Devpolicy Talks brings you interviews, event recordings and in-depth documentary features relating to the topics we research at the Development Policy Centre. The Centre, part of the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, works on Australian aid, development in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific, and regional and global development issues. It is host to the Devpolicy Blog (devpolicy.org) and a range of public events including the annual PNG Update, the Pacific Update and the Australasian Aid and International Development Conference.
Women's empowerment at scale in Indonesia: an interview with Tri Hastuti Nur Rochimah
Robin Davies speaks with Dr Tri Hastuti Nur Rochimah, Secretary General of the Central Board of 'Aisyiyah and a lecturer at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, about one of the world's largest women's organisations. Founded in 1917 as the women's wing of Muhammadiyah, 'Aisyiyah today has around 25 million members and sympathisers across Indonesia's 38 provinces, running more than 20,000 kindergartens, ten universities, 21 hospitals, 55 clinics, some 500 credit unions and 109 pro bono law firms. Tri Hastuti explains the organisation's faith-based identity, grounded in the Al-Ma'un theology of care for the poor, and how it operates as a "special autonomous" body within Muhammadiyah while contributing a gender perspective to its fatwas. She reflects on partnerships with government, Fatayat NU and donors including through Australia's MAMPU and INKLUSI programs, and outlines 'Aisyiyah's work on child marriage, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, climate change, the MBG school-feeding program and youth engagement through social media.
3 Aug 2026
Murder in the Pacific: Matt Francis on aid and agency in Vanuatu
In this episode of Devpolicy Talks, Gordon Peake speaks with the pseudonymous author Matt Francis about the Murder in the Pacific series, four crime novels set across the provinces of Vanuatu and featuring Sergeant George Long, a Ni-Vanuatu police officer of mixed Chinese and Ni-Vanuatu heritage, and his partner Constable Jaylene Olly. Francis describes the books as love letters to a country he adores, conceived during a rainstorm outside the Australian High Commission in Port Vila, with one volume planned for each of the country's six provinces. He and Peake discuss the gentle lampooning of donor programming that runs through the series — the banners, certificates of participation and endless training courses — alongside the politics of per diems, the geopolitics of Australia–China donor competition, and the sophisticated agency of Ni-Vanuatu and Papua New Guinean interlocutors. Francis also explains why he adopted a pen name, fearing consequences for his research access and grant applications.
1 Aug 2026
The Memorandum of Understanding podcast archive is now in this feed, filed under 2021
Gordon Peake's Memorandum of Understanding documentary podcast series, while produced by the Development Policy Centre, was formerly separate from Devpolicy Talks. Its back catalogue has now been added to this feed as a set of bonus episodes to ensure its continued availability.
Devpolicy Talks is the podcast of the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre.
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