Listening between worlds: how a Crawford graduate is applying his knowledge in Fiji

Laurie Singh graduated from the Master of Environmental Management and Development (EMDV) while working remotely as a Principal Policy Planning Officer with Fiji's Strategic Planning Office under the Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics. He commuted back and forth to see his wife and children, while seizing every opportunity that came his way during his studies. His work saw him awarded the Elspeth Young Prize for Social Contribution. This prize is awarded to the student who completes the EMDV or the Master of Climate Change, and made the most valuable contribution to the social fabric of the Environment and Development Program student group. 

Here is his story, in his own words.  

About me 

I’m Laurie Singh from Suva, Fiji. I grew up in a multicultural home. My dad is of Indo-Fijian descent, and through my mother my 'i'Taukei' roots tie to my 'vasu', Cicia, an island part of the Lau Group in Fiji. That mix was a gift and a test. I learned two sets of customs and two ways of speaking, but I also felt the edges of belonging when I wasn’t seen as fully one or the other. Here’s the thing. Living in between taught me to listen first, translate, and build trust. It’s why I’m drawn to work that connects people and systems that don’t always meet. 

I’m passionate about making public decisions matter in people’s lives. My work in Fiji's civil service has kept me close to the point where policy meets reality. I visit communities, listen, and see what our choices look like on the ground. That experience keeps me honest. It reminds me that every line in a plan is a family’s road, a clinic’s light, a student’s chance to stay in school. 

Living in the Pacific, disasters are not just headlines. They are seasons. Sitting with people after tropical cyclones, hearing what broke and what held, shaped me more than any textbook. It taught me to move past talk and focus on what can be funded, built, and kept working when the weather turns again. That is where my motivation comes from. 

I come from humble beginnings. My parents taught me the value of hard work, respect, and finishing what you start. Those lessons became my way of working. Show up. Do the careful thinking. Make the numbers add up. Keep people’s dignity at the centre. 

What this really means is I wake up wanting to turn plans into outcomes you can touch. If a child gets to school because a bridge stayed open, or a nurse has what she needs because the budget was done right, that is the kind of result that moves me. That is why I do this work, and why I want to keep getting better at it. 

Why I chose Crawford 

I chose this degree because I kept seeing the same gap at work. Climate ambition lived in one building. National policy and budget rules lived in another. Good ideas stalled between them. I wanted the skills to turn Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Application Plans (NAP) into nationally integrated projects that are funded, built, and maintained. After visiting communities post-cyclone and seeing how long recovery really takes, I knew I needed stronger tools in economics, governance, and impact assessment to make policy land where people live. 

Why Crawford? First, my role models within the Ministry studied here and spoke about how it sharpened their thinking and their practice. That mattered. Second, Crawford is practical. It sits close to government, so classes connect theory to delivery. I learned to test assumptions, cost real options, design with risk in mind, and measure results that ministers and auditors can stand behind. Third, the focus on the Asia-Pacific and the strong Pacific community gave me a learning environment that understands the realities of small island states, not just big-economy models. 

What this really means is I can go back to the Planning Office with a clearer toolkit and a wider network. I know how to screen projects for climate risk, build credible Community-Based Adaptations (CBA), tag climate spending in the budget, and set up monitoring that tells us if people are actually better off. I can translate between the Ministry of Climate Change and National Planning so decisions move faster and hold up under scrutiny. 

What inspired my work 

I didn’t find this field in a textbook. I grew into it at home and in villages. My multicultural background meant two ways of showing respect, two sets of customs, and a lot of time listening between worlds. Somewhere along the way I realised policy is also a kind of translation. You take values and needs from one space and make them work in another. 

The turning point was after Cyclones Winston and Yasa. Visiting various communities, I saw what recovery really feels like. Not just headlines. Months of waiting. Kids out of school. Clinics stretched thin. Standing there, it was impossible to pretend policy is abstract. Every budget line is a road, a roof, a safe water point. That experience pushed me toward work where I could help turn decisions into things that hold when the weather turns again. 

In the National Planning Office, I kept seeing how much outcomes depend on the quiet choices behind the scenes. Which projects pass the gate. What risks get ignored. Whether a design is built for today’s climate or tomorrow’s. I also saw how easily climate ambition can live in one building while the rules that release money live in another. What inspired me was the idea of being the bridge. 

Mentors in the Ministry, and the communities I learned from, shaped me. Ask who benefits. Ask who pays. Check what will fail first. My parents’ example did the rest. Work hard. Keep your word. Treat people with dignity. That’s the foundation I stand on. 

So why this field? Because it lets me serve in the most practical way I know. I can connect climate goals to planning and finance so good policy reaches people. When a school stays open after heavy rain and a child access to school, that is the kind of result that tells me I chose the right work. That’s my inspiration and it hasn’t faded. 

My experience at Crawford 

Crawford feels like a serious policy workshop with intelligent peers. We work from incentives and institutions to outcomes, who wins, who pays, and why. Lecturers push hard on clarity and trade-offs, and the Pasifika community has been an anchor. The support is real and practical: access to supervisors and convenors, honest feedback, methods and writing help when you need it, and admin that answers. The faculty bring global experience with a regional lens. Many have worked inside governments, multilaterals, and research teams across the Asia-Pacific, so the examples fit our realities, like small-state fiscal constraints, climate finance, and regulation that matches capacity. That mix makes the climate, policy, and economics useful. You learn to turn evidence into choices that hold up in cabinet and make sense in Pacific contexts. 

My research projects 

I was selected for the recently renamed Dhumimanyin Gawar (formerly ANU Climate Alumni Leadership Program 2025) to attend COP30 in Belém. What excites me is the learning curve. I’ll be embedded in the COP ecosystem with mentoring from experienced negotiators and scholars, especially focused on Pacific voices. This is a chance to build real negotiation literacy, how agendas are set, how contact groups work, what happens in informal settings, and how text shifts between drafts. I’ll practice rapid policy analysis under pressure by turning daily developments into short briefs, and I’ll map where Pacific priorities intersect with finance windows and implementation pathways. The network is just as important, and also the opportunity for a professional/personal mentorship with a member of the ANU Climate Alumni Leadership program (Salā Dr George Carter, Dr Virginia Marshall and Associate Professor Siobhan McDonnell).  I’ll leave with relationships across delegations, researchers, and practitioners that I can draw on when I’m back in government. 

I’ve also accepted to be part of the DECRA research project led by Associate Professor Siobhan McDonnell on Pacific agency in UN climate governance. My role will focus on collaborative event ethnography around COP processes and Pacific participation. That means structured observation in negotiation spaces, disciplined field notes, coding and analysis of interventions on issues such as loss and damage, among others, and then translating those insights into a research paper.  

Both experiences point the same way. I will come back with sharper eyes for how international signals become domestic choices, a live network, and tested tools for moving from communiqués to cabinet-ready advice. 

Post COP30 thoughts 

Our research examines Pacific agency in UN climate governance, using collaborative event ethnography to track how Pacific priorities move through negotiations on loss and damage, adaptation, and Article 6, and how those signals translate into policy back home. 

It was my first COP. As a Pacific Islander in Belém, I felt the scale, the speed, and the weight of coordinated Pacific voices. With mentoring from Salā Dr George Carter, I tracked agenda shifts, sat in contact groups, and spoke with negotiators and observers. My focus was thinking critically about interventions and next steps for the Pacific: where to push for clearer finance access, how to make adaptation commitments usable at home, and when to step in on text to protect key priorities. I am taking those lessons back into national planning, so global outcomes become practical choices on the ground. 

As part of the research team, we are now finalising our analysis from COP30 and will begin drafting initial findings in the coming months, with publications to follow. 

How my local policy experience can shape Australia and the region 

My EMDV program and working in planning taught me that policy only counts when it survives budgets, procurement, and maintenance. After cyclones, you learn fast that a target means nothing if the infrastructure fails. So, when I look at global commitments, I ask simple questions. Can this be financed at the local level? Is the reporting doable? Who is accountable when the weather turns again? What this really means is I treat communiqués as raw material and judge them by what they enable in villages, towns, and line ministries. 

This perspective guides my next steps. I plan to be a translator between negotiations and national planning, turning global signals into cabinet options, financed pipelines, and metrics that track real outcomes. I will keep building systems that make delivery routine: climate risk screening in project gates, climate tags in budgets, and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) that is credible and light enough to use. 

What policymakers in Australia and the region should focus on: 

• Move from pledges to pipelines, with predictable grant finance for adaptation and loss and damage that reaches local implementers. 

• Build resilience into standards and budgets, including lifecycle funding for maintenance. 

• Make data and MRV practical, with shared regional tools that meet UNFCCC needs without overloading capacity. 

• Accelerate a fair energy transition, prioritising affordable renewables, grid upgrades, and skills. 

• Expand shock-responsive safety nets and disaster risk finance so communities bounce back faster. 

• Keep the 1.5C alive! 

My most memorable time at Crawford 

The RISOS Simulation in the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management course came first and changed how I learn. Instead of reading about preparedness, we planned it under pressure. We set triggers, assigned roles, and made choices with partial information. When you feel the clock and the consequences, ideas like risk, capacity, and accountability stop being abstract. Doing RISOS again in the Land Rights and Resource Development course took the same immersion into questions of land, culture, and livelihoods. The reflections after both courses cemented a habit I use in planning work today. Listen first, name the trade-offs, decide clearly, and ask who benefits, who pays, what fails first, and how we will know it worked. 

Being a student representative shaped the rest of my experience. I met people across cohorts, worked with staff who genuinely support students, and helped keep our EMDV community connected and provide a space to voice their concerns. Along the way I made friends, the kind you can study with and laugh with the next day. That sense of belonging, mixed with hard, practical learning, is what I will carry forward. 

My advice for prospective students 

Your experience is the best thing you bring. Speak up. Classes at Crawford work when people test ideas against real problems. Come with an example, a question, and a view you’re willing to revise. Be ready to name trade-offs, who benefits, who pays, and what it would take to deliver. Become a student representative. You will learn how the place works, build a real network across staff and cohorts, and practice the skills you came here for such as listening, framing issues, and solving problems in public. 

What’s next for me 

First, I’m going home to Fiji to reunite with my wife and children. Their support made this journey possible, and being back with them is the best part of completing my program. Next, I’m returning to the National Planning Office to put this degree into work. And finally, I will continue working on my part to complete the DECRA research project. 

My final thoughts on my time at Crawford 

These years was not only about study. It was about people and places. I learned as much in conversations with classmates from across the Asia Pacific as I did in seminars. Being a student representative and part of the Pasifika community (as the Pasifika Student Association Vice President) gave me a circle of friends, mentors, and future collaborators. Australia itself was a classroom too. New cities, new landscapes, and First Nations perspectives stretched how I think about policy and responsibility. I’m leaving with a degree and a community. The friendships, the small moments of support, and the chance to see more of this country will travel with me back to Fiji. That mix of learning and lived experience is what I value most. 

Congratulations Laurie on all that you have accomplished while you were studying. We can’t wait to see the changes you bring to your role in Fiji.  

If you’d like to learn more about studying at the Crawford School of Public Policy, you can click here. For more stories from Crawford Alumni, and the Crawford Alumni Dialogue series, click here.