List of UQ International Development activities in the Pacific

Current Activities:

  • UQ International Development and Business School have collaborated on a customised leadership and management training program for fisheries leaders in the Pacific, The Pacific Fisheries Leadership Program. Delivered in partnership with Pacific Community, Forum Fisheries Agency and the Centre for Adaptive Leadership (funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Fisheries remain the most important ocean resource for livelihoods, employment, and economic growth as well as a critical source of protein in the Pacific. Well-managed and sustainable fisheries, and aquaculture increases economic and food security. Participants of the program are eligible to receive credit towards selected pathways from the Business School’s suite of postgraduate programs.
  • UQ is delivering a targeted short course to support PNG University Governance, through targeted support to governing body members. The five day program aims to increase the capabilities of members of PNG university governing bodies (councils) to provide effective governance oversight in an increasingly complex environment that includes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The course being delivered to UniTech and the Pacific Adventist University in the first instance.
  • UQ has commenced delivery of a tailored Graduate Certificate in Governance and Public Policy (Social Research Methods) to a cohort of public service officials. The course will focus on research theory and methods for applied research, including ethics, design and analysis and interpretation of data and reporting. This will be achieved by utilising an integrated approach and modular format aligning to three core teaching periods of four weeks duration, supplemented by one week pre- and post-course workshops.
  • UQID is currently delivering the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion policy review for the PNG Department of Personnel Management, funded by the Australian Government. The review is being led by academics from the UQ school of Political Science and International Studies, Centre for Policy Futures and representatives from the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC), the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and Tanorama (a research and program management company in PNG) and managed by UQID. The projects aims to review and revise the National Public Service Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESi) Policy in PNG, through consultations across the country, workshops with key stakeholders and revision of the Policy.
  • UQID delivers the Pre-departure Training workshops in Port Moresby since 2018 for Australia Awards PNG Scholars. The program encompassed a range of learning techniques and facilitation styles; including technical Training, seminars, practical exercises, case studies, and Awardee-Alumni panel discussions. It entailed production of video blogs (vlogs); illustrated and text-based journals; drawing of self-portraits; and learning through story, music, film, and photography. Throughout the program, the workshop centred on preparing Awardees and their families for study and life in Australia.
  • UQID delivers Ethical Leadership Reintegration Workshops for Australia Awards PNG Scholars since 2018. These workshops are aimed to support scholarship recipients once they returned to PNG after completing their studies in Australia. The workshops support the Awardees to contribute to their professional fields and communities, and to further develop ethical leadership behaviour.

Previous activities:

  • From 2015 to 2019, UQID managed the Precinct Leadership Program (PLP), an initiative of the Australian and PNG governments. The program contributed to the development of ethical, capable and inclusive public sector professionals in leadership roles in the PNG public sector. The PLP is based on PNG’s Ethics And Values-based Leadership and Management Capability Framework and Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) policy – foundational documents that are critical to ensuring this program is owned by PNG and responds to the Government’s conceptualisation of effective and ethical leadership. The PLP is comprised of two streams of delivery:
    • The Future Leaders Program for emerging leaders. This program was made up of three two-week residential learning blocks and includes four components, leadership in the PNG public service, public policy in PNG, workplace skills and competencies, and a workplace application project. Program participants are led by mentors.
    • The Initiative Program for existing senior leaders. This was a series of Executive Short Courses designed to develop the knowledge and skills of leaders. The pilot program was completed in June 2017, and delivery continued through to June 2019.
  • In 2020, UQID, the School of Civil Engineering and the School of Environment and Earth Sciences collaborated with the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to scope, design and deliver a training program on Nature-based Solutions for Infrastructure Providers in the Solomon Islands and Fiji. The program aimed to increase Pacific Island Ministries of Environments knowledge of the use and benefits of green alternatives to hard infrastructure approaches, situations suitable for green infrastructure approaches and how to design and implement these options and climate change projections and how to incorporate projected change in climate variables into infrastructure designs. The program was delivered by UQ academics in partnership with WSP, a global engineering company and James Cubitt Architects.
  • From 2014-2016, UQ delivered the Interim Skills Development Facility (ISDF) in Tonga on behalf of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The program aimed to support vocational training in Tonga that responds to labour market demand and demonstrates training and employment results. A major component of the ISDF was the Skills Development Fund, a mechanism to finance training in target priority skills working with both Tongan and international service providers to deliver skills development programs.
  • In 2019, UQID managed the delivery of the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management (Climate Change Policy) in conjunction with the School of Environment and Earth Sciences. This program ran over six week blocks, with 26 participants from across various Government of PNG departments and agencies being taught at the UQ Campus. The program addressed issues of climate change from a practical and policy perspective with participants having access to world class academics and practitioners as well as all levels of Australian government (Federal, State and Local).
  • In 2017, UQID and the School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) delivered a tailored Graduate Certificate in International Relations (Diplomacy) to 27 representatives from the PNG government under the Australia Awards PNG program. The Graduate Certificate was taught in three intensive modules at UQ, designed to help PNG host the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC) meetings in 2018 and to increase participants’ skills and knowledge of diplomacy and international relations tailored to PNG and APEC contexts. In addition to the academic components, the program included significant skill-building elements in relation to negotiation, facilitation, relationship building, and setting targets and agendas. These elements of the program were delivered with the assistance of former High Commissioner to PNG and School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry Adjunct Research Associate Professor Ian Kemish AM.
  • UQID delivered training for female leaders from the PNG public service under the Australia Awards Fellowship funded Graduate Certificate in Governance and Public Policy program. Twenty women took part in the first group in 2015, with 19 participating in the second cohort in 2016. The intensive course is followed by a four-month workplace mentoring program to support awardees to implement their learning on governance and policy practice within their departments. Three students returned to UQ in 2016 to undertake the Master’s program after completing the Introductory Academic Program (IAP) through ICTE-UQ.
  • UQID, in collaboration with POLSIS, also delivered training for a Graduate Certificate of Governance and Public Policy under the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct. This customised program was delivered in Port Moresby and UQ over a 12-month period. Eighteen senior PNG government officials were enrolled in this program, receiving customized training in Governance, Policy creation and Leadership.
  • UQID was involved in the development of a dynamic Pacific gender research portal for which Samoa is one of three Pacific nations involved in stakeholder consultations and co-design workshops. Funded by Cardno, the scoping study was commissioned by Pacific Women in 2015 with the recognition that a better understanding of existing gender research on the Pacific – and the extent of its use for policy development – is needed.