Comments

This is interesting research based on current changing technological world. AI is taking over, with people either using it academically or personally. Most students and non-students used it for study purposes as well as to answer their daily problems, for example, they use it to ask about relationships issues, family issues etc. Apart from using it only on academic AI is their friend leading to lesser number visiting student counsellors. Further research should also look at the non academic usage of AI to see if it helps students.

Dear Maho, Thank you for your interest in our research. Last year, the regulator released a report that indicated that there are now 4.3 million mobile subscribers in Papua New Guinea. Please note that this figure does not equate to individual people because some people have more than one active mobile telephone number (for instance, one for work and one for personal use). That report is available at the link below. https://www.nicta.gov.pg/national-ict-indicators-report-2025/ That latest figure does seem to suggest that there has been growth in mobile telephone uptake because a 2019 industry report indicated that there were 2.5 million unique subscribers in the country at the time (see https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/digital-transformation-the-role-of-mobile-technology-in-papua-new-guinea/ ). Thank you also for your second question, about the pricing of handsets. We do not look into handset pricing in our project but it would be another interesting topic to perhaps pursue in the future. Importantly, the regulator’s 2025 report highlights that affordability remains a key constraint. While our study does not directly analyse subscriber or handset price trends, regulatory evidence points to mixed outcomes in coverage expansion alongside continued affordability constraints. These may be valuable areas for further research. Amanda, Hafford, Loretta and Jonathan

Purchase of credits through Digicel PNG CellMoni is probably giving better value for your Kina - for some users at least.

Given the epistemic centrality of generative AI, the sociology of knowledge provides a useful standpoint or lens to understand the societal implications (especially for education). Digital infrastructures are already deeply entangled in the production and legitimation of knowledge. AI brings opaqueness and automation to the party. One can understand AI as a step intensification of "deep mediatisation" (see Couldry & Hepp, 2016). I believe that we need to look at AI in education policy making not only as operational guidance but in a deeper way, understanding it's potential role in not only representing but in shaping and constituting our reality (and what education means to us). Conducting research into the current situation as you have done is the obvious step towards a properly grounded approach to establishing a common set of rules for teachers and students, and so on. This should be within a broader collaboration to decolonise AI ( for instance, develop sovereign or regional genAI trained with our own data. (I am commenting as a Solomon Islands citizen and PhD student researching knowledge, discourse and digitalisation.)

Thanks Chris for sharing this important piece. Long ago I returned home thinking what was most important was to raise awareness of the unequal nature of international development and how the good international citizen discourse not only erased so much but left "us" bathed in sunshine.

This is an important finding, and any reduction in physical and/or sexual IPV should be recognised. But the headline risks overstating progress because the analysis leaves out several forms of violence that are central to women’s lived experience, including coercive control, emotional abuse, financial violence and technology-facilitated abuse. When those forms of violence are included, the picture changes significantly. The 2024 survey shows that 86% of women have experienced at least one form of IPV in their lifetime, and 71% experienced abuse in the previous 12 months. On that broader and more complete measure, it is much harder to claim meaningful overall change. So yes, there may be progress on some specific forms of violence, but the fuller data shows that intimate partner violence remains widespread, active and deeply entrenched. The headline should not minimise that reality.

Thanks for an interesting post. Are you seeing mobile subscriber numbers increase as more internet service providers enter PNG and as coverage extends? Related, are prices for the cheapest smart phones changing?

A really incredible progress. Through the outcome, it seems the government, all organisations, and communities in Vanuatu are working really well together. With a great partnership between VWC and the national VbOS, the study was done nationally and really captured the progress. I would love to be connected with organisations who led the national legal advocacy to improve accountability coupled with client-based advocacy to learn and adapt some strategies that may work in Papua New Guinea. Great work and Thankyou Vanuatu 🙏

Amazing to see this research on violence against women & girls has shown significant & measurable reduction validating the strategies & amazing effort of all those involved.

Interesting data Vola, thanks for the article. Publicly available court data shows that applications for protection orders has increased by 18% with 1,167 filed in 2025. It would be good to understand whether access to the formal justice system has improved at the same pace as we previously estimated that approximately 98% of cases never reach the system and that rural women remain largely excluded from protection orders. It is very concerning that the prevalence of sexual violence against children remains largely unchanged from earlier surveys. A review of 2023 Court decisions (criminal jurisdiction) shows 1/3 involved sexual offences, with nearly seven in 10 decisions involving sexual offences against children. It further indicated that courts continue to rely on flawed medical examinations, police/prosecution practice remains inconsistent; child protection remains severely under-resourced; and that almost half of the prison population were serving sentences for sexual offences, consistent since 2012. I hope that we can see greater investment in services for children in Vanuatu.

The only reason Bush and Blair invaded Iraq was so they could take focus and attention away from Afghanistan because they did not want the Taliban to be eliminated (the Taliban had unconditionally surrendered in Dec 2001 but Bush and Rumsfeld wouldn’t accept their surrender, and the Bush admin had OBL cornered in Tora Bora but they allowed the Pakistanis to safely evacuate OBL to Pakistan instead of the Bush admin killing or capturing OBL). The defeat/elimination of the Taliban would have meant the end of Pakistan (the Afghan part of Pakistan re-joining Afghanistan, and the Indian part of Pakistan re-joining India with the support of the international community), which Bush and Blair opposed. Within a month and a half of the Iraq invasion, the US and UK had achieved total victory, but Bush deliberately did things which led to an insurgency in Iraq, an insurgency he could have easily crushed anytime he wanted to within the first 2 and a half years of that war, but he deliberately allowed to fester. For this reason, in people’s heart of hearts, people think the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do, even though they may pretend otherwise. When they pretend otherwise, they are simply being disingenuous. Regarding the first 4 years of the war of terror, journalists were totally complicit and they did not do their job of holding Bush to account by asking why America had not and is not crushing the terrorists already and why America is giving them breathing space to fester instead.

Keep up the good, important work Vola, Sharon, Juliet and team - the Vanuatu Women’s Centre has been tirelessly supporting women and children across the country, its network for Committees Against Violence Against Women and its Male Advocacy program a major part of its effectiveness. Reducing violence is slow, hard work as this article shows, but it remains fundamentally important if we are to build a healthy, safe society together. Tankyu tumas for all you do.