Bougainville Senior Leadership Professional Development Programme 2023-2024

The BSLPDP is an Australian government programme implemented by the University of Melbourne Initiative for Peacebuilding with financial support from the New Zealand Government. The programme supports the professional development needs of senior government officials (President, Ministers and Secretaries) from Bougainville and the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG).

The BSLPDP focuses on sharing knowledge through experiences and stories from relevant Melanesian, Australian (especially First Nations) and other contexts, and enabling participants to apply and develop these in relation to their own unique situations. Partnership, valuing local knowledge generation and innovation, and gender-sensitivity and inclusion are key themes. By working closely with subject matter experts from Asia-Pacific to inform the curriculum, the programme contributes to the Advancing Melbourne Globally 2030 agenda, strengthening relationships with a global community of scholars, experts and partners. Input into this project include scholars and experts from Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste. The UoM is delivering the BSLPDP in partnership with the Peace and Conflict Studies Institute of Australia (PaCSIA) and Bougainville Women's Federation.

The program content is centred around the professional development needs of Bougainville senior government leaders across the following key themes of:

1. Ethical leadership
2. Governance
3. Policy making
4. Government and public relations
5. Financial planning and management
6. Economic development

The program formally commenced in October 2023 and runs through to December 2024.