Miss Almah Tararia

Almah Tararia is a PhD scholar with DPA. She’s recently completed her 12-month field research in New Ireland returning to ANU to begin the next phase of writing/analysis of her material.

Her thesis focuses on women’s political participation and decision-making at the local level in Papua New Guinea, how women collaborate and negotiate to have a voice in the public domain.

Almah has worked as a field researcher in a number of election-related and gender projects in Papua New Guinea.

In February 2014, Almah was the PNG national researcher for the Australia-CAITEC-UNDP China Project looking at development needs for PNG, Samoa and Tonga.

In 2012-2013 as part of the World Bank Group, she was the national STC (short term consultant) for its crime and violence project as well as its national STC for the Justice for the Poor Program since 2009.

In 2011-2012, Almah was the lead investigator in the ‘Gender and Economic choices in PNG’ a joint Institute of National Affairs and World Bank study that informed the World Development Report on Gender and Equality (WDR 2012) as well as the Country Gender Assessment (2012).

She was a team leader for the Domestic Observation of General Elections in PNG for the 2012 elections.

In 2013, she led the ‘Political Gifting’ (impact of money politics and political gifting in the 2012 elections and 2013 local-level government elections in PNG) project in New Ireland Province, as part of larger SSGM research in Women’s Political Leadership in the Pacific.

Almah's interests include the way money is distributed during elections and the effect that has on gender relations in PNG, and how women collaborate and negotiate gender relations to have a political voice in the public domain.