Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 97 of Good Will Hunters, brought to you by Good Will Media. I’m your host Rachel Mason Nunn. Today is the first in a two part series with country representatives from the Asia Foundation. In this interview, I speak to Sam Chittick, Country Representative for the Phillipines. I really enjoyed this discussion for a few reasons. Firstly, Sam and I discuss the role of the private sector in achieving development in the Phillipines, and how dialogues are helping to bridge the gaps between government, private and NGOs. We then discuss the social impacts of Covid-19 in the Phillpines on households that were already experiencing poverty, including the loss of livelihoods and the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to stop any children going back to school until a vaccine is available. On this note, we discuss the challenges of running an aid program under the Duterte Presidency. Lastly we discuss the decision made by the Australian Government to scale back our aid investments in much of Asia,