Developing policy design and delivery capacity in Indigenous communities is crucial to changing our record of failure on Closing the Gap. That’s starting to happen.
One of the few worthwhile policy outcomes from the Morrison years was the “refresh” of the Closing the Gap process, which placed a heavy emphasis on co-design and co-delivery of Indigenous programs with communities.
That first part was a no-brainer given the history of Indigenous programs and the clear evidence that success depended heavily on Indigenous communities not merely designing programs but delivering them as well. But the Morrison government in 2020 began the process of ensuring that could happen, by funding capacity building within Indigenous bodies to participate fully and effectively in policy processes.
On Friday the Albanese government announced funding for the other end of the capacity-building process, with 500 Indigenous health workers to be trained under a new program.
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