Melita Grant (2021 Alumna) - Director of Research, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

For Melita Grant, Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, it was the study of Indian philosophy that first inspired her interest in Asia. “As a child, I was fascinated by stories of Indian spirituality and non-violence, which led me to learn about Gandhi,” she recalls. That youthful fascination matured into a solo journey to India in the late 1990s “to learn as much as I could about the country, its history, politics, and environments”. It was, she says, “very formative”. 

That initial voyage set the tone for a career at the intersection of environmental science, social justice, and regional cooperation. As an undergraduate, Grant turned her attention to water, specifically the great transboundary rivers that shape politics as much as they do landscapes. The Mekong River, “this massive lifeblood, the central artery of the whole region,” became her academic and moral terrain. In 1999, her honours thesis examined “the social movements opposing large dams in India and the Mekong Region,” marking the beginning of a career in water management and political ecology that spans nearly three decades and multiple countries. 

Today, Grant steers regional projects that bridge science, policy, inclusion, and local values. In parallel, she co-chairs the Australian Water and Sanitation and Hygiene Reference Group, advocating for increased international development assistance. She says, with characteristic conviction: 

That inequality is especially pronounced in the Pacific, where the vital connection between water and climate resilience has created fertile ground for collaboration. 
“The Pacific region has some of the lowest levels of access to safe water and safely managed sanitation systems,” she explains. “We’re finding great opportunity in working with colleagues who are championing climate resilience and climate change advocacy. Water and sanitation are fundamental to climate resilience.” 

Over the past decade, Grant has worked in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, India, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and Kiribati, forging alliances across cultures, sectors, and disciplines. “Being involved with people and organisations in Asia has made me feel part of a region rather than a citizen of a particular country,” she notes. Indeed, her regional orientation has left an imprint not just on her career, but on her worldview. 
“I feel very committed to advocating for and working in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for those who are marginalised or less fortunate,” she says. 

This commitment is evident in Grant’s approach to partnerships, which she says is as much about relationship-building as technical expertise. At the Institute, she leads research partnerships with regional NGOs, government agencies, and multilaterals like UNICEF and provides a case study from Cambodia—a collaborative project on water safety planning—as an example of her approach. 

Rather than imposing a ready-made blueprint, Grant began by asking her collaborators, “What would you like to do together that would be useful and meaningful to you?” 

That open-ended approach led to a co-created research agenda, a jointly written proposal and, crucially, a budget weighted in favour of local partners.  

Workshops were held in Khmer, with Grant taking a backseat. “I just tried to facilitate processes for them to be able to speak more comfortably and naturally.” The result? “It’s the first study of its kind in Cambodia,” she says, and one that culminated in presentations to Cambodian government agencies. 

If this sounds unorthodox, it is by design. Grant credits the Asialink Leaders Program with giving her the confidence to lean into a more relational approach. “The Program reinforces principles of curiosity and respect and relationships,” she says. “Unfortunately, in the international engagement space, in both development and business, there is a sense of, ‘what can we get out of that country?’” In contrast, the Asialink mindset, as she describes it, offers “a foundation of being respectful and understanding people on their terms.” 

Asked why Australia’s engagement with Asia matters today, Grant is quick to apply a wide lens. “I very much see ourselves as part of a globe,” she says. While acknowledging the importance of ‘place’ to identity, she sees Australia’s multicultural makeup as a moral imperative to reach beyond its borders. “We’re from so many different countries. So, working with people outside our country and being a good neighbour, sharing our luck and our privilege feels very natural and important to me,” Grant says. 

It’s a perspective she says can also apply to trade or security. “As important as they are, they flow from a deeper sense of respect and interest and curiosity and global mindset,” Grant explains, although she worries that a fixation on markets and strategic interests risks entrenching inequality. “You might make things more profitable and safer for some people,” she notes, “but the vast majority of people will miss out on just a purely trade-security approach.” 

In contrast, her career is a quiet argument for another way, one rooted in equity, respect and deep listening. “In an ideal world, everybody in international development would do the Asialink Leaders Program before stepping outside of Australia,” she says with a wry smile. Not for prestige or politics, but because, as Grant’s own path shows, real change often begins with the simplest of questions: What would you like to do together?  

Melita Grant is Director of Research at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. She specialises in water, sanitation and hygiene and integrated water resource management in international development. Melita completed the Asialink Leaders Program in 2021.