Comments

very true

very inspiring and motivating as being a student and facing such challenges in life while pursuing for such achievements is so inspiring. As the saying goes, birds of the same features features fly together.

This was a great and interesting article to read. I have really enjoyed all of this very cool and fun information. Thanks.

Hi Neal, I know what you mean. It is like that quote "The food here is terrible and the portions too small". That said, there is such a need for more aid, whether we're thinking about the multiple humanitarian crises the world is facing, the terrible health problems and risks, or the need to massively upscale the global response to climate change. There will always be a mix of successful and unsuccessful aid investments. While the Australian aid program has its problems, from what I've seen over my career, Australia is a better donor than many, and I don't think our aid has suddenly dipped in quality. So I do think advocating for more aid and better aid is the way to go. Regards, Stephen

I think this is a great program for distributing the wealth amongst the Island Nations of Moana... like the big brothers helping their young siblings. However for the hired hands, a high percentage of them have never travelled outside of their Island home. It is a culture shock for many, who would try to hide it not to be teased as the village boy... which they are, without a little pep talk. I strongly believe an orientation program before workers leave would help curb some of the problems the program is facing thus far. It's what I do and I would like to help our young people. Thank You and have a Blessed Day.

This was a very good article. I was searching for something just like this due to the facts we had to debate why aid is not good to use and more.

Koim is urging the prime Minister to an unbending efforts to achieve the His Dream of PNG BLACK NATION IN THE WORLD. And as such, he himself make his guarded wisdoms into fruition.

Thanks Stephen, good points made about the performance of the aid program but you leave unanswered the key question as to whether the aid program warrants an increase in real funding when 30-40% of recently completed aid projects fail to achieve their objectives. Perhaps it's time to change the narrative and recognise that Labor's capacity “rebuild” of the aid program needs to be given time to work. Only once the effectiveness of the aid program has substantively increased should there be an increase in real funding. By consistently advocating for higher funding levels you seem to be ignoring the performance elephant in the room you have so very well identified.

Thanks Stephen I had to search the Budget papers to find the dollar amounts in our aid budget, especially for any comparison with last year's. Not surprising to find no virtual increase. I was equally disappointed that the morning media made no mention of our aid - up, down, or steady. Given the formation and operation of the Australian Centre for Evaluation in Treasury, I was hoping that DFAT would currently assess its effectiveness by the achievement of its intended outcomes. Objectively through independent evaluation- not through comments by the delivering manager, nor by mixing up the data. I agree with your comments: "Until the disconnect is reduced, performance should be judged with reference to completed, not ongoing, investments." Though I would add "... with reference to the demonstrable outcomes of completed...." I noticed too that number one in your table of "Unsatisfactory Aid Investments" was "Afghanistan - Ending Violence Against Women Phase 2" and that the evaluation period was 2018 to 2023. As the source was DFAT performance data, I had hoped than ANY assessment by that Department would have stopped at 20-21. The next two years cover the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and their declared and explicit violence against women. It might be my simple visual conclusion, but I remain surprised that any DFAT assessment of its project(s) in Afghanistan could include the years since those dreadful scenes at Kabul Airport in August 2021. The recent Blog article "Restricted visa pathways for Afghan women" counterpoints DFAT: https://devpolicy.org/restricted-visa-pathways-for-afghan-women-20240510/ "But any hard-won progress towards equality and human rights for Afghan women, once touted as a substantive moral basis for the war, is being incrementally dismantled by the returned Taliban".

You need to be no older than 45 when the ballot opens, so you should be fine.

Thank you, Ian, for your insights on TB context in PNG. Yes, I agree that PNG has transitioned out of the 30 global high dual TB/HIV burden countries. However, more requirement is needed to control TB epidemic in PNG. In PNG, someone diagnosed with TB is a dead sentence given the weak healthcare system. Frequent drug shortage in healthcare settings, particularly in rural and remote primary healthcare settings continues to challenge the national TB prevention objectives. The shortage of health workers remains an important issue. Equally important and life threatening, the emergence of MDR TB added to the complexities of effectiveness and functionality of the healthcare system. It is crucial to identify the source of TB infection to design appropriate interventions and reduce its spread within susceptible individuals. In healthcare settings, patients with infectious TB disease remains a major source of TB infection and threatens the health of other patients and health workers. Yes, TB is preventable and yet is a complex issue and require concerted efforts, including public policy, community, institutional, interpersonal and intrapersonal level to address TB.

Hi David, Thank you for your question. In PNG, TB is a serious public health problem despite the availability of anti-TB medications over the past decades. Active TB is invasive and affects other parts of the body. It is prevalent in all parts of PNG. As such, individuals with active TB become sick and are admitted to healthcare settings for medical treatments. On the other hand, latent TB may not become visible and do not show symptoms and cannot spread. However, it can lead to active TB disease in the future. Therefore, many individuals with active TB are admitted into healthcare settings seeking treatment through the DOTS treatment strategy. Subsequently, the congregation of patients with active TB in health settings potentially increases the risk of TB infection to health workers and patients in the absence of infection prevention and control programs. Maintaining adequate infection prevention and control program is paramount to minimise TB transmission in healthcare settings and spreading to communities. The emergence of MDR TB is a serious constrain to the TB prevention efforts given the existing weak health system. Funding plays an important role as it facilitates the implementation of TB control programs both in healthcare settings and into the nearby community. As TB infection is common in the community rather than health settings, funding should be available to provide regular and ongoing community health program. However, as discussed in our blog, lack of funding remains a serious impediment to effective TB control initiatives. It will be cost effective to prevent TB in the community rather than waiting for patients with TB to seek costly healthcare in healthcare institutions.