Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Médecins Sans Frontières returns to Bougainville

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS/MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES

  

MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES (MSF) is again working in the Autonomous province of Bougainville after a 10-year absence.

The humanitarian organisation has established a base in Buin, in south Bougainville, soon to be expanded to five other centres.

The comprehensive care project features a maternal health program and a specialised tuberculosis ward. Teams work along side the health authorities to help build the island's local healthcare capacity.

Australian support for PNG's 'watershed' election

BY DANIEL FLITTON
THE AGE / The National Times

AUSTRALIA HAS STRUCK A DEAL with Papua New Guinea to help smooth a "watershed" election this year with hopes of encouraging political stability in the troubled Pacific nation.

Australia's high commissioner to Port Moresby Ian Kemish told The National Times that he expected the election to be a historic sign of generation change — a shift that has also been evident in tensions over recent months between prime minister Peter O'Neill and ousted rival Sir Michael Somare.

The support package will include two Australian army helicopters to ferry local officials to polling booths across the country, some 30 computers to help clean up the electoral role and the injection of senior Australians into the PNG election commission to act as advisers.

Australian Federal Police have also completed a new $2.5 million communications network for local police to respond to any outbreaks of trouble.

But Mr Kemish said no Australian police are to be deployed to PNG to provide a "bobby on the beat" after PNG rejected moves by the previous Howard government for police co-operation.

"You can really say now the country is at a political watershed," Mr Kemish said. "This election in June to July this year will be historic — people have said that before, but it will be this time around."

Mr Kemish said the transformation of the PNG economy was often underestimated, with a resources boom in natural gas expected to leap by a massive 25% in 2015.

"There are no real ifs or buts about that, it's in the nature of these projects that the gas is already sold when you commence the project," he said.

Mr Kemish said Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and foreign minister Kevin Rudd had played an important behind-the-scenes role in recent weeks as concerns over PNG spiked after an attempted military mutiny.

Mr Kemish said there was a remarkable calm in the country despite the upheaval, with the courts and the bulk of the police and army all resisting immense political pressure to intervene.

"PNG has a way of holding itself together but we do have to be watchful and not take anything for granted," he said.

New lease of life found in Bougainville

BY LETITIA ATKINSON
TAURANGA SUN (NZ)

THE HEAD OF ROAD POLICING in the Western Bay of Plenty is back on home soil after spending six months in Papua New Guinea.

Senior Sergeant Ian Campion embarked on his second deployment to the country in June and returned to New Zealand on December 23, just in time to spend Christmas with his family.

“I have been fortunate enough to have two deployments in Bougainville,” says Ian.

“So the first of those was between August and December in 2010, and then last year I was in Bougainville.

“My role on my second visit was as an advisor to the Northern Regional Commander of the Bougainville Police Service.”

Ian says part of his work was around capacity building and training, but also coaching, mentoring, advising and general police work, in addition to administrative processes and policies.

“I enjoyed both deployments; the work that I did (on my first deployment) was very different to the position I held the second time in that I was advising the Northern Regional Commander, as opposed to my first posting there, which was capacity building and training with the traffic units in the three main centres.

“It was quite different, but I really enjoyed every minute of the deployment.

“Some of my highlights were visits to schools way up in the rural sectors.

“There was one particular school that from the end of the road we walked another two hours up into the mountains – that was probably one of the most memorable occasions.

“The kids are just like sponges, they’re so keen to learn.

“They want to hear about other parts of the world and they are very interested in what we’re doing there.”

He says the reason for visiting schools was to deliver messages about keeping safe, not only near roads, but also in the village environment.

“Building confidence and that the police are there to help.”

Rotary’s goodwill mission to remote PNG villages

BY KIRRILY CARBERRY
COOMA-MONARO EXPRESS

THE COOMA (NSW) ROTARY CLUB is continuing its goodwill mission to small villages in Papua New Guinea by collecting an enormous amount of donated goods that will be despatched in a few months.

The club has been helping the people of PNG for about seven years undertaking one of its biggest projects, to restore and deliver more than 200 bikes to the students in the village of Kemabolo in 2010.

But the club’s members haven’t stopped there. Now they are collecting computers - and they have about 120 already - sporting equipment including 130 basketballs, medical supplies and children’s books.

About seven pallets of goods will be shipped to PNG in April to a number of different villages and projects.

Rotarian Chris Adams has played a major role in coordinating the projects in PNG and been on a number of trips with other members. These include one in 2007 to construct a new water tank in a village and in 2010 to deliver the bikes.

On Friday he and wife Kim picked up a pallet of about 70 computers from Snowy Hydro.

“It just started as one project but there are so many avenues to help the people of PNG,” Mr Adams said.

As part of the shipment the village of Kemabolo will receive bicycle parts, sporting equipment and medical supplies.

About 30 computers will be donated to the Kokoda Track Foundation which builds schools in villages along the Kokoda Track.

Another 20 computers will be sent to Buk Bilong Pikinini, which just built its eighth library in Port Moresby.

The computers have been donated by various government departments in Canberra but the biggest donor has been Snowy Hydro.

Cooma Library has donated hundreds of picture books and junior fiction books to be sent over while the Canberra Capitals basketball team donated the basketballs through a scheme where they invited people to bring in their old basketballs and they gave out new ones.

Later this year Rotary is planning another trip to PNG where it will build a computer room at Kwikila High School and build a dam at Gamoga.

Dr Frankish fulfils dream to return to PNG

BY TARINA WHITE
THE CAIRNS POST

A LONG-TIME MAREEBA (NORTH QUEENSLAND) DOCTOR has sold her general practice to fulfil a lifelong dream to volunteer her medical expertise in isolated and impoverished regions of Papua New Guinea.

Dr Merrilee Frankish has started a six-month volunteer assignment in PNG with the medical aid organisation Australian Doctors International.

Dr Frankish worked in PNG as a medical student 30 years ago and saw first-hand the nation that has the worst state of health in the Pacific region, ranking lower than Bangladesh and Kenya on the UN’s Human Development Index.

She vowed to return one day to offer her medical skills.

With her youngest child starting university this month, Dr Frankish decided the time was right to return to PNG to help raise the level of health care.

"PNG is Australia’s nearest and poorest neighbour. All my life’s work seems directed towards this choice," said Dr Frankish, whose medical qualifications include public health, tropical medicine, obstetrics and surgery.

Malaria affects more than 44% of people and TB and leprosy are also widespread, but they can be eliminated with drugs and regular care, she said. "It’s very sad that people don’t have the opportunities that we have in Australia."

Dr Frankish will work in New Ireland Province, home to 160,000 people with just seven doctors, all based at the provincial hospital in Kavieng.

Dr Frankish will work with a team of provincial and district health staff who specialise in dentistry, community health education, disease control, and water and sanitation.

She will travel to outlying health centres to treat patients – many of whom have never received a doctor’s visit – and train rural health workers.

Strathfield youth citizen leader to lend a hand

BY OLIVER MURRAY
Village Voice (Sydney)

A VISIT TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA inspired Strathfield teenager Matthew Nicholl to continue to help Australia’s nearest neighbour.

The 18-year-old was named Strathfield Council’s Young Citizen of the Year at Australia Day celebrations last week.

The former St Patrick’s College student led a group that raised $96,500 to build a library for children in PNG.

Last Saturday Matthew flew back to East New Britain where he will spend six months teaching English and helping build the new library.

When he first visited Papua New Guinea it was part of a St Patrick’s College program where old school computers were donated to local schools.

“It was a big eye-opener when I went there last time,” Matthew said.

“St Pat’s had a program where they collected old computers from schools in Sydney and fixed them so they can be re-used over there.

“Going there made me aware of what schools can do to help. We can be so wasteful over here and we don’t know how lucky we are as well.”

When Matthew returns from the South Pacific nation, he plans to study advanced science at University of NSW.

There are better alternatives to mining and oil palm

 

SELF RELIANCE, REAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, SHARING AND CARING for others in the community, keeping control of its land and its own destiny, using its resources wisely and protecting the environment are all key concepts that are driving a better, brighter future for the people of Sausi village in Madang Province.

They are also the foundation stones of Papua New Guinea’s Constitution as set out in its five National Goals.

Sausi is a community which resisted oil palm monoculture and has instead developed its own forms of co-finance and development.

Relying on small-scale cocoa production, rice farming, fish breeding, peanut production and other cash crops, village cooperation is showing how communities can keep control of their land and use their own resources to build a better future.

Source: Papua New Guinea Mine Watch

Rotarians delighted by positive response to books

BY COURTNEY GARNHAM

CHILDREN IN A HIGHLANDS VILLAGE have access to a pile of new books after a visit from the East Maitland Rotary Club.

A small team of Rotary members visited the Nondugl community in the Simbu and were able to give the village some much-needed supplies for the school and the health clinic.

While there, the group realised the benefit their donation was to the community and believed they could do much more.

They are now filling their second shipping container with needed goods to take to the village in March.

The group wants to fill the village library with books and train a local on how to manage the library.

Rotarian Geoff Hicks said seeing the children’s reactions when they received the books was priceless.

“They were the first books those children had ever had,” he said. ‘They were just absolutely fascinated with the books and the pictures in them.”

Mr Hicks said it was a grounding experience to be able to help the Nondugl community. “It actually was very humbling being there but we really feel we have made a difference,” he said.

“We want to improve the education and health standards of the village. We don’t want to interfere with their cultural life, they will still live in their thatched houses and grow their own vegies.”

Source: The Maitland Mercury (NSW)

Rich companies bag $1.8bn in foreign aid

BY STEVE LEWIS

AUSTRALIA'S BOOMING FOREIGN-AID PROGRAM is delivering handsome profits to a group of seven corporations that have raked in $1.81 billion in taxpayer-funded contracts.

But the lack of scrutiny of their profits is under challenge, as are the huge sums given to agencies such as the World Bank, which receives $450 million a year.

Coffey International, which boasts to shareholders how the Gillard Government is "spending more" on foreign aid, booked $353.4 million in contracts, including $31 million to try to weed out corruption in Papua New Guinea.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to spend record sums trying to tackle poverty in some of the world's poorest countries. However, the increased spending is causing resentment among some of his ministerial colleagues who question how wisely the money is being spent.

Overall, the money being paid to private-sector corporations - known as "managing contractors" - has dropped to around 20% of AusAID's budget. However, aid experts are questioning the checks and balances in a program that is growing faster than any other area of the federal budget.

Stephen Howes, part of the high-level review of Australia's foreign-aid program, wants a "greater level of scrutiny" of the aid program - particularly given the large increases in funding.

Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop demanded Mr Rudd "urgently" announce how he planned to better measure the aid program's performance benchmarks recommended by the review.

"With some organisations awarded contracts involving hundreds of millions of dollars, it is essential that aid programs under their management are scrutinised for accountability and effectiveness," Ms Bishop said.

Source: The Adelaide Advertiser

Making AusAID smarter: a role for universities

BY JOEL NEGIN

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS and with increasing momentum, AusAID has shifted from essentially being a project-focused contract manager to an agency that works more at the policy level on sector programming.

Whereas AusAID used to fund managing contractors and NGOs to deliver discrete pieces of development activities, they now interact with multiple international agencies, with developing country governments, and with other partners on sector policy issues.

For example, there has been a reduction by half of the amount of Australian aid spent through contractors. Phrases such as sector-wide approach, harmonisation, pooled funding, and aid effectiveness are heard more often than ever before.

The Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness highlighted the importance of these changes and the substantial impact of this momentum on how AusAID operates.

As AusAID (along with a number of other development agencies) has made this change, they have run into a challenge: their human resource capacity. After years of building generalist staff who specialised in contract management and who did not have sector specific technical skill, AusAID must question whether they have found themselves without the skill set needed for the new type of work being undertaken.

The Aid Review and other stakeholders highlight the need for skills such as high-level negotiation capacity, stakeholder management, diplomacy and sector policy design.  These skills are critical to success and risk management as AusAID staff interact with government ministries, multilateral institutions and other development partners.

This is not a critique of AusAID individuals but rather an institutional shift from recruiting and training staff for one purpose and the significant change needed as the agency’s work changes.

Importantly, this static situation is not confined to AusAID — educational institutions have also been slow to provide the training for this new skill set.

Tackling the PNG paradox through enterprise reform

BY MEKERE MORAUTA

This article presents extracts from a transcript of a speech by Sir Mekere Morauta, PNG’s Minister for Public Enterprises, at the launch of the Development Policy Centre and CARE report “Rural Poverty in Remote Papua New Guinea: a case study of Obura-Wonenara District”

THE REPORT DOES NOT PAINT a pretty picture. It shows life in rural and remote Papua New Guinea as it really is: malnutrition; unsafe drinking water; poor health and consequently low life expectancy; very little education; unsatisfactory shelter and clothing; little access to income-earning opportunities; unavailability of services beyond the most basic level.

The point I want to make is that life in these places does not have to be this way.

We have had ample opportunity since 1975 to improve our way of life, yet apart from the first few years of independence, we have not done so.

In the last eight years the country has enjoyed massive flows of revenue from oil, copper and gold projects, but virtually none of it has been translated into services and benefits for rural people.

I call this “the PNG paradox” – rich in resources, but poor in services.  Plenty of money, but little to show for it.

For nine years we had one government, so-called political stability, at a time of unprecedented revenue flows to the government.  What did the money and political stability bring to the people or rural PNG? Clearly, something is missing.

What is the missing link between money, political stability and poverty and lack of services?  We have to find an answer to this question. Otherwise, the enormous additional wealth expected from PNG LNG will only aggravate the paradox.

It is clear that the way we are managing resources is not producing positive results. Doing things the way we have always done them has failed the nation, and the result is social indicators that are among the worst in the world.

What is stopping us change our way of managing our resources? One of the reasons is that we are frightened of reform. We are scared of change.  My view is that what we should really be afraid of is the status quo.

The CARE-ANU report provides us with some detailed statistics about the poor quality of life in many areas of PNG. It focussed on 262 families living in the Yelia Local Government Area of Obura-Wonenara, but its facts speak for many, many other places across the nation.

I know many families from this part of the country, and I also know that for them, nothing much has changed since independence. That is why we need reform. Reform is urgent.

It is not always popular because it changes the status quo and may deprive those benefiting from the status quo; it carries risks because it introduces an element of the unknown.

Here’s a big question: where is AusAID?

BY MARY KOISEN

AS A PAPUA NEW GUINEAN, personally I have not benefited from any aid from Australia.

When we had no water for years growing up in Hohola, where was AusAID.

When I went to primary school at Eki Vaki and shared a single desk with two other students, where was AusAID?

When we shared one textbook among the 30 of us in class, where was AusAID?

When we couldn't use the school toilets because it was beyond a child's ability to figure out how I was going to put my bum on all that stink, where was AusAID?

Mate, this was almost 20 years ago, and even to this day, it hasn't changed.

And the question begs - where is AusAID?

Let me tell you where it is.  It is paying the dumb consultants they send to this country to create models for six months and then leave for the next consultant to come back and create yet another model overriding the previous one.

And there are just no real results.

We don't need these consultants sitting in whitewashed walls pushing paper.

What we need is hands-on individuals who are out there with the people: building wells, schools, desks, new facilities and getting the local people involved.

Practical wisdom. That's what is needed.

PNG 'dragging chain' on development targets

A FORMER INTERNATIONAL aid chief has accused Papua New Guinea of slowing down progress in reaching United Nations international development targets for 2015.

Several Pacific nations are expected to be highlighted as success stories at an international aid meeting that will address the UN's Millennium Development goals in South Korea.  But PNG will not be among them.

More than 2,000 delegates from around the world, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nation's Chief Ban Ki-Moon, are attending the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.

Former AusAID deputy director-general Annmaree O'Keeffe says parts of the region are making large strides in meeting the millennium development goals, while others are lagging.

"There are some parts of the Pacific, notably Papua New Guinea, which is really dragging the chain on meeting the millennium development goals, " she told Radio Australia.

Source: Australia Network News, 29 November

Do indigenous peoples benefit from development?

BY STEPHEN CORRY

WHAT'S DEVELOPMENT FOR? That may be straightforward to people who don't have water or food, or sewerage in urban areas (faecal contamination is the biggest, easily preventable, manmade killer).

But, although millions still lack such basics, they form only a tiny part of what passes for development these days. The duplicity of politics and business ensures much else – arms, for example – is shoehorned into the same category.

What should development mean for those who are largely self-sufficient, getting their own food and building their dwellings where the water is still clean – like many of the world's 150 million tribal people? Has development got anything helpful for them, or has it simply got it in for them?

It's easy to see where it has led. Leaving aside the millions who succumbed to the colonial invasion, in some of the world's most "developed" countries (Australia, Canada and the US) development has turned most of the survivors into dispossessed paupers.

Take any measure of what it ought to mean: high income, longevity, employment, health; low rates of addiction, suicide, imprisonment and domestic violence, and you find that indigenous people in the US, Canada and Australia are by far the worst off on every count – but no one seems to heed the lesson.

These are the consequences of a dispossession more total in North America and Australia than almost anywhere on Earth. The colonists were determined to steal tribal lands, and unquestioning about their own superiority. They espoused politico-economic models in which workers produced for distant markets, and had to pay for the privilege.

The natives, using no money, paying no taxes, contributing little to the marketplace until forced to, were "backward". At best, they were to be integrated to serve colonist society.

Colonialism set out to take away their self-sufficiency, on their own territory, and lead them to glorious productivity, as menials, on someone else's. There's little point in calling for retroactive apologies for this because it's not confined to the past: most development schemes foisted on tribal peoples today point in exactly the same direction.

Australia provides K400,000 for victim identification

AUSTRALIA’S HIGH COMMISSIONER in Papua New Guinea, Ian Kemish AM [pictured with other officials], yesterday opened a course on disaster victim identification at Bomana Police Training College.

He also handed over K400,000 in equipment to support DVI efforts.

Through this training the Australian Federal Police is investing in the capacity of PNG agencies to respond to the community impact of natural disasters, transport accidents and other events involving loss of life.

The training has significant value to police and law enforcement authorities in assisting in the proper conduct of investigations.

The training, which is taking place through this week, is being delivered by AFP training team members Steve Sargent, Rod Anderson and Mardi Southwell.

This is a return to PNG for all three. They were each involved with the response to the crash of an Airlines PNG aircraft near Kokoda in August 2009.

AFP and RPNGC have worked in close partnership on a number of other DVI responses in recent times, including in the aftermath of the plane crashes on Misima Island in August 2010 and last month’s crash near Madang.

Australia is also working with the PNG government in beginning to rebuild the RPNGC.

The rebuilding focuses on core police functions, with the RPNGC partnering the AFP in key areas.  The partnership is designed to increase the RPNGC’s level of service to the community.

Source: Australian High Commission, 21 November

One of the big development mysteries of PNG - literacy

BY JIM POLLARD

LITERACY IS ONE of the biggest development issues in Papua New Guinea. Yet it’s hard to get a precise picture of the national literacy rate and education levels.

More than one-third of the seven million population – most of whom live a traditional subsistence lifestyle in rural villages – are unable to read and write. Among older people, as many as half may be print-illiterate, perhaps not surprising in a country with little history of writing.

Nicholas Nembo, a project manager with PNG’s National Literacy and Awareness Secretariat, spoke about the issue during a visit to Bangkok last week. He and six colleagues visited Thailand for training sessions at UNESCO, which is helping PNG set up a website in a bid to boost literacy levels.

“There has never been a national literacy survey [in PNG],” Mr Nembo said. “Our estimate of 56% [literacy] is based on a question in the national census in 2000: ‘Are you able to both read and write with understanding a short simple statement in your day to day life?’ but there were no follow-up questions to explain about those who voted ‘yes’.

“Therefore it’s really unknown. The 56% may not be the real literacy rate – it may be lower.” Latest literacy surveys carried out in five province supports the supposition that literacy rates are lower.

While the figure of 56% is low in world terms, it’s important to recognise that PNG is a unique society with extraordinary geographic and cultural features.

The challenge of teaching people a common tongue is far more difficult than people in other lands might imagine. The country has well over 800 languages – only half of which have developed written texts. 

PNG joined the path to modern development “late”. Literacy work and non-formal education was started by missionaries over 140 years ago, but PNG only became self-governing in the mid-1970s.

And it faces all the difficulties of a fledgling democracy – a relatively small domestic economy, law and order problems, bureaucratic inertia, political corruption, as well as high HIV, malaria and infant death rates, etc. 

Given this, the thought of achieving literacy rates similar to those in more developed nations is a somewhat daunting prospect.

Aside from UNESCO and the national government, a swag of aid, church and civil society groups are working hard to boost education levels, as well as trying to determine literacy levels.

The rate of participation in primary schooling is improving, but it remains low and below that of most other countries in the region. 

PNG looks unlikely to achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN for 2015. But UNESCO is hoping that by focusing on literacy will pay off in the long-term.

Source: UNESCO Bangkok, 21 November

Fraud hits aid – but 99.998% of funds get through

BY ANDREW TILLETT

WORKERS TRYING TO IMPROVE Papua New Guinea's justice system were among 32 contractors sacked by Australia's foreign aid agency for fraud or for botching projects, new figures show.

During the past five years, AusAID has torn up the contracts of two organisations delivering programs.  The rip-offs and bungling cost taxpayers more than $200,000.

Figures published in Hansard in response to questions from shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop showed that most of the sackings occurred in PNG, Fiji and East Timor.

And the problems were not just with low-level staff such as clerks. Managers were among those who lost their jobs.

The Law and Justice Program in PNG had a clerical staff member sacked in 2006, with another local staff member terminated a year later.

One person hired for the "electoral support program" in PNG resigned in 2008 after being told his contract would be torn up.

An AusAID spokeswoman said the cases of fraud or mismanagement cost taxpayers $218,500, with almost $171,000 recovered so far.

She said AusAID's fraud controls were effective, with 99.998% of its administered funds going to intended recipients.

Regular audits were conducted of contractors, while police were called in when Australian law had been breached. Companies and non-government organisations blacklisted for fraud were banned from bidding for new contracts.

"AusAID has a zero tolerance policy towards fraud in the aid program," the spokeswoman said.

She added that the organisation investigated all reports, sought to recover money, prosecuted offenders and ensured probity.

Source: The West Australian, 15 November

O’Neill asks Vatican for more foreign missionaries

THE PRIME MINISTER of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, wants more foreign missionaries to work in the country.

He’s told the Vatican’s diplomat to PNG, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, that churches have contributed enormously to PNG by delivering services to remote areas that the governments failed to provide.

Mr O’Neill said churches remain at the forefront of service delivery and their contributions are huge.

He said there had been many dedicated foreign missionaries in the past and his government would like to see them return to help with social services.

Mr O’Neill said the government’s poor record of service delivery was underlined by the fact that, despite a windfall of revenue in the last six years, there was very little to show for this on the ground.

He said a government/church partnership in service delivery would deliver a lot of benefits to the people.

Meanwhile, church leaders in PNG are calling for an end to hostilities that started last weekend in Lae, saying bullets will not restore peaceful conditions to the city.

Morobe Lutheran Church leaders called on Lae's citizens to treat their Highlands neighbours as "brothers and sisters" and not to take the law into their own hands.

Source: Radio New Zealand International, 8 November

UNDP reports on ‘low’ PNG human development

BY DON WISEMAN

THE UNITED NATIONS Development Program says that, despite some impressive rankings in a new report, the Pacific faces a future of rising sea-levels, water shortages and diminishing fish stocks.

Nine Pacific nations are ranked among the 187 countries in the UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report.

Two countries in the region, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, which are ranked 142 and 153 respectively, form part of the low human development category.

The report, which is subtitled Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, stresses that disparities in health, education, income, and gender must be addressed.

Another factor is the need for global action on energy production and protection of eco-systems.

In PNG and Solomon Islands, the Report deplores the natural resource depletion, principally the forests in both countries.”

Source: Radio New Zealand International, 3 November

Australia needs innovation in effective aid delivery

BY JULIE BISHOP

ACROSS THE WORLD there is an ongoing debate about aid effectiveness - how, when, where, for whom and for what outcomes, the aid dollar should be spent.

In Australia, the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness published a report in April with a number of recommendations to improve the Australian aid program.

The review pointed out that while the Australian government is spending about $4 billion a year in running a substantial aid program in many countries across the world, the Australian people also contribute about $800 million each year to non-government organisations for aid work, and many Australians volunteer their time and skills overseas.

It noted that the challenge is not to just to spend more money, but to spend it effectively.

In order to achieve greater effectiveness, and efficiency, in our aid program, there will be a real need for innovative thinking, creative ideas and an openness to new approaches.

This can mean building on current practices by doing some things differently, as well as initiating and implementing entirely new approaches by doing different things.

Take health and medical services in developing countries, which can often be difficult to deliver because of poor infrastructure and support services, particularly in remote locations.

The scale of providing health services in Papua New Guinea for example, is evidenced by the fact that it is reported that only 33 dentists are located in this nation of more than 6 million people.

………

The [federal] government has thus far failed to put in place the performance benchmarks against which the aid program and AusAID's performance can be judged.

Australians are generous people but support for the foreign aid budget can only be maintained if people are confident that taxpayer funds are being spent on the right aid in the right quantity being delivered in the right way to the right place at the right time.

Julie Bishop MP is Australia’s Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/the-bishops-gambit/innovation-in-effective-aid-delivery-20111102-1mudy.html#ixzz1cWDIJD5q

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, National Times, 2 November

What is development? Our source: the sacred land

BY MARTYN NAMORONG

“Greenpeace is delusional and RH is reckless.  What’s new?  I did a lot of tree hugging in the past and it didn’t get me anywhere” - Nou Vada, law student

WHEN A YOUNG KID in law school posts such comments on Facebook, they need to be taken seriously.  Nou Vada is the most intelligent and articulate young Papua New Guinean I’ve come across (sic).

I don’t know his reasoning behind the comments but they do express a perception and perhaps confusion amongst many Papua New Guineans that green groups are anti-development.

This perception arises from the reality that environmental activists have become synonymous with headline grabbing protest activities. Thus the impression that the public gets is that the greenies just want to stop all sorts of projects.

Indeed, resource exploiters regularly dog-whistle the public with ‘anti-green’ clichés such that many now subscribe to that view that all green groups or non-governmental organizations want to stop development..

I suppose, in any case, both sides may have some merit to their arguments.  Personally, I wish to visit the Constitution of Papua New Guinea to find out how it expresses Papua New Guinea’s development agenda.  And perhaps a law student like Nou may articulate it better than a buai seller like me.

Papua New Guinea’s development agenda, regardless of what the Greens or the Capitalists say, is set out in its National Goals and Directive Principles as expressed in the Constitution.

In a film by Scott Waide, lawyer Ganjiki Wayne states that the writers of the Constitution weren’t so much interested in physical and structural development as in the integral development of the individual.

It was a somewhat spiritual rather that material development that the founders of this nation were interested in.

This concept of development is expressed in the First National Goal and Directive Principles regarding Integral Human Development. The development model envisaged by the founders of this nation is indeed found in Goal Five - Papua New Guinean Ways. Goal Five specifically calls for any activity whether social, political or economic, to be consistent with the ways of Papua New Guinean societies.

ABG convenes summit on development issues

THE AUTONOMOUS Bougainville government has invited all Bougainvilleans to a development resource summit that runs in Arawa for three days from today.

The summit will discuss resource development issues that have affected Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, including land, minerals, oil, gas, fishing, forestry, agriculture and carbon trading.

The topics for discussion include the conduct of multinational enterprises in respect to human rights in resource development, UN conventions on the rights of indigenous people and the property rights of indigenous people according to customs and traditions.

The summit will also address recognition of customary land, resource ownership and rights, the types of types of contracts for the extraction and development of resources and the fair sharing of benefits from resource development.

Guest speakers include constitutional lawyer Peter Donigi, who is president of the Mama Papa Graun Party.

Source: Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, 25 October
http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/abg-to-hold-three-day-resource-summit-for-all-bougainvilleans/

Christian trek carries a tonne of aid to the Mamusis

LAST WEEK, Christians in Papua New Guinea carried their neighbours' burdens -- literally.

A couple of months ago, the Mamusi people suffered severe damage from mudslides triggered by heavy rainfall.

News of the disaster reached Jan and Annette Wols, missionaries with New Tribes Mission.

"Believers from five different language groups and missionaries in the region as well as some in other parts of the world have responded to the news by giving and helping," wrote Jan.

The result was 63 packages of supplies. Canvas tarpaulins and food were all donated to help the plight of the Mamusis. The weather left the mountains of the region soake, however, and the only way to get the supplies to the Mamusis was on foot.

Neighbouring Ata church leaders jumped at the opportunity to help their neighbours. Dozens of believers from the Ata church carried the 63 packages--which totalled more than 900 kilos--on their shoulders for the 9-hour walk over steep, muddy terrain to get to Ata village.

After another full day of hiking, the group reached the Mamusis. The people were still in shock, and few spoke when they received the aid.

For two months, the Mamusis had lived in rough conditions after many of their homes, gardens, and meeting houses were damaged or destroyed.

Source: Mission Network News, 25 October

More Australian policing aid to PNG

BY DONALD HOOK

AUSTRALIA WILL increase its support for the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary but there will be no front-line policing by the Australians. 

It was made clear at a meeting of prime ministers in Canberra last week that no Australian police would be on the beat in PNG like they were in the failed Howard Government deployment in 2005.

The PNG Supreme Court ruled that such a deployment was unconstitutional and the 115-strong Australian police contingent was flown home. 

Under what’s termed the next phase of the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership, AFP officers will work in senior strategic roles.  No numbers were mentioned and final details will be determined in further talks between the two governments.

Australia also will provide a range of training and support services to improve the capabilities of the PNG police.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard agreed to give help needed for next year’s parliamentary elections in PNG.  This will include planning, police communications, command and control mechanisms, and the training of PNG police officers. 

Ms Gillard congratulated PNG on the impending first ever deployments by the PNGDF to a United Nations peacekeeping mission.  Australia has provided training to PNGDF members who will serve in South Sudan and in Darfur.  

Canberra urged to invest in PNG education

BY ROWAN CALLICK

ECONOMIST ROSS GARNAUT and former Papua New Guinea prime minister Rabbie Namaliu had to wait 17 months for their 57-page review of the dire state of PNG's public universities to be released.

It finally saw the light of day last week when PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill flew to Canberra on an official visit on 11 October.

With government spending per student at about 7 percent of what it was at independence 36 years ago, the report urges Canberra to spend up to $30 million a year for a decade to rehabilitate PNG's public universities.

"The focus of our report is on the necessity of raising the quality of the universities," Professor Garnaut said.

And while there is huge pressure for expansion, this should be resisted until many other issues are addressed, he said.

The report says PNG's resources-boom revenue -- the country's economy is growing this year by about 9 per cent -- should create "an opportunity to repair run-down services" such as higher education.

But the strategy must justify making a large investment for a small proportion of the population, "while more basic needs, including access to basic education, health and transport services, are not yet available in many parts of PNG".

Although PNG is "desperately short of skills for development", it says, "poor-quality expansion is unaffordable". So "rehabilitating or replacing run-down existing assets, and restoration of quality, should precede any investment in expansion".

The review says repairing and expanding the "badly run-down" six national high schools -- whose former high quality and status have collapsed in recent decades -- to improve the quality of intake to universities is essential for other outcomes.

Scott MacWilliam, who taught at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1983-85, said, after a recent visit, he found "there is limited internet access, little research and publishing, a library with most of its collection utterly outdated and what remains easily stolen or mutilated, inadequate housing for national and expatriate staff, and deteriorating buildings with little basic maintenance carried out".

A crucial role can be played by Australian universities, Professor Garnaut said, through "twinning" arrangements and other means of long-term close association across the range -- not only teaching and research but also administration and financial management.

The Group of Eight universities began a program of collaboration last year with UPNG, in which Australian academics in sociology, political science, journalism and computer science teach and mentor, their costs covered by AusAID and the Go8.

Source: Higher Education Supplement, The Australian, 19 October

WWII ammo to be rendered safe on joint mission

AUSTRALIA’S PARLIAMENTARY Secretary for Defence, Senator David Feeney, has announced that more than 150 personnel from the Australian Defence Force, New Zealand Defence Force and Papua New Guinea Defence Force will begin Operation Render Safe, an explosives ordnance disposal activity aimed at unexploded World War II ammunition in PNG this week.

Operation Render Safe will be conducted from 18 October – 4 November in Rabaul, and will involve the identification, assessment and rendering safe of unexploded ordnance.

Senator Feeney said the operation was vital to providing a safe environment in Rabaul, which relies heavily on international tourism.

Operation Render Safe will also involve clearing unexploded ordnance from the Kokoda Track.

“Unexploded ordnance such as torpedoes, grenades, bombs and projectiles are regularly discovered in very public locations such as domestic yards, the local police station and along the shoreline,” he said.

“These remnants of war are an enduring and unpredictable threat to the safety of locals and tourists and we are pleased to play an active role in making the Rabaul area safer for all.”

Royal Australian Navy Commander Scott Craig, Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force 663, said the operation would be bolstered by Australia’s HMA Ships Gascoyne and Diamantina and New Zealand’s HMNZ Ships Resolution and Wellington, providing important underwater surveying capability.

“The cooperation between the three participating nations will provide a great service to the people of Rabaul as well as provide defence personnel an opportunity to work side by side,” Commander Craig said.

“Working closely with local communities to recognise and identify items of unexploded ordnance will be a key part of the operation.”

Source: Senator David Feeney’s Office, 18 October

Case study report: Rural poverty in remote PNG

BY CATE ROGERS

ON TUESDAY the Development Policy Centre and CARE Australia launched a joint report on a case study of rural poverty in remote Papua New Guinea.

The report draws on data from a baseline study conducted by CARE for a project that seeks to build the capacity of people in these communities to gain access to the services and facilities that will help secure their livelihoods.  The data paints a bleak picture of a vulnerable population, with very few resources to fall back on when illness or other shocks hit.

Yelia Local Level Government Area is in Obura-Wonenara District in Eastern Highlands Province. Part of the district is accessible only by air, with the remainder having limited road access. Villages are spread out, with groups of up to three households separated by a 20-30 minute walk. The closest markets are in Menyamya, which is a two day walk away from some parts of Yelia.

In Yelia, the majority of households live within 60 minutes walk of a health facility. The schools that are available in the district are community schools that go up to Grade 6.  One of the four clusters surveyed had no school. Here parents said that they would send their daughters away so they could attend school. The other clusters had access to schools but often without qualified teachers or classroom materials, and with overcrowded classrooms.

The limited amount of research on poverty in Papua New Guinea, spanning the early 1970s to the early 2000s, suggests that Obura-Wonenara has consistently been amongst the most disadvantaged districts in the country. But what does disadvantage mean in Yelia?

Well, for starters it means that there are more children and old people for families to support than on average.  The dependency ratio of those surveyed was 94 per cent for children, rising to 102 per cent if older age groups were included. In simple terms, ratios this high mean that in a subsistence environment a lot of effort must go into meeting the basic needs of the family before it is possible to try to accumulate a surplus.

Amongst the population surveyed, there was very little education. Seventy one per cent had no schooling at all. Of those who did access schooling, men had slightly higher rates of schooling then women. The literacy rates showed that only 19 per cent of women and 36 per cent of men could read.

The data on nutrition, if representative, raises the possibility that this population is chronically malnourished.  Fifty eight percent of those surveyed had eaten two meals in the day leading up to the survey and 25 percent had consumed one meal.  Meals mainly consisted of sweet potato (the staple), followed by banana and taro.

Over 90 percent of the households surveyed had not consumed animal protein and three quarters had no vegetable protein.  Overall, the data suggested that diets had limited variety, lacked animal and vegetable protein and essential fats. Children with mild or moderate malnutrition are between 2.5 and 4.6 times more likely to die then their healthy weight range counterparts. 

Donor support secured for rural health project

BY IVY MUNGCAL

AUSTRALIA, THE Asian Development Bank and other key donors have teamed up in a massive project to help Papua New Guinea improve the quality of its rural health system.

The donors are supporting an $81.2 million rural primary health project, which aims to refurbish 128 health centres, build 32 community health posts and provide housing for 224 health workers in rural communities.

Australia is providing a $40 million grant and the ADB a $20 million loan for the project.

The OPEC Fund for International Development has also committed $9 million, while the World Health Organisation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency are respectively providing $1 million and $1.2 million worth of in-kind grants.

Aside from funding for the project, Australia said it would provide an additional $24 million dollars to purchase medical supplies for rural health centres and posts.

Source: Devex, 3 October
http://www.devex.com/en/blogs/the-development-newswire/papua-new-guinea-secures-donor-support-for-rural-health-system-project

Chinese say PNG relationship yields “sweet fruits”

BY KEITH JACKSON

THE CHINESE ambassador to Papua New Guinea has said that China-PNG relations have set a good example for cooperation between the countries.

Ambassador Qiu Bohua was speaking at a reception in Port Moresby to mark China's National Day.  Prime minister Peter O'Neill and president of the Bougainville Autonomous Province, John Momis, were among the guests at the function.

“Thirty-five years ago, the PNG Government made a far-sighting decision to establish diplomatic relations with China,: Mr Qiu said. “Since then, the bilateral relations have made significant progress on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.”

“We highly appreciate that the PNG side always adheres to the One China policy and supports China's peaceful reunification.”

The ambassador said that trade between the two countries has been booming.

“PNG has become China's biggest trade partner and investment destination among Pacific Islands,” he said.

“Our people-to-people exchanges have been widening, effectively promoting friendship and mutual understanding. Our cooperation in international and regional affairs has been intensifying, sharing more common interests and similar concepts.”

Mr Qiu said that, even though China is still a developing country, it has been providing aid to the best of its ability to PNG.

“During the past years, the Chinese government has spared no efforts to support and assist PNG with the implementation of a dozen aid projects,” he said.

These included the Sir John Guise Stadium, Wawin National High School, Goroka University, Mt Hagen Agriculture Technical Cooperation, and medical teams working in Port Moresby General Hospital.

“Over 200 PNG students were granted Chinese government scholarships to undertake degree studies in China,” he said, “and around 400 government officials and technical personnel were invited to China to attend various programs of different sectors for capacity training purpose.”

Mr Qiu said that 2011 is another fruitful year for cooperation with projects including the Usino Junction-Yamagi Road, Phase II of Mt Hagen agriculture technical cooperation, the Distant Education Network, the Integrated Government Information System Network and the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone.

“We are also looking forward to the groundbreaking of the International Convention Centre project in Port Moresby,” he said. “All these are the sweet fruits yielding from the long-term stable and friendly bilateral relationship between China and PNG.”

Mr Qiu described the controversial Ramu Nickel project as a good example of bilateral cooperation.

“The project is a win-win for our two countries. It is my firm belief that with the smooth running of Ramu Nickel, the confidence of foreign investors in PNG will be boosted, and the bilateral economic relations between our two countries will be further lifted to a higher level,” he said. “We hope to see the first production soon to put new vigour into the PNG economy.”

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 7 October
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/zwbd/t865398.htm

Julie Bishop says PNG must abandon reliance on aid

AUSTRALIA'S DEPUTY Opposition leader and shadow Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has called for Australia to help Papua New Guinea move away from reliance on foreign aid.

“There must be a firm focus on self sufficiency rather than aid dependency,” Ms Bishop told Radio Australia.

“With the revenue from resource projects in PNG set to boost its economy, Australian aid will play a comparatively lesser role in PNG's development.”

However, Ms Bishop said that, on a recent visit to PNG, “it was apparent that the social development issues are immense” and that “delivering health and education services to some is particularly challenging.”

She said that PNG is at an important juncture in its development.

“It's on the verge of this mining and resource boom that should generate significant income with the potential to radically alter the course of its economic and social development.

“Mining and resource companies are already active participants in the development field, not only are they building new infrastructure; but also providing basic medical facilities and schools.”

Ms Bishop said that often mining companies’ networks are more efficient than government but that they reach further into the remote areas than the government does. She said churches and NGOs will also continue to play an important role.

“My point is while Australia must continue to support PNG; we should take a long term view and work to a more economic partnership model than just an aid donor, aid recipient model,” she said.

Source: Radio Australia, 3 October
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201110/s3331247.htm

Rudd slaps down opposition whining on PNG

BY EOIN BLACKWELL

AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER Kevin Rudd has taken a swipe at the federal opposition over its past dealings with Papua New Guinea during the final leg of his two-day visit to Australia's closest neighbour.

Mr Rudd on Saturday dismissed comments from coalition counterpart Julie Bishop about rebuilding the relationship between the two nations based on an economic and strategic partnership, instead of one based aid.

"The opposition says those sorts of things," he said in response to a question in Port Moresby on Saturday.  "We've been dealing with each other as development partners since I became prime minister of Australia.

"I find it a little bit ironic that the opposition begins to lecture this government about how to deal with Papua New Guinea."

Within three months of becoming prime minister, Mr Rudd visited PNG as his first official overseas trip, while former prime minister John Howard waited "three or four years" to visit the former Australian territory.

Mr Rudd says he did not discuss the Manus Island detention centre in any great detail during talks with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Foreign Minister Ano Pala.

"Neither the prime minister or the foreign minister particularly discussed Manus because as you know it is now subject to a decision by the Australian High Court, which the Australian parliament will consider its response to," he said.

During a speech at the Lowy Institute in July, Ms Bishop said the opposition would rebuild Australia's relationship with PNG if it won government.  She said Australia's development assistance to PNG, estimated to be $482 million in 2011-12, had declined as a percentage of PNG's gross domestic product.

"With the revenue from resource projects set to boost its economy even further, Australian aid will play a comparatively lesser role in PNG's development," she said.

Resource projects - such as the massive Highlands- and Port Moresby- based liquefied natural gas projects are expected to contribute 9% to the country's GDP in coming years.

However, as many as 80% of PNG's estimated seven million people still live subsistence-based lifestyles, cut off from much of the limited health care in the country.

Earlier Mr Rudd pledged $64 million to improve health in PNG.  During a visit to Moreguina village in Central Province on Saturday he said the package was part of an $80 million Asian Development Bank health fund.

He also pledged additional funds to assist delivery of drugs to health centres across the country.  "A big challenge in PNG is health," Mr Rudd told villagers who had gathered at the health post to see him.

"Making sure little babies are born safer, making sure that when they are little kids they get vaccinations.  I understand the health problems in Moreguina."

He said the ADB had launched a program to improve health and refurbish about 3000 clinics and health centres across PNG.  Australia would provide half the funding.

He also said an additional $24 million would go towards delivery of medicines to those clinics.  "We want to boost the health of 1.2 million people in PNG."

Source: AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October

O’Neill committed to UN development goals

PRIME MINISTER Peter O'Neill pledged in New York on Saturday that PNG would continue to work hard in order to achieve all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.

"Our government remains committed to achieving the MDGs, and we are now scaling-up progress in all relevant sectors," O'Neill said while addressing the UN General Assembly.

The MDGs are a set of eight international development targets that UN member states have resolved to meet globally by 2015.

"We call on all our development partners to complement our efforts to achieve the MDG targets in line with national development plans and policies," Mr O’Neill said. "I believe other developing countries will support our call."

According to him, PNG has made strides in three of the eight MDGs - promotion of universal primary education, reduction of diseases, as well as gender equality and women's empowerment.

Source: Shanghai Daily, 25 September
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=18656

AusAID spent $3M pursuing football world cup

BY KEITH JACKSON

ON FOUR CORNERS tonight, ABC reporter Quentin McDermott investigated the strategy employed by Football Federation Australia in its failed effort to win the right to host the 2018 or 2022 world football cup for Australia.

Amongst other matters, the program raised serious questions about the role played by AusAID in the World Cup bid.

Four Corners claimed that around $3 million of AusAID money was paid to Pacific countries to pursue a single vote in Australia’s favour, which didn’t eventuate.

In an early response to the program, AusAID denied that this money had been spent to prop up the bid.

But Four Corners produced documentary evidence contradicting AusAID’s denial.

The expenditure seems to have been endorsed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

That aid and development funds can be applied to such tawdry ends poses issues that the Australian government, and Kevin Rudd in particular, should be called upon to address.

Pacific islands accuse AusAID of coercion

BY DANIEL FLITTON

AusAID HAS BEEN ACCUSED of strong-arm tactics in the south Pacific by seeking to unfairly influence tiny island neighbours in a free trade deal, leaked documents reveal.

The confidential documents show Pacific island countries could abandon trade talks at a regional leaders' forum next week unless Australia stops pressuring the funding of Pacific trade negotiators.

Canberra has tried to sell the talks on closer economic relations in the region as a development measure rather than a simple trade deal.

But the documents show Pacific nations believe any deal will not significantly improve their economies ''unless it results in greater integration of labour markets.''

The main sticking point in the talks is funding for an independent chief adviser to guide Pacific island nations in their negotiations - a position Australia and New Zealand agreed to pay for in 2009.

New Zealand has already signed a $NZ1.3 million deal to continue paying its half for the position, known as the Office of the Chief Trade Adviser and based in Vanuatu.

A leaked draft contract between Australia's aid agency, AusAID, and the trade adviser proposes $1 million in funding be split into $125,000 tranches, with the money to be released every three months subject to ''satisfactory progress'' in the trade talks.

In lengthy comments on the draft contract the trade adviser's office told AusAID the clause was ''totally unworkable'' and demanded it be stripped from the contract and earlier plans for two $500,000 payments be reinstated.

Pacific nations are adamant the trade adviser office should be legally independent and not threatened with budget cuts.

Source: The Age, 28 August.  Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/pacific-islands-accuse-australias-aid-agency-of-coercion-20110828-1jgnv.html#ixzz1WTaClvH1

Are Kiwis showing us how to do it - again?

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

NEW ZEALAND is only a small country but it has a big heart.  It also seems to sit a lot more comfortably in the South Pacific area than Australia. 

Perhaps this is why it seems to get some things right while Australia stumbles.  For instance, the Kiwis have happily hit their stride with a Pacific Workers Scheme while Australia is still bogged down in red tape.

Perhaps we can learn something from their activities in Papua New Guinea.  They seem to get more bang for their buck.

The following is lifted off their modest NZAid website.  They seem to have nailed the problems precisely, worked out what they can do and, in their modest way, got on with it.  Note the lack of spin. Decide for yourself.

Development challenges

Poverty is pervasive and income disparity is growing, despite several years of macro-economic improvement.

The recognised need to achieve broad based economic growth is restricted by deteriorating infrastructure and poor service delivery to rural areas.

Widespread law and order problems pose a threat to locals, constrain investment and inhibit the growth of the private sector.

PNG has the highest rate of HIV prevalence in the Pacific, which carries serious implications for society and could reverse development achievements made in recent years.

Gender inequality and violence restrict the ability of women to participate in economic, social and political life and is a root contributing factor to many development challenges in PNG

 

Dev't never faster; benefits need sharing

A CONFERENCE in Canberra has heard that the pace of political and economic change in Papua New Guinea has never been faster.

“There's a lot of things coming to a head,” says Matt Morris [pictured], a former economic advisor to the PNG government, now deputy director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.

“On the economic front the big issue is the investment in the LNG Project, which is expected to come on stream in 2014 and will bring huge revenues into government. So a key issue now is basically how to put the economic foundations in place now so that those resources are well managed.

“And then obviously with an election coming up next year and a new government, the window of opportunity for getting through some of the key reforms is very narrow indeed.”

Mr Morris said that, while the PNG economy is expected to grow about 9.3% this year, “a lot of these economic benefits are not being shared broadly throughout the population...”

“There [are] lots of stories in the papers and the media about financial abuse, particularly with the development budget and the trust funds, with a lot of secrecy over how state owned enterprises and other assets were being managed for people, and just generally not seeing services getting through.

“I think that's why there needs to be some fairly concerted action now to improve the way that resources are used so they do translate into better services. And the recent announcement of tuition free education is a good way of getting benefits out to ordinary people.”

Mr Morris said that while PNG “is a very complicated country”, there are some positives that give reason for optimism.

“One is the resilience of PNG and the ability of PNG to adapt to very rapid change. I think the other one … is the massive growth in mobile telecommunications across the country.

“From ten years ago when very few people had mobile phones, they were very much a luxury item, there's about 75% coverage across the country.

“It’s a sign that rapid progress can be made.”

Source: Radio Australia

Mobile phones a double-edged sword

A STUDY BY Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Amanda Watson has explored how new mobile technology has been changing people’s lives, social structures and relationships in Papua New Guinea.

“We are talking about rural areas which had little or no access to modern communication technologies and in many instances were still using traditional forms of communication such as the drum,” Ms Watson said.

Ms Watson, who is completing her PhD, said the study of almost 750 people from 10 villages found that while most people were generally positive about the communication benefits of mobile phones, it was how they were using the technology that was most surprising.

“Instead of using mobile phones for business or to improve their economic status, people related the benefits mostly to the enhanced communications they could have with family and friends who were living away from home villages,” she said.

“It suggests that social uses of the technology, rather than functional uses such as searching for jobs or coordinating logistics, mark the key benefit felt by rural villagers in PNG.”

But Ms Watson said there were also concerns that mobile phone technology was leading to marriage breakdowns.

“For example we were hearing stories about someone seeing their partner engage in a private conversation using a mobile phone, either talking quietly or text messaging, and this was causing jealously and tension within the marriage,” she said.

“So there was definitely this feeling that mobile phones were leading to more instances of marriages falling apart.”

Ms Watson said there were also difficulties associated with owning mobile phones such as the cost of the calls and the logistical challenges of charging a handset battery without easy access to mains power.

Source: Pacific Media Watch

PNGDF & ADF treat 700 in remote Papua

 

NINETEEN PNG Defence Force soldiers undertaking training to join the Long Range Reconnaissance Unit have just completed the practical phase of the Combat Medic’s Course.

The soldiers headed to the Central and Gulf provincial border to practise their new treatment skills on the local community. The soldiers were taught and supervised by four PNGDF medics as well as two Australian Defence Force medical personnel.

In conjunction with the local Catholic Health Service and the District Health Service, the soldiers tended a total of 698 patients along the Akufa River and its tributaries, north-west of Bereina.

The soldiers were based at Akufa and visited by boat and foot the villages of Inaukina, Malipoi, Maipa, Imounga, Ioi, Piunga and Engafa.

They attended to the wounds and diseases as well as assisting with recording pikinini statistics. The local health workers treated people using medicines provided through the recent health centre and aid posts kit distribution supported by AusAID.

“It was great to see the medicine’s from the kits being used in the most hard to reach villages where people need them the most,” said Colin Wiltshire, AusAID’s representative in Central Province. 

"It was a good example of cooperation between the PNGDF, the District Government and the Catholic Health Service and was greatly appreciated by the local people,” Warrant Officer Class Two Dave Turner of the ADF Defence Cooperation Program said.

Source: Australian High Commission, Port Moresby

Development aid: Cause and effectiveness

BY MICHAEL CORNISH

IT’S BEEN A FORTNIGHT since the report of the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness was finally released to the public, together with the federal government’s response. The review managed to be strong yet cautious, an amazing balancing act of political tact for which the panel should be commended.

This is an aptly timed review, with the aid program facing a massive scale up to a heady 0.5 percent of gross national income by 2015–16 from 0.35 percent this financial year. While 0.5 percent is still well short of the 0.7 percent adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1970 – a figure with obscure current relevance except as a useful advocacy tool – it is certainly heading in the right direction.

The massive expansion in Australia’s aid program enjoys bipartisan support, a rarity in the current political climate. Both political parties realise that Australians can and should be more generous to those far less fortunate than us.

And Australia is generous. Despite falling short of the 0.7 percent target, Australia is the twelfth biggest donor of official development, punching above its weight as the world’s seventeenth biggest economy (according to purchasing parity).

The debate continues to rage as to whether aid has done any real good in the countries in which it is spent. Critics of Australian efforts often point to the continuing and widespread poverty that prevails in our second-biggest recipient country, PNG, despite over $15 billion in aid since independence.

But most indicators are moving in the right direction. For example, World Bank data shows that life expectancy – a critical measure in anyone’s eyes – has increased from 47 years in 1975 to just over 61 years in 2009. While the picture in PNG and other recipient countries may not be all rosy, we suffer from a lack of a counterfactual – that is, what would have happened if those millions of dollars were not spent? The situation could well be far worse.

But Australia does need to do a better job in making sure our money is spent wisely and is improving the lives of the impoverished as best it can.

Sceptical commentators like Hugh White are right to argue that economic growth is the key to bringing people out of poverty, but in doing so they mix up cause and effect. Economic growth is the combined and measurable effect of a country’s many complex social and economic interactions, of which aid is merely one of many factors.

Growing wealth divide in Pacific: report

BY TAMARA McLEAN

A wealth boom in the Pacific's mineral-rich nations is stretching the regional divide between those with resources and those without, a new report claims.

A paper released this week by the Asian Development Bank has warned that while resource-rich countries like Papua New Guinea and East Timor are booming economically, its neighbours are struggling more than ever.

PNG and East Timor, which both export petroleum, are expected to grow by 8.5% and 10% respectively this year, boosted by the high international petrol prices, and increased investment and employment in the industry.

The Solomon Islands will grow by 7.5%, driven by increased logging and gold mining in the country, according to the latest issue of the bank's Pacific Economic Monitor.

Robert Wihtol, director general of bank's Pacific department, said there were two groups of Pacific economies emerging, one doing well and another struggling.

"The long term growth outlook for the Pacific region as a whole is very modest," Mr Wihtol said.

"If this trend continues, the region risks falling further behind the dynamic economies of developing Asia, resulting in a widening gap in incomes in the two regions."

To avoid this, Pacific governments needed to focus on the core functions of good government - that is investing in infrastructure, improving education and helping businesses - to encourage investment, he said.

The report also raises inflation projections for 2011 thanks to the sharp rise in commodity prices. It warns that high inflation rates in Fiji, PNG, and East Timor were of particular concern.

Mr Wihtol said there was a worry that the smaller, more remote and heavily import-dependent Pacific economies, such as those in the northern Pacific, were going to be hit hard by rising international food and fuel prices, and inflation.

He said these poorest nations needed to diversify their agricultural base and explore alternative energy sources to help protect themselves from rising prices.

Source: AAP South Pacific Correspondent

Business Council welcomes AusAID report

PETER TAYLOR, the president of the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council, has said “it is disappointing” that the AusAID review panel recommended a low expansion of the Australian aid program in PNG because aid effectiveness is constrained by poor governance.

“The reasoning is no surprise,” Mr Taylor said, “but without increased resources to meet the governance challenge the problem is likely to persist.”

The so-called ‘Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness’ set out proposals for the Australian aid program which is planned to almost double to $8 billion by 2015-16.

Mr Taylor, who admitted “to having read only the 32 page summary rather than all of the 340 page report”, applauded the panel’s recommendation that “the aid program should increase its emphasis on private sector development”.

He said “a process has now been established where the president of the Council’s PNG Branch, Phil Franklin, and I will have regular meetings with Stephanie Copus-Campbell (who heads AusAID in PNG) to discuss matters of mutual interest to the business community.

“We will be working to have implemented also a greater and better structured role for business in the annual Australia Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum as well as other proposals we have previously made about formalising business input bilaterally into the aid program.”

Mr Taylor said that, “in general”, he found the report and recommendations very welcome.

“The report is not critical of the current aid program or AusAID which it acknowledges understands many of the issues and is working hard to correct them,” he said.

“The emphasis in the report is on adopting an overall, whole of government strategy, avoiding fragmentation of the aid program and achieving value for money.”

Meanwhile, Steve Lewis reports in today's Sydney Daily Telegraph that AusAID has awarded $400,000 in contracts to an upmarket Canberra furniture store to provide beds and lounges to fit out homes for AusAID staff in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Kenya.

Julie McPhail, a director of Decor Living, confirmed the furniture sent overseas was for the use of AusAID officers. She said AusAID always tried to source furniture from local outlets.

"The only destinations we supply to are destinations where they are unable to source local product," she said. "Most of these places, you just can't get anything."

But staff at a retail outlet in Port Moresby expressed surprise and disappointment that Australian aid money was being spent in Canberra.

A spokesman for PNG's Brian Bell - whose slogan reads it "supplies everything for the home" - said the retailer could "furnish a 20-storey apartment building within a week".

Coalition shadow foreign minister Julie Bishop said it was "outrageous for AusAID to buy furniture in Canberra and ship it at considerable cost to countries where furniture can be bought locally."

Lack of basic services hurting Kundiawa

GERARD PHILLIP, the president of the Kundiawa Chamber of Commerce says the government needs to show some initiative and sort out problems that are crippling the town.

For the past few months Air Niugini has chosen not to operate its Kundiawa services due to a broken fence around the airport runway.

The town’s water remains switched off due to a court battle and three weeks ago the hospital closed its doors because of the unreliable water supply.

Mr Phillip, who’s lived in the Simbu capital for 21 years, says nothing ever changes.

“No government or administration has made any good decision to have another water source,” he says.

“There are some other places where the water could be taken from or there is a big river that is very close to the town.

“Water could be pumped from there but that has to be done by the government and nobody has taken the initiative to do anything about it.”

Mr Phillip says people either have to go to the river and collect water or get rations from the town’s water tank.

Source: Radio New Zealand International

Trade teacher recognised for quality training

BY KEVIN GOMEZ

SKILLSTECH AUSTRALIA engineering teacher Wayne Tierney has received a Queensland Teacher of the Year award for his outstanding dedication, professionalism and achievements.

“I am currently working for SkillsTech Australia as a business manager on the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Project,” Mr Tierney said.

“The project is an integrated development that includes gas production in the Southern Highlands and Western Provinces in which we have been engaged to provide a range of training services and advice.

“A specific challenge was designing, developing and delivering manufacturing and engineering teaching resources for the PNG Nationals due to lower level numeracy and literacy skills.

“It was necessary to identify the literacy level (equivalent to Grade 5 at Australian primary schools) and develop teaching resources and practical exercises to ensure qualifications were being delivered to Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) standards.”

Source: Process & Control Engineering

Aid program to deliver ‘real results’

BY DONALD HOOK

AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER Kevin Rudd has announced reforms to Australia’s aid program to ensure it is strategic, more transparent and gets real results. 

He says the Australian government is determined to ensure every aid dollar makes a real difference to the lives of the world’s poorest people. 

Mr Rudd was welcoming the findings of an independent review he commissioned to focus on aid effectiveness, take a comprehensive look at the management and quality of Australia’s aid, and give direction to the future of the government’s aid program.

The government has agreed, or agreed in principle, to 38 of the 39 recommendations made. “These are the most far-reaching changes to our aid program in more than a decade,” he said.

Mr Rudd said that making a difference - delivering real results  -  outlined the government’s response.

“Decisive action will be taken when aid programs are found to be not performing. The transparency of the aid program will be strengthened through a new Transparency Charter under which accurate and up to date results on all aid projects will be published.”

Mr Rudd says there will be more opportunities for Australians to become involved with the aid program, including more volunteers and closer links with business and community groups.

He added that Australia would continue to focus its aid efforts on close neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region, with Indonesia and PNG remaining the largest recipients. 

AusAID review: time to call home, Kev

BY PAUL OATES

‘I STILL CALL Australia, by phone’.  So goes a parody of Peter Allen’s I still call Australia home.  It could be said of our Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd.

“Memo to the foreign minister: you’re needed in your backyard,’ wrote veteran PNG watcher Peter Ryan earlier this year.  “Our hyperactive narcissist, Kevin Rudd, is buzzing around the world like a blowfly, laying infertile eggs into any steamy photo-opportunity he can contrive.

“The next time his busy-busy schedule allows a visit to Australia, somebody sensible should lead him gently to the tip of Cape York Peninsula and point due north,” Ryan added. “‘Over there, Kevin’, they should say kindly. ‘Over there! Just a few miles away. You could almost swim it. That’s where Australia’s truly dangerous foreign policy headaches are: right on our doorstep.”

Ryan’s words were timely and appropriate, yet apparently nothing has changed since, as a recent news report indicated:

What I would say very clearly to the Burmese authorities is it is absolutely critical that the Burmese government guarantee Aung San Suu Kyi's security. I believe all governments around the world would be looking very carefully at how the security is provided for by the government.

And in an article entitled $4 Billion and No Minister, Harry Aitken writes:

Amidst the recent ministerial reshuffle, few noticed that AusAID was left without a leader. The department responsible for overseas development assistance sits under DFAT, despite the fact that its budget of $4 billion is four times bigger.

Since the early 90’s, AusAID’s high expenditure has ensured its overseeing by a minister or, at the very least a parliamentary secretary whose job it has been to ensure financial accountability. Now Rudd holds all the cards.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, clarified his control over AusAid on a recent visit to flood-ravaged Pakistan. ‘I am the government when it comes to AusAID.’

There is bipartisan support in the Australian parliament for an increase in aid to 5% of national wealth by 2015, or about $9 billion dollars. An annual expenditure of such an amount requires a strong department capable of allocating money to achieve clear development outcomes.

But once again, despite many reviews, AusAID is showing signs of mis-spending. By not installing a minister, or assistant minister, and by further pushing it under DFAT’s umbrella and allowing it less autonomy, the Gillard government is doing little to show it cares about billions of taxpayer dollars.

In his submission to the independent review of aid effectiveness, film producer James Ricketson questioned the effectiveness of AusAID spending millions in Cambodia:

The answers to two of my questions speak for themselves of AusAID’s and DFAT’s commitment to transparency and accountability:

Would it be possible for a representative of AusAID to speak to camera about the role it plays in Cambodia?

Answer: No.

Would it be possible for this person to speak to camera on location in Cambodia?

Answer: No.

When challenged about these responses during a Parliamentary Committee hearing, AusAID maintained these denials were standard ‘departmental policy’.

Is there any hope that we may yet see the results on the AusAID Review soon?  The review results were originally advertised to be available in April.

And will the review, when eventually released, provide a clearer picture, or indeed any transparency, of the AusAID organisation and the billions for which it is responsible?

Probably that too will be clouded in ‘departmental policy’?

Hello Mr Rudd. Are you still there? Still waiting on the line, sir…

Dokta patrol initiative helps New Ireland

BY ALANA DIXON

WORKING IN MEDICAL CENTRES without basic equipment such as a fridge to store vaccines is just be part of the challenge for Te Anau doctor Liz Scott.

Dr Scott, from the Fiordland Medical Centre, is in New Ireland as a volunteer with Australian Doctors International as part of its new "doctor patrol", or travelling clinic, initiative to provide health services to people in rural areas.

She says the contrast between the PNG health system and the one in New Zealand is stark. Kiwis are more fortunate than they sometimes realise, she says.

"Sometimes we moan about our health system but in comparison, it's much better."

Although conditions in some medical centres are good, others – particularly in remote areas – are extremely poor, Dr Scott says. Some don’t have working refrigerators for vaccine storage, so they can’t run something as simple as a vaccination program.

The spread of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and, increasingly, AIDS are of particular concern.

Dr Scott is no stranger to developing countries having spent time volunteering in Nepal, Kenya and India. "It's nice to be in a situation where you feel like you're helping, making a bit of a difference," she says.

Source: The Southland Times, New Zealand

Foreign advisers still rake in millions

BY STEVE LEWIS

THEY'RE the Australian government officials you've never heard of - but most of them earn more than prime minister Julia Gillard.

The combined salaries of a select group of AusAID-funded consultants - who offer advice to developing nations on everything from law and order to farming - totals millions of dollars a year.

Kenyan man Adiel Mbabu, who advises Papua New Guinea on farming techniques, is the recipient of one of the richest individual foreign aid contracts, worth $1.089 million.

Dr Mbabu's three-year deal - which will earn him just over $350,000 annually tax-free - was awarded after an "open international tender process", according to an AusAID spokeswoman. The Kenyan adviser provides "expert independent support" to the PNG National Agriculture and Livestock Department.

He is just one consultant whose work in some of the world's poorest countries has brought personal riches.

Despite Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd vowing to crack down on highly paid advisers, Geoffrey Elvy will earn $936,091 over two years to give economics advice to PNG.  Leslie Holland will earn $924,319 to help Vanuatu build a better transport system while Philip Warren gets $897,680 to advise the PNG government on transport.

Carey Brooker will earn $808,368 to advise on education while the recipient of the biggest individual AusAID contract - former clerk of the court John Dinsdale - has just negotiated a one-year $430,264 extension to his $1.077 million "law and justice" contract in PNG.

On the eve of a government review into foreign aid - which gives the green light to increasing annual spending to about $9 billion by 2015 - the amount paid to the big three private contractors, Coffey International, Cardno and GRM, has doubled to $1.8 billion.

And the fat profits by are likely to expand further. The review, chaired by former Olympics boss Sandy Hollway, gives Australia's aid program the tick of approval and says AusAID is capable of handling a much bigger budget.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, Sydney

Report says more NZ aid should go to Pacific

A NEW REPORT on how New Zealand aid is spent, echoing a recent report on AusAID, says it goes to too many programs and should be focused more on the Pacific.

Auckland think-tank the Maxim Institute, which published the report, says the aid system is not as effective as it could be.

"New Zealand aid is very small internationally and with 800 programs, that's just way too many for one department to be handling," Maxim Institute researcher Jane Silloway-Smith said.

The institute recommends that New Zealand stop giving aid to poor countries around the world and focus on the Pacific.

Around 56% of NZ aid is channelled to the Pacific, with the largest amounts to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Most of the rest goes to countries in Asia and Africa.

The government says it is already committed to helping the region.

"We have some very chunky investments we are making in the region right now, we are trying to slim down the number of activities, focus on areas that are going to make a difference," Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.

Source: Television New Zealand

Business v bureaucracy in international aid

BY IAN ANDERSON

NEW FORMS OF AID, including “philanthro-capitalism” such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are rapidly altering the international aid architecture for health. These organisations have financial power, actively shape agendas and influence policy.

The rise of non-traditional donor organisations creates opportunities and has implications for Australia as it scales-up its aid program. AusAID could collaborate, complement, compete with, or copy these organisations. Arguably the biggest strategic implication is that they expand AusAID’s programming choices.

This increased flexibility could be used to leverage and accelerate further reforms in the UN and elsewhere. But choice is a two way street. Developing countries may prefer large, grant financing from non-traditional aid organisations and choose to bypass traditional multilateral and bilateral development agencies…..

Collaboration can – and has – occurred between The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [BMGF] and AusAID in program areas of common concern, such as maternal and child health. Collaboration has also occurred in knowledge generation.

For example, AusAID, BMGF, and the University of Queensland collaborated in estimating the costs of scaling up proven interventions for maternal and child health in Asia. Arguably, the combination of these three institutions working together magnified the profile and reach of the work much more so than if each had acted separately.

AusAID and BMGF can also complement each other’s strengths. AusAID has excellent, ongoing, access to key Government policy makers throughout Asia and the Pacific; is experienced in service delivery; has professional and experienced staff posted across the Asia and Pacific; and has a scholarships program that builds capacity.

BMGF has excellent access to scientific research in health; has convening power amongst many stakeholders including the private sector; and is deeply and widely engaged in Africa.

However, in some circumstances, AusAID and BMGF may be competitors. Both are grant, untied, financiers chasing viable development opportunities. Both wish to recruit good, experienced, international and local talent. Both operate in the same sectors in the same countries: potentially with quite different policy advice to government.

BMGF is increasingly likely to win policy debates at the country level, at the expense of AusAID views, unless AusAID continues to build up its own in–house technical expertise, and invest more in operational research. Both BMGF and AusAID are also likely to compete for influence and ideas on the boards of international organisations.

AusAID could also copy some of the BMGF approaches, particularly the emphasis given by BMGF to rigorous operational research. Access to finance is rarely the binding constraint to development in fast growing Asia or the aid supported Pacific, but access to useful and usable knowledge is.

Developing countries often know what to do, but are less sure about how to do it in their own country circumstances. Consultancy based advice is no substitute for field based operational research and assessment of the counter–factual….

The international environment – especially for health – is rapidly changing. Standing still is to be left behind, less and less able to influence global health events that will affect developing countries, as well as Australia.

Australia’s decision to scale up its development assistance program is a sound investment in the future, especially in an increasingly inter-connected world. Making good choices – including how to best work with relatively new, but influential, institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be an important part of that task.

Ian Anderson (ian.anderson.economics@gmail.com) is Director of Ian Anderson Economics Pty Ltd, a consultancy firm specialising in the economics and financing of maternal and child health

Source for extracts: Anderson, I. (2011), “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: bureaucracy versus business in international development” discussion paper 2, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University, Canberra

Efforts to get finance to the grassroots

A BRANCH of the World Bank has signed an agreement with the PNG government to improve access to credit for small and medium sized enterprises.

The International Finance Corporation will guarantee 50 percent of loans that local banks extend to these businesses.

The International Finance Corporation manager for PNG, Carolyn Blacklock, says the country’s economic growth is very strong but it’s not filtering down to the people.

She says in developing countries economic growth has to find its way to the masses.

“One of the quickest ways and most effective ways of doing that is to make sure there’s a robust functioning small and medium enterprise sector,” she said.

“This is because it’s those businesses that are employing people and who actually contribute revenues to government, they’re sort of the engine of growth.”

The program is expected to support up to $63 million in new financing.

Source: Radio New Zealand International