If you would like to share your comments on any of CDI's activities and have them appear on this Guestbook, visit our evaluation page:
May 2009 2008 - ... Dear All at CDI and Participants of PPD course 2009 Senior Program Officer, IRI Timor Leste. Karlito Nunes, wish to take this opportunity to express my most sincerely appreciation and gratitude to CDI and the Government of Australia (AUSaid) for giving me a wonderful opportunity to attend a very important and a worthwhile training course of Political Party Development in Canberra. The course ... has given me a wider and an in-depth understanding of the nature and scope political parties’ operation in Asia Pacific countries and also enhanced my capacity to deliver to my work environment and put into practice in Timor-Leste what I learnt . The CDI team was very helpful and made us feel welcome. The delivery of the course ... was very open minded with less formalities which eased ... anxiety.
I will ever be so grateful because I had the second opportunity in different topic course of being lectured and trained by some of your country's (Australian) top academics, consultants, senior public servants, MP’s and honored to have trained at the Australian National University (ANU). It also gave me the opportunity to meet with the Speaker of the House of Representatives.My sincere thanks and appreciation...
The course program was the highlight of my career as Political Party’s trainer in Timor-Leste. I hope this program will continue to serve the East Timor Political Parties ... For the fellow please keep contact and post each our political update to each other so we are the same page on this issue in Asia Pacific Once again, thank you and good luck Sincerely, Karlito Nunes,
East Timor Participant in CDI's Political Party Development Course 2009:
**********
November 2008 - ... Dear Dr Sun-Hee First of all let me say thank you so much from Maria, Keke, myself and PNGWIP to you and the CDI team for inviting us to this very important course and giving us some real good insights into how we can … increase number of women MPs in our parliament. Please convey our sincere gratitude to our sponsors and we believe this has been one, if not, the best training for some of us interested in this field … as we in PNG prepare for 2012. I have drafted a PNGWIP project, as per our presentation to you and participants at CDI training and have taken into account the suggestions you all made … Thank you again so much.
Papua New Guinea participant in the CDI Women In Politics course:
**********
February 2008- … I wish to express my appreciation for the recent … workshops that we went through at Beechworth and at ANU. In my view that programme was well designed to deal with real situations in the work environment of all those participating countries. ... and I could see that everyone enjoyed every bit of the topics covered. I have attended many conferences but this one was full of learning for everyone. The fact that we were discussing things that we do in our respective Parliaments and compare with each other in order to correct or improve. That in my view was really fantastic. I learnt many things and so did the others, particularly the course designed for us at ANU.
Papua New Guinea participant who attended the CDI Effective Parliamentary Committee Inquiries Course, and the 3rd La Trobe International PAC Summer School in 2008:
**********
December 2007 - "I will better myself as a person and as a leader of my island learning from the challenges I have heard [here in Goroka]"
"I have learned a great deal . the networking has been invaluable"
"Learning about conflicts, political issues and govt involvement in terms of conflict management was very good."
"Absolutely stunning insight into broad range of issues impacting on democracy in Pacific Region"
"Excellent initiative - invaluable . Excellent program"
Feedback snapshots from participants at the 2007 Pacific Parliamentary Dialogue held in Goroka, PNG.
**********
September 2007 - "Thank you for organizing the responsible parliamentary government course which we recently attended. We greatly appreciate CDI providing this opportunity to us through its ongoing support to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands.
The structure and the content of the course were very helpful ... it introduced us to some of the key democratic principles on which the Australian parliament and government are founded. The overview of how existing systems related to each other provided us the opportunity to delve deeper into the internal workings of parliament and other relevant oversight bodies.
Certain aspects of the course were of special interest to us and had particular application to the Solomon Island system . The Course offered to us a rich variety of information and ideas that will be extremely useful in guiding reform or providing us with the inspiration to initiate change . deeply grateful."
Solomon Islands Participants at the 2007 Responsible Parliamentary Governance Course, September 2007.
**********
May 2007 - "I am very satisfied because I learned many things from this course ... information from the other party people . and learning about a different country and parties with different ideologies, strategies and tactics in campaigning and the election system."
"All preparation from start to finish totally excellent . this course is an excellent academic and political effort to create new regional political awareness regardless of participants individual backgrounds or their country's political system."
"I wish to thank everyone behind the course . We all learnt from each other .The PPD program is very useful to the Asia pacific region especially in the restoration and the support of democracy ."
Feedback snapshots from participants of the 2007 Political Party Development Course, May 2007
**********
January 2007 - "... I'm currently working with NDI as Senior Program Officer on the Legislative Support Program, my counterpart is Committee B, i.e. the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and National Defence, East Timor National Parliament.
... I wish to take this opportunity to express my most sincerely appreciation and gratitude to CDI and the Government of Australia for giving me a wonderful opportunity to attend a very important and a worthwhile training course in Canberra . The course ... has given me a wider and an in-depth understanding of governance and also enhanced my capacity to deliver to my work environment and put into practice what I learnt. The CDI team was very helpful and made us feel welcome. The delivery of the training ... was very open minded with less formalities which eased ... anxiety.
I will ever be so grateful because I had the opportunity of being lectured and trained by some of your country's top academics, consultants, senior public servants and honored to have trained at the Australian National University (ANU). It also gave me the opportunity to meet with your MPs, especially the Speaker of the House of Representatives. My sincerely thank you and appreciation ...
The training program was the highlight of my Parliamentary career. I hope this program will continue to serve the East Timor Parliament ...
Once again, thank you and good luck.
Sincerely,
Karlito Nunes, East Timor Participant in CDI's Responsible parliamentary Government Course 2006
**********
September 2006 - "...
Thanks again for the invitation and for hosting the [International Political party Assistance] round table.
I think that it was a useful exercise and not only for those that are relatively new to the game. The region of focus for the round table does indeed have some unique challenges and I, for one, was fascinated by the PNG and Pacific Islands segments. ... I think that bringing practitioners together is a role that really seems to sit well on CDI as you are in a position to take a look at best practices in a way that few of us in the field ever do. It is also my belief that, if you are interested in playing the role, CDI could bring similar groups together to discuss functional issues. For example, the issue of women's participation in political parties and the election of women would make and interesting follow-up as it was something that almost everyone at the round table touched on at least tangentially. .... Many donors, including AusAID, have gender (women) as a specific target group but there are few looking at the issue through a political party lens..."
Paul Rowland, Resident Representative , Indonesia, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
*********************************************************************************
September 2006 - "... I wish to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation for the way the course was conducted. It was a success and personally for me it has given me a wider understanding of governance and also enhanced my capacity to deliver to my work environment. The CDI Team was very helpful ... Thank you and best wishes.
... I'm writing ... to convey my sincere thanks for extending me the invitation to attend the Responsible Government Course from which I really benefited. The contents of the course as well as the selection of the subjects was excellent and superbly delivered. I should congratulate you for that. The entire course was not simply a lecturing exercise but it was in fact a two way process of knowledge exchange and information exchange..."
Coments from 2 participants in the 2006 CDI Responsible Parliamentary Government Course
*********************************************************************************
August 2006 - "... Her Excellency The ambassador for Mali , Mme Guissé, has asked me to thank you for the pleasure of meeting ... the day before presenting her credentials to the Governor-General.
She wishes me to tell you that ... she looks forward to meeting again ... and forwarding the idea of Malian government personnel and public servants coming to Australia to exchange ideas, train and develop their knowledge-base in the democratic process."
Max de Vietri, Honorary Consul for Mali.
*********************************************************************************
August 2006 - "Dear CDI, I have been receiving CDI News since the beginning of 2005. I have enjoyed every item that has appeared .... There is now a handful of our university staff that have also taken an interest in reading the CDI News and I have been passing it on to them. Thank you very much for sharing all this news with us."
Paul Pasingan, Divine Word University, Madang. PNG.
*********************************************************************************
June 2006 - Click on this link for: Letter of Thanks from the Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea, Speaker of National Parliament, Solomon Islands.
*********************************************************************************
September 2005 - "Just to say thank you. I have read the September 2005 issue of CDI.News and as an aspiring candidate for future election this is food for thought. Sharing best practices and issues through this network will inform and help raise awareness so as to assist in shaping the future in terms of strengthening political party systems in the Pacific."
Sivia Qoro, Gender Specialist, International Labour Organisation, Fiji.
*********************************************************************************
July 2005 - "It was a great pleasure to attend the Centre for Democratic institutions workshop at Jakarta last weekend. The program was excellent and very productive in that the range of topics covered were very relevant and applicable. I believe the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies makes an important contribution to better understanding between our nations."
Dr Alan Eggleston, Senator for Western Australia, Deputy Government Whip in the Senate.
*********************************************************************************
Feb 2005 - "I'm familiar with CDI and its excellent work. We'll add a link to CDI's website today."
Nicholas Grono, Director of Advocacy and Research, International Crisis Group, Brussels.
