Te Herenga Waka, a good place to land
By the time Annette Dixon completed her Master of Public Policy (MPP) at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, she was already more than a decade into her career.
After finishing school, university seemed out of reach for the future vice president for Human Development at the World Bank, so she went straight into the workforce.
“I’d always wanted to go to university,” says Annette. “I knew that I would benefit from it but nobody in my family had ever been.
“Both of my parents left school at 12 years old to help support their families. So, for them, getting their kids through high school was the definition of huge success.”
Annette’s early career saw her navigating some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most complex social issues. She worked as a youth worker and community development worker for ten years before being approached for a secondment as the social policy advisor in the Prime Ministers Office in 1984.
Although she had already surpassed what her parents could ever have imagined she would achieve as a young woman from Manawatū, Annette still felt drawn towards university.
It was 1990 when she stepped foot into Te Herenga Waka after speaking with two professors from the Master of Public Policy programme who knew Annette from her work.
“They got permission from the Vice-Chancellor for me to go directly into the Master’s programme.”
Annette, who was in her late 20s by this time had to achieve a B+ or higher in her first two papers to remain in the course. In the early days, she admits that it was tough, juggling a Master’s degree with full-time work.
“I remember one of the first courses I did was microeconomics. I had no undergrad economics, so it was a steep learning curve,” she says.
“The MPP is targeted as a mid-career programme. The classmates that you’re learning with are all very experienced people who are coming back to education with a lot of knowledge. I think that was one of the reasons it was so valuable. It was a good place to land.”
Annette says going from youth and community development into public policy was a good pathway, because it gives you a strong understanding of how the world actually works on the ground, and what needs to change to make policy more effective.
“I think some of the foundational knowledge and leadership skills that I got from doing the MPP were actually really helpful as my career developed,” she says.
In 1994 Annette was awarded the Harkness Fellowship, giving her the opportunity to learn from leading thinkers and practitioners across the United States. During her time at George Washington University, her relationship with the World Bank Group began.
“I was approached to apply for a job with the World Bank working in Eastern Europe and Central Asia because a lot of those countries were having to reform their systems after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
“I really thought I would just go for a couple of years, but I ended up having a great career at the World Bank.
“I found it intellectually very challenging, but a lot of the experience I had from New Zealand, including in my MPP, equipped me for solving quite complicated problems in developing countries.”
Annette worked alongside people who not only had PhDs but, in some cases, multiple doctorates and deep expertise in their fields. But, she says, the MPP gave her a foundation of knowledge in economics, law, and politics.
“It meant I could look at problems from a broader perspective than a lot of people. I realised I was never going to be as expert as they were, but if I focused on breaking problems apart and thinking about them from a multidisciplinary point of view, I brought added value.
“I figured out very early on that I brought value by helping people get stuff done.”
In 2018 she was approached by the President of the World Bank to lead a project called Human Capital Index, an annual measure that quantifies the contribution of health, education, and employment to the expected lifetime productivity of the next generation.
“It was really a way of encouraging ministers of finance to think about social investment as part of their job, not somebody else’s job in the government. The project took off and is still going today. I’m very proud of that work.”
Looking back over her career, Annette says her parents were enormously proud too.
“My parents didn’t tell me that I couldn’t pursue university, but they thought being a nurse or a teacher was the pinnacle of what I could do at that time. By the time I went to the World Bank, my mother was asking where I worked so she could write it down and tell all of her friends.
“I think parents frequently underestimate what their kids can achieve,” says Annette.
Register now for the Master of Public Policy 50th Anniversary celebrations (26–27 August 2026) and join alumni, current students, public sector leaders and distinguished guests for two days of reflection, discussion and connection.