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Governance, justice and accountability

As recognised in Sustainable Development Goal 16, how power, rights and decision-making operate are key to whether institutions are responsive to people’s needs and whose interests count.

The CHSSC’s work on governance, justice and accountability focuses on these critical elements of responsive and inclusive institutions and how the powerful are held to account.

The CHSSC’s work takes a broad focus – recognising the centrality of not just formal governance or justice processes but also the everyday, often customary and informal ways in which people access services, navigate disputes and solve problems. This involves recognising the diverse forms of governance, justice and accountability that may be appropriate in different contexts and the pursuit of best-fit, tailored approaches that are meaningful in context.

Featured projects

Others projects

The CHSSC is partnering with The Asia Foundation (TAF) to undertake impact assessments of two DFAT-funded governance programs – the Subnational Governance program in Nepal and the Nabilan program in Timor-Leste. The resulting case studies will support greater understanding within DFAT and the international development community of the factors that contribute to impactful governance programs across a variety of contexts.

The assessments are being led by CHSSC Senior Research Fellow Thushara Dibley and Adjunct Associate Professor Linda Kelly and local researchers, with support from CHSSC Director Lisa Denney.

The CHSSC is partnering with The Asia Foundation (TAF) to develop a case study on the local impacts of rising international competition in Timor-Leste, with particular attention given to how these play out in relation to local politics, conflict dynamics and development.

It does this through analysing the local impacts of foreign interests engaged in two key sectors in Timor-Leste: police reform and infrastructure development.

The research is being undertaken by CHSSC Director Lisa Denney in collaboration with TAF researcher Gobie Rajalingam and Timorese researcher Aderito Soares.

TAF is supporting similar case studies in Afghanistan and Bangladesh

The CHSSC is partnering with The Asia Foundation (TAF) to analyse TAF’s significant work in the law and justice sector in countries across Asia. This includes reviewing TAF’s past and existing law and justice work in eight countries, contributing to the design and facilitation of workshop to discuss country findings and developing a capstone paper that captures TAF’s approach to law and justice and identifies future opportunities. The work is being undertaken by CHSSC Director Lisa Denney.

The CHSSC partnered with Abt Associates in 2022-2024 to support adaptive management in DFAT-funded programs in Papua New Guinea. This included supporting a participatory political economy analysis for the Australia-PNG Subnational Program and the implementation of adaptive management approaches within the Partnerships for Improving Education Program and the Australia PNG Economic Partnership. This work was undertaken by then Principal Research Fellow Lisa Denney.

The CHSSC partnered with The Asia Foundation (TAF) in 2021-2023 to undertake a political economy analysis of three Pacific large ocean states - Nauru, Tuvalu and Kiribati. The project experimented with adapting political economy analysis frameworks to the Pacific context, resulting in an innovative method more attuned to local realities. The analysis provided a deeper understanding of the complex political, social and economic dynamics of three countries from different perspectives and how these effect their respective development trajectories. The work was led by then CHSSC Senior Research Fellow Lisa Denney with support from Research Fellow Aidan Craney and in collaboration with Pacific researcher Peni Tawake and local researchers.

The CHSSC is partnering with the UNDP Pacific Office to undertake an EU-funded political economy analysis of accountability ecosystems in the Pacific.

The research aims to foster locally-led understandings of and approaches to accountability – recognising that the most relevant and effective mechanisms of accountability will come from Pacific Islanders, not outsiders.

The research examines and documents Pacific understandings of accountability and maps the relevant actors, relationships and power dynamics at play in the accountability ecosystem in six countries, spanning the North and South Pacific. The research deepens understandings of how accountability and oversight is thought about and enacted in diverse ways across the Pacific, as well as within countries, and identifies key actors and potential opportunities for strengthening accountability.

Project outputs to date:

  • 2025 Synthesis report: The Political Economy of accountability ecosystems - Charting a new course in the Pacific - authored by Lisa Denney, Glenn Bond, Aidan Craney and Allan Mua Illingworth
  • Kiribati Country Study - authored by Aidan Craney and  Tearinaki Tanielu.
  • Solomon Islands Country Study - authored by Ali Tuhanuku and Aidan Craney.
  • Vanuatu Country Study - authored by Gregoire Nimbtik and Allan Mua Illingworth.
  • Tuvalu Country Study - authored by Tala Simeti and Allan Mua Illingworth,
  • Palau Country Study - authored by Aidan Craney and Bernadett Besebes
  • Responsive Governance in the Pacific - building off the Centre’s EU-funded research for UNDP on the political economy of accountability ecosystems in the Pacific, Adjunct Research Fellow Glenn Bond has developed a policy paper that sets out potential conceptual framings for UNDP’s responsive governance work.
  • A literature review summarises key literature on accountability for responsive governance globally as well as within the Pacific, situating the research project in wider debates and providing a consistent baseline understanding of the scope of accountability ecosystems, and what influences its various interpretations, to inform the country studies that follow.
  • A blog on the Developmental Leadership Program website introduces the research and summarises some of the emerging themes the country studies will pick up on.

The research is being led by CHSSC Director Lisa Denney with support from Research Fellow Allan Illingworth, Research Fellow Aidan Craney, Adjunct Research Fellow Glenn Bond, Research Assistant Serena Ford and Pacific researchers Gregoire Nimbtik (Vanuatu), Ali Tuhanuku (Solomon Islands), Tala Simeti (Tuvalu), Vasa Saitala (Tuvalu), Tearinaki Tanielu (Kiribati), Bernadett Besebes (Palau) and Mahoney Mori (Federated States of Micronesia).

Between 2023-2025 the CHSSC partnered with DT Global to undertake research on the intersection between disability and trafficking in ASEAN. The research was commissioned by the Australian Government funded ASEAN-Australia Counter Trafficking program, which works with regional and country-level stakeholders to improve the responses to human trafficking.

People with disabilities are widely recognised as a group at risk of trafficking. But very little is known about the specific vulnerabilities they face, what types of trafficking they experience, and how well existing counter-trafficking efforts and recovery services are meeting their needs. This research aimed to fill this gap and help ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind in counter-trafficking efforts.

In 2023-2024, Senior Research Fellow Elisabeth Jackson led a three-country study in collaboration with disability researchers Cucu Saidah (Indonesia), Abner Manlapaz (Philippines) and Alisa Sivathorn (Thailand).

A second phase of the research in 2024-2025 involved country studies in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam as well as a regional policy brief and associated recommendations. This was led by Senior Research Fellows Elisabeth Jackson and Thushara Dibley, in collaboration with ASEAN-ACT staff in each of these countries.

Key outputs from the research study to date include: