Philanthropod

In our first episode of our new season, Philanthropod’s host Anubha Rawat sits down with Eleanor Loudon.Eleanor is an experienced international development leader with a deep, lifelong commitment to social and environmental justice. She has spent over 10 years in professional leadership roles, including in Sri Lanka (ChildFund International), and Cambodia and Thailand (Australian Volunteer Program). Eleanor is also on the board of the social enterprise ATEC.Eleanor is currently the CEO of Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) – a humanitarian engineering charity that uses the power of engineering to help create a more equitable and sustainable world. They work with communities in Australia, Cambodia, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu in need to provide access to clean water, renewable energy, disaster recovery and develop sustainable infrastructure. At the heart of their programs they ask: How do we engineer differently? How do we engineer sustainably? How do we engineer with community?In the episode, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about EWB’s huge remit - from being integrated into university engineering curriculums, to building technical capacity of in-country engineers, to challenging gender norms and supporting women engineers, to working on major infrastructure projects in Timor-Leste. A focus on Indigenous outreach is also core to their ethos. The episode, launched on IWD 2023, is also a must-listen for those interested in the intersection of gender, engineering and women's leadership more broadly. Eleanor and Anubha discuss women’s leadership in a sector where women’s representation drops from 70% across the sector to 40% at a senior level. Eleanor provides sound advice for other women looking to take up leadership positions in the international development sector and beyond. Eleanor sheds light on her experience of a changing ecosystem – it is now the private sector who come to EWB to ask about Sustainable Development Goal 2030 strategies. For Eleanor, this represents the fact that issues like climate change are no longer ‘dirty words’ in the urgent development context of today. To learn more about Engineers Without Borders follow the link: https://ewb.org.au

Content Warning// trauma, violence, gender-based violencePlease be advised that listener discretion is advised as some parts of this conversation are distressingIn 1995, Benson Wereje's village in the Democratic Republic of Congo was attacked by rebels. He was separated from his parents and he endured unimaginable bloodshed before reaching a refugee camp in Uganda. More than five million of Benson's friends and countrymen have been killed in his home area. Dedicated to empowering youth and imbued with a deep admiration for the transformative impact that education can provide his country, Benson co-founded and became Executive Director of CIYOTA in 2005. Today, CIYOTA educates thousands of children and youths in refugee camps, focuses on community building and strives to unite tribes in the DRC to bring enduring and sustainable peace. Join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in an eye-opening and honest discussion with Benson about experiencing and overcoming trauma, how a commitment to equality, forgiveness and education was instilled in him by his father, and how he continues to be inspired by his wife - a modern ‘heroine’. Benson leaves you with a powerful message as to why he believes it is his mission to train young people in responsible leadership and create a unified vision for their country.For his work, Benson has been awarded the Desmond Tutu fellowship with African Leadership Institute at Oxford University in 2013, an Echoing Green fellowship in New York, the ASHOKA fellowship in 2015 and was a Tony Elumelu Foundation awardee in 2019.To learn more about CIYOTA follow the link: https://www.coburwas.org/ 

Roy Head is an innovator and leader in the field when it comes to leveraging communications and mass media for good. Roy started his career as a documentary film director for the BBC, before joining UNPeacekeeping. There, he set up the UN's first radio station (in Cambodia) and its largest TV operation (during the Bosnian war). Roy founded the Health Division of the BBC World Service Trust in 1997, bringing together the BBC and the World Health Organisation. In 2005, Roy founded Development Media International (DMI) which aims to create evidence-based behaviour change campaigns to improve health and save lives. With a focus on delivering campaigns at scale to maximise impact and cost-effectiveness, DMI uses storytelling to motivate change and use scientific methods to test the impact of their interventions.Join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in conversation with Roy to learn how mass media, when employed strategically - with local knowledge and engaging storytelling practice - can be used as a key tool to strengthen public health outcomes and reach millions of people at one time. This episode also comes recommended for those interested in complex monitoring and evaluation and campaign design. Roy discusses the inherent issues in measuring huge public health prevention campaigns through mass media - which strive to measure complex, long-term or intangible outcomes: including changing ‘social norms’ or shifting attitudes towards health practices. To learn more about Development Media International follow the link: https://www.developmentmedia.net