Established in September 2010, the centre plays an active role in providing a research base for, and facilitating dialogue among, the Australian aid and development sector and policymakers throughout the region.

The blog is updated each weekday, and has over 30,000 page views per month, with a broad readership that includes policymakers, politicians, academics, development practitioners and the general public.

Devpol regularly hosts public lectures, seminars and roundtables that feature prominent leaders and thinkers on development issues.

(2015), New Research on Pacific Labour Mobility (2016), Women, Peace and Security: A New Global Index (2017), PNG Aid Evaluation Forum: Drought, Roads and Health (2018), State Fragility and How to Escape It (2019), Measuring Development Impact: An Introduction (2020), Afghanistan’s Crisis: The Dangers of Genocide and Politicide (2021), and regular Australian Aid Evaluation forums in conjunction with DFAT's ODE.

[15] Since 2014, Devpol has hosted the annual Australasian Aid Conference in early February at The Australian National University, in conjunction with The Asia Foundation.

(Please note that a lecture series that goes by the same name is presented by the South Australian Equal Opportunity Commission and recognises Dame Roma Mitchell’s lifelong advocacy of human rights.

Notable speakers have included Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Donald Kaberuka, former President of the African Development Bank.

This partnership includes the co-hosting of the annual PNG Update conference, and initiatives to strengthen research and teaching of economics and public policy at UPNG, such as academic placements and exchanges.

Devpol has established comprehensive open access databases for the PNG budget, for elections, members of parliament, and economic data.

[24] Devpol provides pro-bono institutional support to Femili PNG, a local NGO in Papua New Guinea, which runs case management centres in Lae, Port Moresby and Goroka.

The survey was designed to obtain feedback on the effectiveness of the Australian and New Zealand aid programs, and provide suggestions for their improvement.

[28] Devpol offers fellowships named after Greg Taylor AO (former Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund for both Australia and Papua New Guinea, and secretary of various Australian Government Departments) for research on economic development related to PNG or the Pacific for a period of two to three months.

Devpol invites applications from students already studying at The Australian National University or elsewhere in Australia, and from emerging economics scholars in the Pacific and PNG.

[29] Other key areas of work for the centre include infrastructure maintenance and funding in PNG and the Pacific, Australian aid and public opinion, analysis of the Papua New Guinean economy, corruption perceptions in Papua New Guinea, and work on global issues such as a climate change and development financing.

[31] Additional funding was received in 2014 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to scale up Devpol's research program on Australian and New Zealand aid.