian interests and aid relationships are often in opposition to the needs and aspirations of the majority of Vanuatu’s indigenous peoples and risk hijacking their development futures.
ODI Project Briefings 35 - January 2010.
The poorest countries will lose out if donors do not publish aid information that is easy to link with recipient government budget systems.
January 1, 2010 -
A senior United Nations AIDS official says the AIDS pandemic in Papua New Guinea is pushing the health system to near collapse and wants Australia to work closer with health authorities to combat the virus spread.
REPORT - Australian overseas development assistance is not simply driven by a desire to assist poorer countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The fundamental premise of Australian aid is, first and foremost, its own national interest.
Food prices remain stubbornly high in the developing world despite a strong cereal harvest this year, and 31 countries need emergency aid, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday.
