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We need collaborate efforts by all professionals for this issue. A waste audit should be thoroughly carried out for both cities to ascertain what's lacking. Both policy and regulatory frameworks have to be revised and relooked to properly address SWM.
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Australia is still an important donor in countries like Cambodia. Here it is inclined as with other major donors to continue to fund its close partners, Australian NGOs and international agencies, as well as those ministries it deals with by bilateral or multi-lateral aid. This means as it does for in the industry as a whole that larger organisations with professional fundraisers and special staff to meet rigorous reporting requirements are favoured before local NGOs. We need to change this persistent imbalance to the "usual culprits" as I like to call them. All donors including Australia talk about localising Foreign Aid, even USAID with its new Administrator, but few come anywhere close to most or even half of the money going to them. Normally a Labor Govt is more enlightened than Coalition ones. Let's hope that this one is.
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Jotham, I have provided some isolated support for a local potato company, Kelta Potatoe Ltd, and just out of hindsight, noticed the imbalance in the supply chain process, and I am excited of the report that you said will be available and the way forward. There are few hiccups (as I call it), that challenge the marketing and distribution of potatoes (and that of food) distribution in Port Moresby. Key among these are, transportation (including freight), prices, standards, quality, packaging and all the issues relating to supply and demand. Thank you. Bill Nixon, PNG
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If it wasn't for Community Development Standard, my agricultural skill would not have made any difference to people because agricultural skill are not "people skills". Since I learned the community development skills, I always made success stories, since 2004. I never failed a project because I could easily connect their development need well. They saw themselves as the answer to their problems and solved it. Among a number of my heroes, I thank Fritz Robinson, Francis Kup, Priscilla Plus, Rebecca Robinson and Chris Guard who were my role models. I will be a role model to others.
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I established a small NGO delivering micro credit to Indonesians who were unable to obtain funding for small business establishment. We partner and fund local NGOs to deliver and manage loans to borrowers. We have operated in several regions with mixed success and now fund exclusively an NGO in Jogyakarta run by an innovative and energetic local woman (retired engineer) who quite exceptionally delivers excellent service to her clients and us (as funder). There is no doubt that no non-local could perform the role in any way as well as she does. I totally endorse the opinions cited by Anna in her article, as I have seen it work in practice.
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Thank you, Dr Sharp, Dr Busse and Dr Bourke OL for this vital contribution to the fresh produce market in PNG. I agree that, there has been an increase in wet or open-air market places in both rural and urban. PNG’s population growth and health awareness among the populous will continue to exert upward pressure on demand of fresh produce. We (i.e., Vantage Capital Ltd) recently undertook a fresh produce market mapping, specifically on the commercial buyers, which includes wholesalers, supermarkets/retailers, institutions, catering companies, extractive businesses and hotels & restaurants. Open-air markets were excluded, given time and cost limitations, though they comprise around 60% of the total market demand in Port Moresby. Our study shows that demand remains high and will increase going forward. We have covered the whole market with a response rate of 62 per cent. We hope to publish a brief on our report as soon as we obtain MVF/FPDA approval. Warm regards
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can't agree more Mbak Anna.... thank for pointing this out...
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Great article. I am wondering if there have also been notable shifts in the local labour force, particularly for Fiji as we see more expats from other developing countries (e.g Indonesia and Bangladesh) filling roles as skilled and unskilled workers.
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Thank you for your comment, very thought provoking.
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Colin probably would not have mentioned the support he provided in the late 1980s to an aid lobby group I helped start in 1986 - R.E.S.U.L.T.S. Australia, then located in easy reach in Canberra. We were a group of people who believed in creating the political will to help end hunger and poverty around our world. While we were all learning the arts of meeting and influencing MPs, Ministers and Government policy, Colin showed us some practical examples of addressing this poverty through his work with the NTA. This later gave us insights into the importance of the International Year of Microcredit in 2005 and the Grameen Bank under Professor Yunus. Colin Barlow showed us what commitment to improving livelihoods in poor communities could and should mean.
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