As COVID-19 disrupted planned face-to-face program delivery for NGO’s, managing contractors and governments worldwide, we brought together speakers who had moved swiftly to ensure global health programs could continue to be delivered, albeit remotely.
The speakers described how organisations maintained health, water and sanitation programs and kept local staff safe while delivering programs in country.
As always, our speakers spoke about their career path, how they came to be in their current roles and the challenges they faced on their journey.
The event was facilitated by Michelle Imison, Policy Advisor in Child Health at RESULTS Australia. The event was a major success, allowing audiences to engage in excellent discussion, ask questions of the speakers, and link up with other participants.
Speakers
Bridi Rice
Bridi is Director of Policy and Advocacy at ACFID, the Australian Council for International Development . Prior to joining ACFID, Bridi was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, delivering strategy, policy and project advice for domestic and international governments on social justice matters. She also worked in Papua New Guinea for three years as the Australian Government’s Senior Legal Adviser on anti-corruption and money laundering.
Bridi has over 12 years’ experience in human rights and international development, having worked in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Vietnam, Uganda, Qatar and the Pacific. She is currently completing postgraduate research with La Trobe University on counterpart perspectives of expatriate advisers in Papua New Guinea. Bridi is an emerging leader in the sector who is passionate about the intersection of development and human security – putting humans at the heart Australia’s international development cooperation program.
Rachel Donovan
Rachel is working with the United Nations in PNG as Communications Specialist focused on COVID-19 response. She will speak on risk communications and the challenges in getting information to remote communities.
Previously Rachel was the Marketing & Communications Strategist at Palms after volunteering internationally for three years as a Communications Advisor with the Press Institute of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar and with the Community Radio Association of Timor Leste in Dili. Rachel initially undertook volunteer work with community radio in western Sydney after completing a Master of Arts in International Relations and Master of International Law, she credits this volunteering as her stepping stone into the industry.