Australia Awards Papua New Guinea Reintegration Workshops

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sponsored Australia Awards are prestigious, merit-based scholarships and fellowships offering emerging global leaders an opportunity to study, research and undertake professional development in Australia. These opportunities help Awardees promote prosperity, reduce poverty, enhance political stability and impact positive social change upon their return to their countries.

From 2019 to 2021, Square Circle was sub-contracted by The University of Queensland to design and lead the ‘Ethical Leadership Reintegration Workshops’ for Australia Awardees from Papua New Guinea (PNG). The workshops were underpinned by two foundational documents—The Ethics and Values-based Executive and Management Leadership Capability Framework and The PNG Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Policy—and were specifically designed to support the ethical leadership capabilities of PNG Australia Awards scholarship recipients. The two-day workshops were delivered in both Australia and PNG in 2019, and in 2020, were successfully delivered wholly online (including to participants across PNG) in response to the demands of the COVID-19 context.

The learning design for the Ethical Leadership Reintegration Workshops were oriented around three learning themes: 1) leadership foundations for inclusive development; 2) leadership and ethics in PNG; and 3) reintegration. These themes were pursued through a range of learning activities premised on a strengths-based approach consistent with leading adult learning practices. Integrated throughout all of the learning themes and activities was a Gender Equity, Disability and Social Inclusion lens (GEDSI). This entailed engaging and confronting inclusions and exclusions that are entangled in Awardees’ experience of return and their hopes for creating development impact.

The onset of the global coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and associated restrictions on travel and social gathering required Square Circle to re-design the workshops for an entirely digital delivery. The digital delivery incorporated a fit-for-purpose online platform, an augmented reality workspace and video conferencing.  Through this combination, the workshops were able to help participants develop communities of practice, share stories and experiences, and critically reflect on the impacts that they hope to make to support development in Papua New Guinea.