Meet Our Advisors
Ipul Powaseu
Papua New Guinea Assembly of Disabled Persons
Ms Ipul Powaseu is a PhD student at Deakin University. She holds a BSc degree from University of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and a Masters in Business (Communications management) from Queensland University of Technology (Australia). Ms Powaseu spent almost 30 years in the field of agricultural and socio-economic research in PNG, and short stint at the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities in Fiji.
Her role as an advocate for disability began in 2006 and since then has led in advocating for the empowerment and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities. She was instrumental in seeing the PNG Government ratifying the Convention on the Rights of persons with disability (CRPD) in 2013, making PNG the 136th country to ratify the UNCRPD.
She also was instrumental in leading on the advocacy towards the PNG government to develop a standalone Disability Bill and a draft being finalized to be presented to the PNG National Executive Council by the Department for Community Development.
She headed the PNG Assembly of Disabled Persons in PNG (national DPO) for 9 years since its establishment in 2009 to 2018. She then handed the baton to emerging leaders and is taking on an advisory role. Through this leadership role, she developed a structure of disabled people’s organization at the sub-national level creating 20 DPOs (sub-national level) and recently established a foundation for the establishment of Women with Disability Network across the 20 provinces of PNG.
Ipul has contributed to regional and global discussions on disability issues through her involvement and participations on various global committees and groups. Her particular interests and advocacy roles are:
The impact of climate change intersecting with disability – attended and spoke at the COP 22
Intersectionality between gender and disability – various gender and women conferences.
Indigeneity, gender and disability – (member of the Indigenous People with Disability Global Network)
Upskilling and building capacities of DPO leadership
She held positions on the Pacific Disability Forum as Co-Chair Female (2012-2013) and a board member of Pacific Disability Forum. Her current Thesis title is: Critical analysis of the PNG Social Policies on Disability.
She can be contacted at her email address: ipowaseu@deakin.edu.au