Conversations in Development

Redundancy is a word with negative connotations, but not according to Weh Yeoh who says all charities should be aiming to make themselves redundant. If charities focused more on solving problems rather than addressing symptoms, they would create a space for local people to create solutions to their own problems. Weh and Dr Peter Mason, CEO Cufa, discuss whether it is practical to have a clear exit plan from the outset of a charitable enterprise in a country, and whether it is always possible to completely solve a problem and move on. Weh Yeoh is the founder of OIC Cambodia, established for the 600,000 Cambodians with communication and swallowing disabilities. According to Weh, OIC is one of a handful of charities in the world working towards its own exit. OIC will exit Cambodia in 2030, when there are 100 Cambodian speech therapists integrated into the public sector. Weh is also the co-founder of Umbo, an initiative to improve access to services for children in rural and remote communities. He has been featured on TEDx, The Huffington Post and The Sydney Morning Herald. Find out more about Weh's work at wehyeoh.com.

In the APAC region life for the majority in the paid workforce is hand-to-mouth, people earn wages that don't feed a family. Dr Mason speaks with Union Aid Abroad's (APHEDA) Executive Officer, Kate Lee about the major issues that workers face on a daily basis, including low wages; lack of workplace safety; and workplace and sexual harassment. We explore these key issues and discuss action Government and consumers globally need to take to support and demand liveable and living wages in every country. Kate Lee works for Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, the global justice organisation of the Australian union movement, where she has been the Executive Officer since 2013. Prior to Union Aid Abroad, Kate worked for Australian trade unions for 12 years, and before that, worked in women's health, community health and social justice organisations in campaigning, organising, advocacy, policy and management roles. In August 1988, following the crackdown on student activists by the Burmese military and the shooting of thousands of young people, Kate joined with others to spur on an Australian solidarity movement supporting Burmese democracy. She's been campaigning for human rights and equality since. Kate has a Master of Policy and Applied Social Research from Macquarie University. In 2002, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate union and community organising in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .

The regions surrounding Somalia and Lebanon have some of the lowest rates of gender equality in the world. We speak with Clare Brown, an international human rights lawyer and currently the Legal Program Manager at Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), about her experiences working in the region. We discuss the lived experience, many of the issues that women face and triggers of sexual based violence, as well as exploring the current climate for legal advocacy work and progress that has been made in these countries. Clare Brown is an international human rights lawyer and currently works as the Legal Program Manager at Legal Action Worldwide (LAW). Clare has been in this position for almost six years after working as a legal intern at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her work sees her based between Kenya and Somalia with travel to South Sudan and Lebanon developing and implementing creative legal interventions to address human rights violations with a focus on sexual violence and violations committed by security forces. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .

Advocacy has the capacity to have an impact on a massive scale and in the field of health it can save millions of lives. We speak with Amelia Christie, CEO of RESULTS, an advocacy organisation about the power of a grassroots approach and dealing with everyone from volunteers to politicians. We also delve into foreign aid and the growing focus on the Pacific and Amelia teaches a thing or two about tuberculosis and its growing prevalence in our closest neighbour Papua New Guinea. Amelia Christie is the CEO of RESULTS, an advocacy organisation that informs political decisions by empowering everyday voices to bring an end to poverty. RESULTS trains, supports and inspires volunteers to become skilled advocates and is a partner of ACTION, a global partnership of advocacy organisations working to influence policy and mobilise resources to fight diseases of poverty and achieve equitable access to health. Amelia has also worked with Ministers of Parliament and for both small and large NGOs. She is passionate about human rights and using people power to bring about positive change. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .

Understanding the drivers behind development issues is imperative to organisations engaging in the field of work. In this episode we speak with Veronica Nou, a migrant entrepreneur and refugee advocate who came to Australia after her family fled the Cambodian Genocide and following Vietnamese occupation. Veronica shares her experiences fleeing the country and arriving in Australia, living in abject poverty through her childhood and becoming a business owner. Now in her spare time Veronica has set her sights on advocacy work and is a National Convener of the group Mums 4 Refugees, fighting for humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Veronica Nou is a pharmacist and proprietor of two pharmacies in Western Sydney. Veronica was born in Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge and her family fled the country, arriving in Australia in 1991 by way of refugee camps. After earning a scholarship at a private girl's school, Veronica overcame a tough start in Australia to complete a Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney. She now dedicates her spare time to speaking out about refugee advocacy as a national convener for the group Mums 4 Refugees. This podcast is brought to you by Cufa, an international development agency alleviating poverty across the Asia Pacific .