Associate Professor Grant Walton works at the Development Policy Centre and the Policy and Governance Program within the Crawford School of Public Policy. He is the convenor of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption specialisation of the Crawford School’s Master of Public Policy.

Grant draws on political geography and political science to research issues related to corruption, education policy, international development and civil society. As highlighted by this video, much of his research highlights the geographies of corruption and anti-corruption reform.

He has been twice (in 2023 and 2024) nominated for the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, Academic Research and Education (sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).

For more than a decade Grant has conducted research in the Pacific, Africa and Asia for international donors and non-governmental organisations. You can listen to Grant describe his research in Papua New Guinea here. Before joining the Development Policy Centre Grant worked as a lecturer for the University of Melbourne, and has worked and consulted for NGOs and governments.

Grant has published in academic journals and books and has authored major reports for donors and NGOs. This includes articles in Political Geography; the Journal of Development Studies; Society and Natural Resources; Asia Pacific Viewpoint; Crime, Law and Social Change and Public Administration and Development.
His research has also been featured in a range of media outlets, including Channel 9 News, 2GB, 6PR, 4BC, and 3AW Radio, The New Daily, Islands Business, Radio Australia, SBS News, the PNG Post-Courier, The National (PNG), The Australian, and the Canberra Times. His book, Anti-corruption and its Discontents: Local, National and International Perspectives on Corruption in Papua New Guinea, was published through Routledge in 2018.

Grant has raised and managed over AUD$2 million for research projects he has led or co-led. This includes the Strengthening Society and State Responses to Corruption in PNG research project (funding of $644,587 from the Australian aid program), and the Research into PNG’s Education and Health Policy Reforms project ($662,500 from the Australian aid program). He also conducts research on:

• anti-corruption reforms and institutions across the Pacific,

• the political economy of PNG’s education system,

• the politics of Solomon Islands anti-corruption policy,

• the political economy of rice in the Philippines and PNG,

• transparency and governance in Pacific Fisheries,

• organised crime across the Pacific,

• the private security industry in PNG.

Teaching

• Convener for POGO 8076: Corruption and Anti-Corruption (Winter)