1ST DTP FELLOWS PROGRAM (25TH ANNIVERSARY)
Report to the DTP board (extract)
… DTP’s Fellows Program concluded successfully on September 25th with most participants
departing on Saturday 26th. The Fellows were very positive and appreciative about the experience.
A great range of people were involved in this program – including the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW, the
Dean and academics from UNSW Law; Members of Parliament; business and human rights arena;
SBS television; the Whitlam Institute; the NGO community; the OECD Australian National Contact
Point, DFAT officials, the Dutch and East Timorese Embassies, Justice Michael Kirby and Corrs
Westgarth. We were able to deliver a very strong, interesting and relevant program.
It was an intense 3-week program including time in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne with 18
participants from Nepal, Myanmar, Fiji, India and Bangladesh. Based on feedback from participants
and others, the program was very successful – in more than meeting the expectations of the
participants, and in enabling DTP to engage with others with whom relationships could usefully be
built.
There are many positives for the participants and for DTP in being able to hold such a program here
in Australia – a really terrific opportunity to strengthen the engagement of Australia and Australians
in human rights work, to learn about the issues in the region and to build links between Australia
and the region that can be mutually beneficial. We have had some nice feedback from participants
since the program finished.
Lorelle facilitated the program with Andre Frankovits and Bill Barker. Lorelle Savage did a wonderful
job in pulling everything together and in looking after everything and everybody in a way that made
the participants very cared for and special. Among other things, one participant arrived here
requiring continuing medical treatment to prevent rabies, following a pre-departure dog bite, and
another participant was admitted to hospital suffering with dehydration.
Thanks are owed to Lorelle’s sister who became a driver during the program and also to Chantal
Nguyen and to Petroc Wilton who provided help in a number of ways in the lead up to the program
and who performed at the welcome reception at Corrs – with thanks owed to Michael do Rozario for
enabling this.
Patrick, Lorelle Andre and Bill have had an internal review. Some of the points raised include:
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the need to implement a strategy to target participants with previous experience in human
rights – more closely focused on providing second level training for DTP alumni and resource
people and trainers in the region.
should aim to have a slightly larger group 22-24 and try to ensure that the they were more
representative of the region/had more in common in terms of areas of work focus
action planning/follow up strategizing is an area that could be improved
a follow-up meeting with DFAT should be arranged to share some of our reflections with them.
We all agreed on the value of bringing back together our alumni for a second level of training. We
would suggest changing the process of selecting participants, and some of the funding arrangements
that tied our hands a little …