Comments

This looks like an excellent suggestion, and the case for both establishing international compatibility (and thus comparability) of surveys and the public release of data to researchers appears to be irrefutable. As for "outsourcing survey work to private contractors means that the data sets produced appear to remain the intellectual property of the company", that presumably is primarily an issue of how contracts are written, not who does the work.

Thank you for your interesting analysis, Terence, and I do hope your health improves. Your Blog opens up the question of the quantity and quality of aid. The neglect of the quality and effectiveness of development aid provided by donors is more troubling than the amounts allocated in budgets, in my view. It is astonishing that so little attention is given in development aid to the idea of the sustainability of benefits from aid and the dissemination of those benefits at scale. For example, from all the 111 education development projects implemented by donors in Indonesia since the 1970s, about 80% were never followed up to see if their benefits sustained. One consequence for donors of that neglect is that our understanding of how and why change and development occurs remains rudimentary. Furthermore, according to donors’ own project completion evaluations, only about 50% of the benefits from education projects are assessed as likely sustainable. That is ‘likely', not actually sustainable (say) two or more years after aid ceases. And so, aid money continues to be invested in less than optimal designs and activities — at best. The big Australian education projects, the Australia Indonesia Basic Education Program and the Education Partnership that ran consecutively from 2006 until 2017 were evaluated as less successful in quality and results than Australia’s much smaller and earlier projects in East Nusa Tenggara and in East Java. This is a slightly different matter, but it also points to the neglect of known qualities at the expense of quantity in the form of more dollars. To answer the question in the title of your Blog, Terence, I suspect that if Australian taxpayers had a better understanding of development aid’s quality and longer-term outcomes, their support for aid would wane much further.

Thank You Kelly Samof and Stephen Howes. This article is outstanding, it gave me deep insights in examining the extent to which the 2021 PNG budget met its projected revenue targets and the reasons for shortfalls.

Dr. Amanda and Team, can we have an update of this research on internet prices. I understand that your last update on this subject matter was in early to mid April 2022 and the new mobile operator launched later that month. I had previously stated that retail internet prices are mainly driven by competition in the retail space. I would be good to see the impact of competition on the retail internet prices through the entry of the new mobile operator. Ebu Gomana

Thank you Kingtau, This is a good, interesting point, increasing education levels might bring other benefits too, including helping to foster a stronger more cohesive civil-society, which then becomes catalytic in political change. If this is true big question becomes how to significantly improve education in a poorly governed state? That's another one I don't know the answer too. But it is certainly worth considering much more. Terence

We need effective policies to minimize ethnic diversity. When everyone identifies as part of the same nation, they're more likely to prioritize national interests over smaller group connections. This aims to create more homogeneity in PNG. The idea of "Unity in Diversity" only holds true with comprehensive education across the country. Average education level in PNG is around grade four-A long way to go. Just my thoughts.

“the major concern ….. is the ideology of regionalism and tribalism. These two concepts (have) created complete chaos in the ethical principles that governs …. service delivery in PNG.” Very true, and the primary reason I believe the public service in its present from will remain incapable of delivering services to where they are needed most. Hyper regionalism and tribalism have curtailed more than service delivery. It has suppressed economic opportunity for rural men and women and over time these factors have combined and led to the potential for chaos evident in a young disaffected population. After five decades it is clear that regionalism is not going away, and delivery systems need to adjust to take account of this. In my view only those who live in the thousands of communities and their elected leaders, in what is surely the most socially diverse nation in the world, can envision and deliver a more “appropriate” system. I believe the time has come to support a society wide reflection on what has and has not worked in the first five decades. Conversations should be held across the nation in community meetings, churches, schools, universities and parliament in the hope that a more equitable and culturally sound approach can be derived. Importantly it should produce a blueprint on how limited resources can best be applied to a burgeoning population to support health, education and widespread appropriate economic activity. To succeed it has to emanate from the grass roots and be carried to the legislature. Social media can drive it. To that end I suggest there is no better time to start than now.

Thanks Steven & Terrence Reflecting on Bernard Narokobi's article on Melanesian Way I see that we have values that contributed to the governance of our society. However, the major concern that we currently encounter nowadays is the ideology of regionalism and tribalism. These two concepts as created a complete chaos in the ethical principles that governs the outcome of service delivery in PNG. Nepotism and favoritism is reducing the constant flow of service delivery. The most important thing to consider in this diverse multicultural ethnicity is the power of unity. Although we may belong to different context but we are one. The moment when we think about the essence of unity in every aspects of governance we will see tangible development in our nation.

On a positive note, the Connect PNG Program will have a potentially positive impact of increasing mobility thereby allowing people to move more freely in search of opportunities. Currently, many are confined to their local areas, competing for limited resources like land to survive. Leading to violence. Another suggestion is to promote intermarriages across the country, aiming to decrease the numerous ethnicities and create a more manageable and homogenous society. People marrying each other in their own localities and does not have enough exposure of others in the entire country/locality and seems to have bias, feeling threatened and insecurity over resources and continue fighting in order to protect their survival.

Hi' MC I would rather suggest the most effective means of communication is through verbal face to face interactions. Therefore, many of our fine officers in various institutions in the country do not really want to live their comfort zone come down to where the people are. Technology can be of great help in relation towards disseminating vital information but it only reaches those who are able to access such information. Therefore, I would like to point out some strategic and reliable means towards disseminating such information in PNG context; * Using Local leaders in the village; Example, Councilors, Village court magistrates, Identified leaders in the community etc. * Church can also be an avenue to discuss some of this major issue; We often see Church as a place of Worship only but it would be good if we can address issues such as this in the Church because it contributes towards the development of humankind holistically. * Do public forums and try to get feedback from the general public * Technologically wise; Most of our rural community still do access radio station network. Therefore, I would rather suggest the usage of radio station to transmit information, however the information must be narrowed down to the understanding of the people; For example using our common Lingua Franca, which is Tok-Pisin to disseminate information. These are just my suggestions, what do you think?

Today we have published an update on the Pacific Engagement Visa. <a href="https://devpolicy.org/the-pacific-engagement-visa-in-august-20230829/" rel="ugc">The Pacific Engagement Visa in July and August: 2-1</a>

Hi Namos, Thank you very much for your comment! To be honest, I have trouble educating myself on these issues given the degree of complexity and obfuscation involved. I am far from being an expert but there are a few great resources I often refer to such as PNGEITI (https://www.pngeiti.org.pg/pngeiti-reports/) and PNGi (https://pngicentral.org/about/). As for how to spread the word, I guess social media is the conventional answer but personally I think that a kind of 'public lecture' format (such as the free public lectures provided by academics in Japan post-WW2 to farmers and other civilians who were keen to be educated but could not afford to go to university) is more effective and avoids issues like disinformation/misinformation, accessibility and so on. But I guess local people in PNG would have better ideas how best to disseminate this kind of information! What are your thoughts?