Institute Annual Report 2017

Annual Report 2017 Institute for Human Security and Social Change A Research Centre of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce (ASSC) www.latrobe.edu.au/socialchange 1 Contents From the Director ................................................................................................................................... 3 1. About us .............................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Our aim and goals ......................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Our focus areas ............................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Our Framework ............................................................................................................................. 6 2. Our contribution to social change ...................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Research Projects .......................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) ......................................................................................... 10 2.2 Teaching and professional development .................................................................................... 18 2.3 Professional development and outreach .................................................................................... 20 Consultancies and outreach .......................................................................................................... 20 Workshops and conferences......................................................................................................... 21 2.4 Forming partnerships, relationships and networks .................................................................... 26 2.5 Research Environment ................................................................................................................ 27 3. Our operations .................................................................................................................................. 29 3.1 Resourcing and financing ........................................................................................................ 29 3.2 Institute Advisory Committee ................................................................................................. 30 What’s next ................................................................................................................................... 32 4. Publications ....................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1 Academic publications ............................................................................................................ 33 4.2 Research reports ...................................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Workshop and conference presentations .............................................................................. 34 4.4 Presentations, support to, and engagement with industry partners and other stakeholders ...................................................................................................................................................... 36 4.6 Blogs and articles .................................................................................................................... 37 5. Financial summary ............................................................................................................................ 39 Funded Research Projects ............................................................................................................. 39 Other income ................................................................................................................................ 40 2 From the Director 2017 has been a wonderful year for the Institute, with our team growing and our work expanding into new areas. We have continued our research collaboration with the University of Birmingham on the DFAT-funded Developmental Leadership Program (DLP). A suite of DLP publications was published in early 2018 including ‘Inside the Black Box of Political Will: 10 years of findings from the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP)’, as well as a number of papers under the Gender and Politics in Practice banner including ‘Being the First’ by our research fellow John Cox; Ceridwen Spark, and Jack Corbett, and ‘Politically Informed, Gender Aware Programing: Five lessons from Practice’. The publications are available at www.dlprog.org . A new phase of the DLP is being designed in 2018. The Pacific Leadership Program (PLP), which the Institute has provided research and technical support for the past three years, ceased operation at the end of 2017. The PLP was a regional initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that recognised the pivotal role of leadership in development. It aimed to promote developmental leadership to achieve transformational changes to promote stability, effective governance and economic growth. PLP worked regionally, and at national and sub- national levels in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. Institute staff were involved in a number of PLP research projects over the course of 2017, including ongoing action research with the Green Growth Leader’s Coalition. A highlight for us this year was delivering units 2 and 3 of the ‘Making Change Happen’ program with the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). Making Change Happen is an innovative professional development program aimed at leaders and senior managers from development NGOs. The second unit ‘Program Management in a Complex World’ focused on the practice of designing, implementing and evaluating programs in ways that are consistent with an understanding of complexity and transformation. The third unit on ‘Organisational Development in an Uncertain World’ explored the institutional implications of a greater understanding of complexity and social change, and was well received by attendees. This year we also supported the partnership between the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia, with a particular focus on knowledge, analytics and learning, led by Senior Research Fellow Dr Andrea Babon, with Research Fellows Paul Kelly and Stephanie Lusby, Research Assistant Luke Hambly and Project Coordinator Ann Pearson completing the team. This is a large and complex project but with exciting potential. We played an integral role in launching the Pacific Research Community at La Trobe with a series of four seminars, bringing researchers from Australia and the Pacific to La Trobe to share the results of their work. 3 We now have five Higher Degree Research (HDR) students linked to the Institute, including Bridi Rice, Rebecca McClaren, Caitlin Finlayson, Stephanie Houghton, and Glenn Bond. We presented our work at conferences including the ACFID National Conference, RDI Network Conference, the Australasian Aid conference and many others. We contributed to the national and international dialogue on development with strong submissions to the White Paper process and the Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Next year we look forward to more collaborations, partnerships and research to enable progressive social change in Australia and internationally, including continuing work in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Associate Professor Chris Roche, Institute Director Chair in International Development, Senior Research Partner with the Developmental Leadership Program 4 5 1. About us 1.2 Our focus areas 1.1 Our aim and goals The Institute’s research, consultancy, In a time of increasing complexity and training and teaching activities focus on: uncertainty, the Institute for Human • Promoting and sharing innovative, Security and Social Change seeks to effective, inclusive and participatory actively contribute to progressive social development practice. change. • Analysing and testing how to value We aim to do this through becoming different forms of knowledge and increasingly recognised as a resource in evidence that enable and support re-imagining how social change happens, effective development practice. including the translation of research findings into practice, education and • Understanding and supporting the role policy. We aim to do this through of collective action and leadership in understanding effective practice, building advancing social change, particularly in strong collaborations, and knowledge the Pacific, Indigenous Australia, and sharing. women’s leadership. Goals • Exploring the organisational, • To better understand the practice of institutional and policy arrangements that social change agents, networks and enable collective action and effective organisations and what is effective in development practice. contributing to inclusive, equitable and • Facilitating the role of alliances, ultimately transformational development. coalitions and social movements in • To work in partnership with NGOs, promoting progressive social change. Our alliances, coalitions and social movements geographical focus is Australia, the Pacific who promote progressive social change, and Asia. with a particular focus on the Pacific, Indigenous

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