Hello everyone! MDC Meet-up is back with its second month.

Join members of the Melbourne Development Circle community for an informal online discussion about how International Development practitioners (and researchers) are adapting, innovating and reacting to the challenges of work in this moment. We know that COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the sector, and will continue to do so for some time, and the impacts are being felt around the world. This event will provide the chance for those involved in the sector to connect, share experiences and ideas about how we can all adjust and find a new way of working and collaborating into the future.

July topic: Aligning local action with global movements amongst the current challenges.

This informal session (not a webinar!) will be introduced by Lead Conversationalists and we encourage participants to share their development experiences and suggest discussion topics.

This month, our Lead Conversationalists come from different backgrounds and have exciting stories to share!

Chelsey Parish

Chelsey Parish is an international develop professional with experience in project management, public diplomacy, partnerships and alumni engagement.Originally from Cairns and now based in Melbourne, Chelsey is managing the Returned Australian Volunteers Network, the alumni group of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s long-running Australian Volunteers Program, managed by AVI. The alumni has over 7000 members and includes skilled Australians who volunteers as far back as the 1950s. Previously, Chelsey worked with United Nations Volunteers and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Laos, where she managed the UN’s volunteer program in-country, while also driving volunteer advocacy and the UNDP’s communications campaigns. She has a Masters of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University, and also holds an Honours Degree in International Business with the University of Sunshine Coast. Chelsey is passionate about skilled volunteering for sustainable development, hates the cold and thinks the world would be a much better place with more female leadership.

Professor Diego Ramírez-Lovering

Diego is Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University. His research examines the contributory role that design and design thinking can play in addressing the significant challenges facing contemporary urban environments -climate change, resource limitations and rapid population growth with a key focus on the Global South and through a lens of planetary health. Diego is the director of the Informal Cities Lab (ICL). The Lab undertakes design-based research exploring and speculating on the conditions of informality in developing cities with specific focus on the Indo-Pacific. ICL research – designed and conducted in collaboration with government and industry – strives for impact, purposefully and strategically targeting implementation at the intersection of academic research and international development. As an award-winning architectural and urban design practitioner and researcher, he has completed a range of projects to advance planetary health and social equity and resilience objectives including affordable housing, water sensitive precinct designs and informal settlement revitalisation projects with state, local and international governments and industry.

Talei Caucau

Talei is a Law student at University of Southern Queensland. She is also the current (virtual) intern at Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, and volunteer content writer at Pink Space Theory, a nonprofit that encourages women and girls to enter STEM. Recently, she also became involved with Wells Bring Hope, a nonprofit that provides access to safe water, in Niger, by building wells and an online United Nations volunteer for a nonprofit, in Uganda, called EACO Uganda. Her skills and interest are in writing and research having contributed to non-profit blogs around the world.Can’t join for this one? MDC Meet-Ups will take place on the first Wednesday of the month. Watch out for this space for more!

These are free events, however, we encourage those who are in a position to do so to make a donation to cover costs.