Pacific Economic Bulletin and Outreach

Fiji Update 2008

Lautoka Update

Thursday 24 July
Fiji Community Update, Lautoka

Participants

Sharon Bessell
Sharon Bessell is a senior public policy lecturer in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. Her research interests include children’s rights and their protection, child labour, gender issues, and social policy for vulnerable children. Over the past decade Dr Bessell has published and worked with a range of organisations on social policy issues throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Australia, including UNICEF, AusAID, Save the Children, and the Centre for Democratic Institutions. Dr Bessell holds a PhD in Politics from Monash University

Ron Duncan

Ron Duncan is a Professor Emeritus of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. He is Editor of the Asian-Pacific Economic Literature journal and Joint Editor of the Pacific Economic Bulletin. Ron’s previous role was as Foundation Executive Director of the Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance at the University of the South Pacific. Ron’s research and teaching interests are in the economics and governance of developing countries, agricultural and trade policy, competition policy, primary commodity markets, and management of natural resources. His primary developing country interests are in countries of the South Pacific and East Asia.

Emele Duituturaga

Emele Duituturaga is a Youth and Gender consultant. She was also the former Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Women, Social Welfare, Poverty Alleviation and Housing for the Government of Fiji. Emele has a wide and varied background in social work, community development, research, training and policy analysis, gender and development, business administration and management, development banking and consulting, and public administration. She has worked as a development consultant for the Asian Development Bank, AusAID, Canada Fund, NZAID, and the UNDP on projects in public sector reform, social welfare reforms, evaluation of donor funded projects and programme evaluation and technical assistance to PIANGO. She has also worked for institutions such as the Pacific Regional Adolescent Health Project funded by United Nations Population Fund and the Pacific Women’s Resource Bureau at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. She has a Bachelor in Social Work, a Postgraduate Diploma in Corporate Management and a Masters in Business Administration.

Azmat Gani
Azmat Gani is an associate professor in the School of Economics at the University of the South Pacific. His interests include international finance, trade and public finance, health care funding, and development outcomes in Pacific island countries. Dr Gani has published journal articles for the Asia-Pacific Development Journal and the ASEAN Economic Bulletin, in addition to a recent book on the Fiji macroeconomy. He is also an editorial board member for the American Journal of Finance and Accounting and has been a Research Scholar at the University of Canterbury in the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies. Dr Gani holds a PhD in Development Studies from Massey University.

Henry Haszler

Henry Haszler is a senior research fellow in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance at Deakin University. Before moving to Melbourne, Mr Haszler worked for over 20 years at ABARE in Canberra as a commodity, trade and policy economist. His research supported Australia’s Uruguay Round negotiations and the management of Australia’s wool reserve price scheme. Having shifted to the university sector in 1991, he currently leads a collaborative research project between Deakin University, the Ministry of Agriculture and Primary Industries in Suva and the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities in Noumea. Mr Haszler was President of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society in 1995, and his research expertise includes microeconomic policy, particularly agricultural, environmental and industrial policy.

Salesh Kumar

Salesh Kumar is an Agricultural Officer in the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture and Primary Industries. Salesh has experience in microeconomic policy and the agricultural industry in Fiji.

Peni Moore

Peni is co-founder and creative director of Women’s Action for Change, based in Suva, Fiji. This women’s civil society organization aims to help prisoners and offenders understand the impact of their behaviour and teach nonviolent ways of dealing with conflict. The group has worked to change attitudes towards domestic violence and has campaigned for equality, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, ability or sexual orientation. Ms Moore has been involved in several public campaigns, such as Peace Day, and is an active member of the Playback Practitioners—a theatre group who use drama as an educational tool.

Paresh Narayan

Paresh Narayan is a Professor of Finance at Deakin University and Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of the South Pacific. His research interests include financial economics and econometrics, energy economics, applied macroeconomics and time series econometrics. He has published over 150 articles in journals of international reputation, including in Health Economics, Ecological Economics, Energy Policy, Economic Modelling, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economic Record, Review of Financial Economics, Journal of Policy Modelling, Accounting and Finance, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Applied Financial Economics, and Applied Economics. Dr Narayan holds a PhD from Monash University.

Wadan Narsey
Wadan Narsey is a well respected economist and Professor at the University of the South Pacific where he has worked for more than thirty years. He is also a regular columnist for the Fiji Times and a former Fiji parliamentarian. Reflected in his book, titled To Level the Playing Field, Professor Narsey’s interests encompass many of the most pressing economic, political and social issues effecting Fiji and the Pacific.

Tevita Natasiwai
Tevita Natasiwai is an officer in the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture and Primary Industries. Mr Natasiwai has published on the demand elasticities for Fiji’s small island economy, and on the microeconomic implications of the Fiji sugar shock.

Joeli Veitayaki
Joeli Veitayaki is Associate Professor and Head of the School of Marine Studies, and Coordinator fo the Marine Affairs Programme at the University of the South Pacific. He was the Winner of the 2007 Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence for his research into sustainable development in coastal Pacific Island communities. Dr Joeli Veitayaki is also the director of the Pacific Island’s branch of the International Oceans Institute. He has published widely and holds a PhD in rural development from the Australian National University.