Comments

Thankyou for this clear-sighted summary of the situation.

This article honestly reflects what happened on the ground in Enga Province. I worked alongside the CARE team during the response and recovery phase with Baptist Union of PNG, and I can confirm that most of what is described here is accurate. Male dominance was a real barrier during needs assessments. Women and children were rarely given space to speak, and cultural norms made it very difficult to hear their stories. Communities also tended to give the same prepared responses to every team that visited, focusing only on food and material needs, while the trauma that women and children carried went largely unnoticed. What stood out positively was CARE's decision to set up child-friendly spaces and psychosocial support for women and children. This was a bold and necessary step that most other organisations did not take. The recommendation to distribute aid by family unit was also the right approach for this context. Overall, this article is an honest and important account of the gaps in disaster response in PNG, and the recommendations deserve serious attention from all organisations working in this space.

The statistics on violence are very important, but in reality the numbers are much higher because most cases in the Highlands are never reported. Fear, stigma, sorcery accusations, and wantok pressure silence many survivors. The Village Health Volunteer (VHV) approach is strongly recommended and needs much stronger support. VHVs can reach hard‑to‑access and disadvantaged communities, but only if their capacity is strengthened through proper training, first aid supplies, and clear links with the nearest health facilities. Their work must be recognised and supported by community leaders, youth leaders, and church leaders, who are respected and trusted in Highlands communities. Strong relationships between these key players can help manage cases early, before survivors need to travel to main service centres. However, many NGO programs fail because volunteer selection is often biased. Field officers sometimes select people they know, rather than people fit for the role, due to wantok practices or personal benefit from trainings. This weakens trust and access to services. Volunteer selection should be merit‑based and led by community leaders, churches, or nearby health facilities, not NGO field officers alone.

Hi, good afternoon Chris, Diana and Kushneel I am grateful for your contribution on the theme: Data Analytics Sharpens Development in the Pacific and Timor Leste. I have few comments on the theme for PNG. The need for processed information to support development policy as revealed by the research approach on in the three countries is a timely reminder. It reminds us that apart from providing the baseline data, the importance strategic assessment and analysis that guides quality development policy planning and investment for the future is critical. The missing link between policy formulation and actual services and deliverables to address the appalling development indicators has been proper analysis and assessment. In PNG, the lack of credible data analytics coupled with politically motivated decisions impedes the provision of evidence based data for development development. It is not total absence of analyzed date. There are some analyzed data provided provided by the national think tanks (National Research Institute (NRI) and the Institute of National Affairs (INA). However, these reliable analytical data are aborted if they clash with the political interests and agendas of the ruling party and its coalition partners. The above practice has been adversely affecting the reliance on processed data for development policy. For instance, the research based proposal to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) to redirect income from PNG's lucrative extractive sector into more sustainable sectors like farming and tourism by the NRI and the INA was aborted. Instead the Kumul Petroleum Holdings (KPHL) and Minerals Resources Development Corporation (MRDC) were empowered as State owned enterprises (SOE) by the People's National Congress (PNC) led Party. The policy formulation and implementation process in PNG is not based on the long term development needs and aspiration of the people, and it is distorted by political survival instincts. In order for data analytics to sharpen development policy in PNG, the research approach needs to be engendered at the legislative level where decisions are made by elected leaders. The starting point to ensure analytics is considered into mainstream policy formulation and implementation is to address political reforms to change behaviours and attitudes of the current and future leaders. Only through these good governance - equality, equity, fairness and integrity are instilled. Thus, the missing gap between policy and development can be effectively addressed.

Good point Ngasmal, and we also need Political will and support to prioritize Solid Waste Management in the country.

Thank you Fiame and Devpolicy blog for this beautiful piece about Pacific belonging, highlighting connection to country that indigenous people feel, and the need for development to occur in people's homes in the Pacific. I am a descendant of colonial people with only one generation in the country I consider home, so my connection cannot be as strong as those of indigenous peoples who live where hundreds or thousands of generations of ancestors lived. I feel uncomfortable that Pacific people must travel to someone else's country to build their country's economy. I think of the PALM scheme which appears successful economically but betrays people's connections to their land and sea. This highlights, as this blog does, the need to build a truly local economy rather than depending on work in and for another nation.

Is the Baimuru people really own the land?how about doing the proper social mapping to find out who are the rightful landowners are

I'm very interested to work there in your farm. I'm from Papua New Guinea the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Any of the work in farm is available, I'm very interested.

Some of these evictions happen because there is a land grabbing syndicate that operates in Papua New Guinea, which is consist of Politicians, Lands Dept Officers, Foreigners, Corporate Businesses, Private Businesses and Fraudsters all collude to deprive the poor citizens of Papua New Guinea. I'm commenting because I have first hand knowledge of the situation because I was evicted twice due, only thing we need is legal aid, since some of us have our facts to defend in court.

Thanks for this lovely piece, Nemat. My dad bought me the bottom billion as a present when he saw I was interested in development topics as an undergrad. The rest is history. I've never met him, but always enjoyed his books (with the big exception of exodus), research, and leadership around extractives governance, and this was a wonderful tribute. Thanks also for bringing the new book to my attention, looks very relevant for us.

Hi Anura, thanks for your kind words and the comments. On one, I'm careful not to do any valuation of environmental benefits or cost, rather just focusing on comparing measurable outcomes (not converted to money values, or indicies, etc.). There is a lot of variability in the conditions though, in terms of both agricultural practices (principally fertilizer and pest control methods, which have environmental implications), intercropping, and animals roaming around. I haven't seen any particularly rigorous research that works through how these different conditions relate to either development or environmental outcomes. On two, the district and village expenditure and "public good" estimates in the paper (Table 8) speak to this. In an earlier version of the paper, I did break down the main household expenditure impacts by types of expenditure (see Figure 10 here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d5edcf197aea51693538dc/t/5c98e6b4a4222ff822715558/1553524407756/eard_v9_1903_JIE-merged.pdf). In relative (%) terms, education and health spending are responsive and there is movement in durables and assets. I have a companion paper to this one which speaks to your last questions (https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/uvjef). This paper is focused on what happens to the very local economy around mills where adoption is strongest, and looks at the business data. The figures to most of the talking in that one, so you can skip straight to the end of the PDF. All my best, Ryan

Fascinating paper - thanks Ryan. I remember reading about sunflower, rapseed and soybean oils in the US and Europe and their efforts to keep Indonesian palm oil out of those markets. Aside from not appreciating how interesting cooking oils were(!) I wondered how much those trade and geopolitical dynamics influence how we've come to see palm oil, while recognising some real environmental and human rights concerns?