Breakout Session 2

Women in Leadership

As crisis after crisis unfolded in 2020, women found themselves on the frontlines and stepped up to lead their communities through bushfires, COVID-19, the climate crisis and economic recession.

How can we make sure that women lead the creation of solutions to issues such as climate change, economic injustice and natural disasters that have such an impact on their lives?

These sessions will develop the partnerships needed to ensure that women’s leadership is at the forefront during the final decade of the SDGs.

Useful Resource: Women Rise for All – “Together we are stronger”

 

Session Host

Yasmin Poole, Writer, Speaker and Youth Activist

Yasmin is an award-winning speaker, writer and youth advocate. She is Plan International’s National Ambassador and champions the importance of young women being heard in Australia’s political conversations. She has also been a commentator on prominent television programs such as Q+A, The Drum and The Project.
Yasmin is the Non-Executive Board Director of OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue charity and YWCA, a national feminist organisation that has supported women and girls for 140 years. In 2019, Yasmin was the youngest member of the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence and Top 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians. She was most recently named The Martin Luther King Jr Center’s 2021 Youth Influencer of the Year.

Speakers

Professor Michelle Ryan, Inaugural Director, Global Women’s Leadership Institute

In July, Professor Ryan will take up the role of inaugural Director of the Global Institute of Women’s Leadership (GIWL) at The Australian National University (ANU).  Michelle is a Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology. She is involved in a number of research projects, including examining the way in which context and identity shape and constrain women’s career choices. With Professor Alex Haslam, she uncovered the phenomenon of the glass cliff – a term that describes how women are often put in leadership roles during times of crisis or hardship, when the chances of failure are highest. Since its discovery, the term ‘glass cliff’ has entered public discourse and the concept informs and shapes debate and the public understanding of women’s leadership positions.

Stav Zotalis, Head of Global Engagement, ActionAid Australia.

Stav has more than two decades experience in international development and humanitarian responses and has worked in the private finance sector in Sydney. She has spent the last 14 years working in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Solomon Islands. Stav is a member of ACFID’s Development Practice Committee. She is passionate about gender equality and economic justice.

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, Strategic Director, Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA)

Victoria, who is also Chair of the Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), is passionate about the power of collaborative leadership to create systemic social change. Victoria is an Advisory Board Member of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne, and a Steering Committee member of the Forrest Gateway to the Otways project, developing a climate adaptation and community resilience facility in the Otway Ranges.

Sustainable Development Goals

Financing the SDGs

Achieving the SDGs by 2030 requires increased investment and funding of projects and programs that can achieve true, lasting social and environmental change. The global pandemic has made this even more important.

Innovative and forward-thinking businesses, governments and philanthropic foundations will support start-ups, service providers and entrepreneurs who can demonstrate that their ideas will have real impact on the wellbeing of people and our planet. As this investment flows into on-the- ground change, social, environmental and economic benefits for everyone.

This session will provide examples of programs that can make real change and will discuss the partnerships needed to ensure their success.

Useful Resource: Financing the SDGs

Session Host

Zarmeen Pavri, Partner, SDGx, Senior Advisor (Australia/NZ), Global Impact Investing Network and Non-Executive Director, U Ethical Investment Management

Zarmeen is a Partner at SDGx, a technology investment management and advisory group, focused on solutions that address the SDGs. She has over 25 years’ experience within the investment management, ESG, impact advisory, product development and commercialisation. Zarmeen was the Fund Manager for Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) $20m social impact innovation and the specialist impact investment adviser to DFAT’s LAUNCH Food Program.

Speakers

Elyse Sainty​, Director, Impact Investing, Social Ventures Australia

Elyse has been at the forefront of the development of Social Impact Bonds and outcomes-based contracting in Australia for almost a decade. She leads SVA’s work in this space and has been instrumental in the development of each of the 8 SIBs that SVA has launched to date. She has also provided advisory support to a range of governments and service delivery organisations implementing outcomes-based contracts.  Elyse is a firm believer that the effort involved in putting together these transactions is worth it, as they force a deeper understanding of the drivers and cost of disadvantage, illuminate ‘what works’, and create partnerships with a meaningful and clear common purpose. Elyse’s thought leadership has been recognised through an Australian Impact Investment Outstanding Achievement Award.

Nicole Battle, President, Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Association

Nicole has been ANHCA President since 2019 and CEO of Neighbourhood Houses Victoria since May 2018. She is responsible for overseeing overall strategic operations and providing effective leadership for the sector. This includes ensuring a strong culture of governance and accountability and advocating to government and other external stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the neighbourhood house sector now and into the future. Nicole previously worked in senior local government and not for profit sector roles as well as teaching politics and gender studies at Melbourne University.

 

Sustainable Development Goals

Global Health

This session is being presented in partnership with the Global Health Alliance

 

 

 

Non communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, and one of the major challenges to sustainable development. Addressing NCDs is critical to reducing social and economic inequities and alleviating poverty, but rapid economic, environmental and social changes continue to make achieving positive public health outcomes more and more complex. Despite this, innovation, technology and non-traditional partnerships are providing hope for more accessible and effective solutions to tackling NCDs in the future.

This session will explore the ongoing challenges to addressing non-communicable diseases in our region, and what more needs to be done to improve health outcomes for people living with NCDs and the partnerships needed to drive these actions forward.

Session Host 

Professor Barbara McPake, Director, Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Professor McPake, a health economist specialising in health policy and health systems research, was appointed Director of the Nossal Institute for Global Health within the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne in July 2014. Professor McPake’s current interests are focused on the issues of health system transition in middle income settings in the Asia Pacific region and include research on the impact of non-communicable diseases on health seeking behaviour and out of pocket expenditure in India (supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and the development of a program of One Health Economics initially focused on the Mekong region (supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Australian government Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security).

Speakers

Professor Marion Saville AM, Executive Director, VCS Foundation

Professor Saville has held the position of Executive Director of VCS Foundation Ltd. since 2000. Marion has served on cervical screening advisory committees in Australia, New Zealand and Ontario, and chaired the working group to review Australia’s Guidelines for the management of screen-detected abnormalities in the National Cervical Screening Program. Marion has focussed on research and implementation projects demonstrating that it is possible to deliver high quality, acceptable cervical screening in a range of resource poor settings including Malaysia, PNG and Samoa.  She is also interested in how culturally safe screening can meet the needs of disadvantaged groups who have poorer cancer outcomes, in Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Tony Capon, Director, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

Tony Capon directs the Monash Sustainable Development Institute and holds a chair in Planetary Health in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. He was a member of the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health. A public health physician, Tony’s research focuses on urbanisation, sustainable development and human health. His career spans the local—as Director of Public Health and Medical Officer of Health in Western Sydney—to the global—as Director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH). Tony currently co-chairs the Future Earth Health Knowledge–Action Network.

Professor Susan M Sawyer AM, Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, University of Melbourne 
Professor Susan M Sawyer AM holds the Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health at the University of Melbourne and is Director, Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, a World Health Organization collaborating centre. A paediatrician by training, Susan’s efforts have helped to extend global understandings of the importance of adolescents and their health and wellbeing, in Australia and globally. She has developed a suite of educational initiatives to close the global learning gap, including a Massive Open Online Course in Global Adolescent Health. Her research interests primarily relate to quality health care for adolescents. Susan is President, International Association for Adolescent Health. She has held numerous advisory roles for the WHO and is the inaugural co-chair of an Australian Network of WHO collaborating Centres.

Sustainable Development Goals