Development Intelligence Lab

The Lab is a think tank working on development cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

"Geostrategic benefits can sometimes be a by-product of delivering workable regional solutions… The new regional policing bloc will be judged on everyday cooperation, not on its usefulness against Beijing."

That’s what the Lab’s Collaborating Expert, Blake Johnson, writes in his new article for the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter.

Last week, the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP) announced PACPOL, bringing the PICP and the Pacific Policing Initiative together under one umbrella. Blake argues the new bloc should be judged on everyday cooperation across the region, not on its usefulness in strategic competition.

Drawing on the Lab’s recent brief, ‘Six faces of Australia’s Police Cooperation in the Pacific’, to set out what PACPOL could deliver across each face, Blake says:

"PACPOL will seek to improve how Australia and its Pacific neighbours organise regional security by strengthening leadership, coordination and capability across the region. Success will be determined by how well these new regional arrangements can deliver against the many facets and requirements of policing."

🔴 Read the full article, ‘Governance, not geopolitics, will make or break PACPOL’ here 👉 https://t.co/jiuKyKssHq

🔴 Explore the six faces in our latest brief 👉 https://t.co/OliO0ZSlwT

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Reducing Australia’s policing partnerships in the Pacific to a geopolitical contest obscures the long and valued history of our cooperation.

Our latest brief ‘Six Faces of Australia’s Police Cooperation in the Pacific’ finds:

⚫️ Australia’s police cooperation in the Pacific is far more than a contest for influence with China

⚫️ It has at least six faces – diplomacy, security, stability, development, geopolitics and governance – each with its own functional logic and associated purpose

⚫️ This way of seeing can bring greater rigour to how police cooperation initiatives are conceived, communicated and implemented.

As Australia works with its Pacific partners to integrate the PPI into a new regional policing bloc, to be known as ‘PACPOL’, it is an opportunity to recognise the many faces of Australia’s police cooperation in the Pacific.

🔴 Read the full brief by the Lab’s Strategic Advisor, Michael McKenzie, and Collaborating Expert, Blake Johnson, here 👉 https://t.co/OliO0ZRNHl

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Australia’s 2023 International Development Policy (IDP) was a welcome return to purpose. But since its launch, the world has changed more profoundly than even the most forward-looking policy could have anticipated.

As mid-cycle reviews of bilateral and regional Development Partnership Plans commence, a practical window presents itself to review and adjust Australia’s development cooperation with its Indo-Pacific partners.

The Lab's latest brief does two things:

🔴 It tracks the progress made against the IDP’s commitments, and

🔴 it examines two of the major dynamics that will continue to shape Australian development in the years to come.

Read Three Years On: A future no policy could predict: https://t.co/5QGylUTK6O

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

The Intel’s editor, Martina Zapf, sets the scene for this fortnight’s question and why it deserves to be asked:

“Pacific owned and led solutions are at the forefront of building community resilience and preparedness before disaster strikes.”

Explore the debate 👉 https://t.co/9mMFRVuZRj

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

This fortnight’s Intel featured insights from Sophie Lewis, Michael Copage, and Blake Johnson responding to the question:

🔴 How can the Pacific Resilience Facility have the greatest impact?

Multiple perspectives. Different angles.

Explore the points of agreement, tension, and difference here 👉 https://t.co/9mMFRVus1L

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

This fortnight on the Intel we ask:

🔴 How can the Pacific Resilience Facility have the greatest impact?

Our expert contributors pitch in:
⚫ Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility’s Sophie Lewis

⚫ CoTerran’s Michael Copage

⚫ The Lab’s Blake Johnson

Explore their three competing views, here 👉 https://t.co/9mMFRVuZRj

Don’t miss an edition, sign up to our list to get the Intel straight to your inbox 👉 https://t.co/mymdpExrtw

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

The Lab's CEO @bridirice was featured alongside James Batley in the @australian this morning talking about the value of Australian investment in community development.  

“Australians and Solomon Islanders deserve to know where every dollar goes and what it achieves, with this funding subject to the same rigorous scrutiny as any other Australian aid,” she said.

“If both governments can demonstrate that this is the best route to development results, so be it, but given the political circumstances surrounding the reported offer, there is work to be done to demonstrate that it was not designed to purchase favour or influence Solomon Islands politics.”

🔴 Read the full article ‘Labor adopts Chinese playbook to beat Beijing in Solomon Islands’ by @bennpackham: https://t.co/CrR5IHOhEF

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

🔴 The Situation 2026 pitch prize pool has just doubled to $10,000 AUD!

On Tuesday, 15 September in Canberra, eight people from across the region will be pitching there ideas to leverage AI to help solve Indo-Pacific development challenges.

They will pitch in front of Government officials, investors, development organisations, and more. And on the day, judges will decide who gets a share of the prize pool.

We will be dropping the full line-up of pitchers in the coming days, so stay tuned! To join us on the day and hear the pitches live, secure your ticket here: https://t.co/FFAaD24xVe

Situation 2026 is led by the Development Intelligence Lab, in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Canberra Innovation Network. We're proud to have Chemonics Australia as our principal partner, and DT Global, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Australia and the Pacific, and the WWF as our gold partners.

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Do you work in AI or tech?

Would you like to know how your skills could make people's lives in the Indo-Pacific safer, fairer or easier?

Situation 2026 is the room where development practitioners, government officials and funders can connect with people like you.

We are looking for people and organisations who can build practical AI solutions to improve health, education, climate, agriculture and governance across the region.

You don't need a background in aid or international affairs to attend. Just curiosity and a willingness to collaborate!

🔴 Get your ticket: https://t.co/FFAaD2405G

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

How can AI and development intelligence support infrastructure investment and planning in the Philippines?

This was the key discussion topics yesterday between our Director of Analysis and Advising, Geordie Fung, and a senior delegation from the Philippines' Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) led by Undersecretary Dr Joseph Capuno.

The delegation is in Canberra as part of their Second Philippines-Australia High Level Consultations on Development Cooperation. They met with Geordie to chat about DEPDev's ambitious and complex infrastructure investment agenda and the role that AI and development intelligence could play to support it in the Philippines.

Thank you to Undersecretary Dr Joseph Capuno and the DEPDev delegation for their time and their candour, to Ambassador Antonio Morales for joining, and to the team at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for bringing our work together.

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Optimist, cautious adopter, risk manager, or sceptic… what is your mindset when it comes to AI?

In 'AI x Development: mindsets shaping the moment', our Director of Analysis, Geordie Fung, argues that "if you care about human prosperity, you should care about artificial intelligence."

Each of these four mindsets, as he breaks them down in his article, “represents a different instinct about change: whether to accelerate it, resist it, manage it, or channel it.”

So the challenge is not to pick a camp (as we asked you to do at the beginning of this post!), but to borrow the best instincts from each of these diverging views.

This is why we're hosting Situation 2026 in Canberra on 15 September.

We’re bringing together optimists, cautious adopters, risk managers and sceptics to answer one question: what Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?

🔴 Get your ticket 👉 https://t.co/FFAaD24xVe

🔴 Read 'AI x Development: mindsets shaping the moment' 👉 https://t.co/aWkNdZwtB8

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

The room is filling up for Situation 2026!

If you work in development, and you’re looking for practical AI solutions that can improve your work and the lives of people in the Indo-Pacific, you’ll want to join us in Canberra on 15 September.

Situation 2026 will connect senior Government officials, philanthropists, funders, AI builders, development practitioners, academics and social entrepreneurs from Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The event is focused on the question: what Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?

Development Minister, the Hon Dr Anne Aly MP will deliver the keynote address, opening the conversation on the day and spending time with the people already building the solutions to this question.

🔴 Limited tickets available. Get yours: https://t.co/FFAaD24xVe

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

If you work in development, and you're looking for practical AI solutions or you want to see what AI is making possible in the Indo-Pacific, then Situation 2026 is the place for you.

We will be bringing together ideas, tools, and the people who can act on them in Canberra this September.

🔴 Limited tickets are available now. Secure your ticket today 👉 https://t.co/FFAaD24xVe

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

“AI is interacting with international development in three distinct ways: as a tool for efficiency, as a contributor to effectiveness, and as a force shaping long-term development trajectories.

So what can the development community do? A starting point is building enough fluency in AI to participate credibly in the conversations where these decisions are made – not becoming technologists but understanding the language well enough to argue for development values in rooms where those values are not the default. It also means expanding what counts as a normal partnership.”

This is what our Director of Analysis, Geordie Fung, wrote in ‘AI x Development: tools, programs or trajectories?’ A Lab series looking at how AI is already shaping development.

Our work in this area began last year with the launch of our AI x Development discussion sessions, this year we’re elevating this conversation at Situation 2026. One room, built around one question: what Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?

If you, like us, would like to wrestle with the complexities that come with this challenge, join us in Canberra on 15 September.

🔴 Get your ticket 👉 https://t.co/FFAaD24xVe

🔴 Read ‘AI x Development: tools, programs or trajectories?’ 👉 https://t.co/7dnsgCiBuU

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Applications to pitch or showcase at Situation 2026 are now closed.

Thank you to everyone who sent an EOI to get involved. Our team is now reviewing every submission, and we will be in touch with selected candidates soon.

Stay tuned as we reveal more details about the event including the final line-up of pitches and showcases, mentors and judges in the coming weeks!

In the meantime, you can secure your ticket here: https://t.co/FFAaD2405G

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

The Lab and the Australian Government are looking for people who have something to contribute to the challenge:

🔴 What Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?

And your idea can be as big and wide as you’d like.

Maybe you have been sitting on an idea for a policy proposal, know for a fact there’s a process that could be improved, developed a technological solution you’re putting in place, or something entirely different!

Shortlisted contributors will get expert mentorship, a stage in Canberra, and the opportunity to turn their idea into direct action at a closed-door dialogue with senior DFAT officials.

Ideas at any stage are welcome, but hurry, applications close tonight at midnight!

Find out more and get involved: https://t.co/75BqbG4MS2

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

We know that AI in development isn't just a tech problem. It's a policy one, too.

This year, the challenge at the core of the Lab’s Flagship Situation 2026 is:

What Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?  

And we’re looking for people thinking or working on the solutions.

⚫ Do you have a policy idea to better support Pacific-led AI expertise? Or maybe you have been thinking about how development partners should approach AI sovereignty?  

If this sounds like you, we want you to join the room.

🔴 Submit your EOI to pitch your solution: https://t.co/D336PHQR2v

Application close tomorrow, Friday, 31 July. So get in quick!

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

Last chance to submit your pitch!

Thank you to everyone who has submitted an EOI to be part of Situation 2026 so far. We’ve been blown away by the quality of ideas and amount of interest to get involved!

If you have an AI tool or an idea that you believe could make people's lives in the Indo-Pacific safer, fairer or easier, we want you in the room.

🔴 Applications close this Friday, 31 July.

🔴 Submit your EOI here: https://t.co/D336PHQR2v

You don't need a background in aid or international affairs to be involved. Situation 2026 is the bridge for those at the world-class frontier of AI for good, and the philanthropists, Government officials and development organisations that can scale this impact.

See you in Canberra!

[Development Intelligence Lab @devintellab]

The Lab is pleased to announce that Minister for International Development, the Hon Dr. Anne Aly MP, will be attending and delivering a keynote address at our flagship event, Situation 2026!

The international development system is entering a period of significant global constraint and upheaval, so the question is no longer whether development assistance will need to adapt, but how. That’s why, this year, @dfat and the Lab are posing the challenge:

What Indo-Pacific development challenge could AI solve by 2031?

Minister Aly’s portfolio sits squarely at the intersection of this question: linking development assistance to Australian small business and advancing Australian progress on multiculturalism and engagement with the region.

Situation 2026 will bring together people and organisations at the world-class frontier of AI for good and connect them with philanthropists, Government officials and development organisations that can help scale their impact.

It will be a day-long event built for people wanting to shape the future of sustainable development, and many will be excited to hear from Minister Aly and see the ideas that unfold on the day.

Find out more about Situation 2026 and secure your ticket: https://t.co/75BqbG4f2u

Situation 2026 is led by the Development Intelligence Lab, in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Canberra Innovation Network. We're proud to have Chemonics Australia as our principal partner, and DT Global, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Australia and the Pacific, and the @WWF as our gold partners, with AI CoLab, Dragonfly Thinking, @Infoxchange and @FilterLabs as collaborators.