Centre for Human Security and Social Change

Persons with disabilities are among those most vulnerable to human trafficking — yet this issue remains underexplored in both research and practice. A recently published journal article co-authored by CHSSC Senior Research Fellow Elisabeth Jackson explores how disability shapes vulnerability to trafficking in specific and intersecting ways and draws out the implications for counter-trafficking efforts.

The article draws on research in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand which was led by Elisabeth Jackson in collaboration with local researchers and was commissioned by the DFAT-funded ASEAN-ACT program.

👉 Read the article here: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/socialchange/research-and-evaluation/disability-and-trafficking-asean

👉 More about ASEAN-ACT: https://www.aseanact.org/

La Trobe University

Can aid prevent conflict? CHSSC Director Lisa Denney and Senior Research Fellow Thushara Dibley say yes and explain how in The Lowy Institute's The Interpreter.

Their insights draw on the Centre’s submission (with La Trobe Centre for Global Security) to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into the role of Australia’s development program in conflict prevention, where they’ll give evidence next week.

👉 Read the submission here:https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1788919/Conflict_Prevention_Inquiry_CHSSC_Response_02.02.2026_Final.pdf

La Trobe University

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/bringing-back-conflict-prevention-priority-australia-s-aid-program

Bringing back conflict prevention as a priority in Australia’s aid program | Lowy Institute Understanding local drivers of violence can make aid more effective, but resurrecting the capability will take time.

CHSSC researchers have been documenting the evolution of accountability ‘coalitions’ supported by UNDP in Solomon Islands and Tuvalu over the past 18 months. Read the initial findings from the two case studies here:

👉 Solomon Islands Fellowship Scheme Action Research Report: https://shorturl.at/oR9i6

👉Tuvalu Fellowship Scheme Action Research Report: https://shorturl.at/XmMLI

Read more about the UNDP accountability ecosystems project here: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/socialchange/research-and-evaluation/accountability-ecosystems

As we kick off 2026, the Centre for Human Security and Social Change is starting a new collaboration with Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to understand how local leaders and coalitions drive change, and how this is experienced locally. Bringing together six programs across the Pacific and Southeast Asia, the project seeks to understand more about this pathway to change. You can read more about the thinking behind this in a new blog by CHSSC Director Lisa Denney: https://devpolicy.org/better-understanding-local-leaders-and-coalitions-as-drivers-of-change-20260127/

Read more about the collaboration here: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/socialchange/research-and-evaluation/call4change

Earlier this year, Centre for Human Security and Social Change Research Fellow Dr Aidan Craney facilitated an online learning and networking event hosted by the DFAT-funded Australia Awards Women Leading and Influencing Initiative. The event explored youth activism in the Pacific and mobilising change across regional, national, and international spaces.

A repeated theme throughout the dialogue was the need to recognise young people not merely as beneficiaries of development initiatives, but as crucial partners in shaping a sustainable and equitable future for the Pacific region.

➡️ You can read more about the event here: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/announcements/2025/youth-activism-in-the-pacific

➡️ Download the summary paper here:https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649226efa5faed5901e05da6/68b66c08f74dede86a5481e8_WLI%20Event%20Summary%20Paper_Youth%20Activism%20in%20the%20Pacific_FINAL.pdf

The Centre for Human Security and Social Change Director Lisa Denney will speak on this webinar on 10 September:

Navigating Crisis with Insight: Why the future of development cooperation needs political economy analysis

Register here: https://asiafoundation.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_56yUV8T4Rm-U25H0CBiJ1g #/registration

⚠️ See the latest news from the CHSSC - August 2025: https://mailchi.mp/f03711a17d6f/chssc-news-aug-2025 ⚠️

In this Newsletter
➡️ Shifting power in international non-government organisations.
➡️ Women's leadership in the Pacific.
➡️ Vanuatu accountability ecosystem report launched in Port Vila.
➡️ The future of aid in the Asia Pacific.
➡️ Join us on 10 September for a webinar about navigating crisis with insight.
➡️ Watch our inputs to the RDI Conference.
➡️ Join us at the AES Conference 15-19 September.
➡️ Reinventing development cooperation.
➡️ Delivering impact
➡️ Welcome to Shane D'Angelo.
➡️ Introducing Rosalind David.
➡️ Chris Roche honoured as Emeritus Professor.

Subscribe to the CHSSC newsletter here: https://latrobe.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=da990ff886f002a96fdd18803&id=01561db9f9

Join the International & Comparative Law Cluster’s 2025 Annual Lecture delivered by UN Special Rapporteur Professor Ben Saul. His lecture, ‘World on Fire: Is the “Rules-based International Order” Disintegrating – and What Does it Mean for Australia?’, will explore the challenges facing international law today.

Register for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/international-comparative-law-cluster-2025-annual-lecture-tickets-1556312716229

In response to criticism that they are self-interested and neo-colonial in nature, international non-government organisations (INGOs) are actively pursuing localisation and locally led development initiatives. In this article, CHSSC Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Glenn Bond and his co-authors draw on multi-year case study to explore how power relations and interests shape these day-to-day practices. In doing so, the article provides some important clues as to how and why localisation processes are likely to face significant obstacles.

You can find the open access article here:

Claiming agency and creating change: shifting power in international non-government organisations Historical criticisms of self-interest among international non-government organisations (INGOs) have recently gone further, suggesting INGOs are neo-colonial in nature. To address these concerns an...

Have a read of our own Centre Director, Lisa Denney, responding to Development Intelligence Lab’s Intel question this week. Development cooperation needs to be reinvented: Is radical simplification the answer?

“It is likely that radical simplification has a role to play in some of what future development cooperation looks like – but not all of it”

Read her full response:

The Intel • Development cooperation needs to be reinvented. Is radical simplification the answer? With development cooperation in crisis​, some see an opportunity for its ‘radical simplification’. We’re talking simpler projects, a highly selective portfolio of cost-effective interventions, and a whittled focus on only the most vulnerable countries.

⚠️ See the latest news from CHSSC - June 2025: https://mailchi.mp/21f22e1d9bab/chssc-news-jun-8347107 ⚠️

In this Newsletter
➡️ Accountability ecosystems in the Pacific.
➡️ A practical guide to political economy analysis
➡️ Join the RDI Network Exchange 10-11 July.
➡️ ACFID CEO Summit.
➡️ Lowitja Institute International Health and Wellbeing Conference.
➡️ Integrating climate resilience into development programming.
➡️ CHSSC Annual Report 2024
➡️ The political economy of development programming
➡️ Evaluation of the INKLUSI program in Indonesia
➡️ Welcome to David Poulton
➡️ Welcome to Jennife Borong

Subscribe to the CHSSC newsletter here: https://latrobe.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=da990ff886f002a96fdd18803&id=01561db9f9

Latest News from CHSSC - June 2025 Over the last two years, the CHSSC has been partnering with UNDP Pacific Office to undertake an EU-funded political economy analysis of accountability ecosystems in the Pacific. A recent article by CHSSC Director Lisa Denney and Adjunct Research Fellow Glenn Bond in the Thinking and Working Politica...