Our seminar on New Zealand’s development cooperation is coming up quickly. It is not often we get together to talk about New Zealand’s international aid and development efforts, and there have been lots of changes with our new government. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from MFAT, the Council for International Development, political party spokespeople, and more.
What: New Futures for New Zealand’s Development Cooperation in an SDG World
When: 9am – 1pm, Thursday 5 July
Where: Lecture Theatre One, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington, Pipitea Campus, Wellington
Register here.
Morning tea will be provided. The event is free.
We look forward to seeing you there, for what will be an interesting and thought-provoking event.
The Evolving Programme
| 09:00 | Welcome |
| 09:10 | Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters (tbc) |
| 09:30 | Current situation: Terence Wood, Research Fellow, Development Policy Centre |
| 09:50 | Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, speaker tbc |
| 10:10 | Council for International Development Executive Director, Josie Pagani |
| 10:30 | Opportunities and possibilities: Professor Regina Scheyvens and Professor John Overton |
| 11:00 | Morning tea |
| 11:30 | Lightening talks: Professor Warwick Murray; Dr. Gerard Prinsen; Nick Rogers from Tonkin+Taylor; Pacific regionalism expert, Alfred Schuster; two more tbc. |
| 12:15 | Politicians: Hon. Golriz Gharhaman (Green Party Aotearoa), Labour Party (spokesperson, tbc), Hon.Tim Mcindoe (National Party, tbc) |
| 13:00 | Wrap-up and conclude |
DevNet 2018 Conference – Call for Papers
We aim to keep the conversation going at the DevNet Conference later this year. The 10th biennial conference of the Aotearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (DevNet) will be held in Christchurch from the 5th to 7th of December 2018. The Conference Committee welcomes abstracts from practitioners and established and emerging researchers (including students) across the broad field of international development studies. If you’d like to submit a paper, now is the time. The call for papers closes: 2 July 2018. Please submit via the conference website: https://devnet2018.com/ We look forward to a vibrant conference, and welcome your contribution!
Aid Budget Increase
As you will know by now, two weeks ahead of Budget 2018, Minister Peters announced an increase to New Zealand’s official development assistance. At the time, Professors Scheyvens, Banks, Overton and Murray celebrated the increase and highlighted areas for greater attention. You can read their thoughts here. Jo Spratt also wrote an opinion piece for Radio New Zealand here. Because of the timing of the announcement, the key missing ingredient was the actual budget numbers. These, came out later, on budget night, and are under analysis by the NZADDs’ Admin Team’s expensive new data scientist as we speak. We’ll send out a blog when the analysis is complete. What we can say now is that the headline figure of NZ$700 million that Minister Peters announced is a cumulative figure. The actual year on year increases are much less (though still real). More soon.
Also, thanks to NZADDs member, John McKinnon, here’s an interesting blog about the potential for researchers to engage with, and influence, policy. One of the things NZADDs aims to do.
New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues 