Comments

A very pragmatic analysis indicating that the FFP will lose the general election in 2022.

Thank you for posting this insightful speech. Would someone be able to clarify what the following "Project Development Agreement" Mr Yabom mentions is referring to? "One point that I want to stress is, with the Project Development Agreement in place, the surplus trade balance arising mainly from the LNG exports has yet to translate into consistent foreign currency inflows."

“Our aid focus has been way too much directed at propping up systems we bequeathed to a fledgling nation in 1975: systems that all to often have been found to be inappropriate for the environment into which they were thrust.” Yes, though inappropriate in any environment. No country has ever succeeded with a single chamber of parliament consisting of single-member electoral districts. It didn’t work in New Zealand, didn’t work in Northern Ireland, didn’t work in west Africa. It flouts the separation of powers rule: the executive controls the legislature. We see it in all the Australian lower houses. Without the curb of an upper house, the politicians have open slather. PNG, Solomons, and Vanuatu are competing to be the first country in the world to make the single chamber single-member structure work. Ridiculous.

Hello Bobby Anderson. “Neither donors nor multilateral institutions wish to engage Solomon Islands authorities around the issue of logging.” Why is that? Wouldn’t the donors want to know that their money is not just going to clean up the environmental mess made by private logging companies? Is this too much detail for them—or what? Why don’t the multilateral institutions get frustrated at being used to repair damage by Chinese companies? They are not bought off as local landowners are, so are they too comfortable in their steady careers as international do-gooders—or what? Do you have any suggestions?

Hello Stephen, While any indicator has its strengths and weaknesses, poverty rates typically account for non-market sources of income, including food grown for own consumption. Many are caloric, and the idea that hunger and poverty is not an issue in PNG is not at all borne out in the data. Recall this lively post and comment a while back: https://devpolicy.org/png-the-hungry-country-20210520/ Best,

Hello Stephen It seems to me that the most frequently used term is "poverty reduction." And in my view that platitude is problematic. If we take out nearest neighbour as an example, we see that despite nearly five decades of Australian assistance since independence, in practical terms this objective has slipped further backward for the majority of the population. “Poverty reduction” has a definite neo colonist edge to it and the promotion of economic growth and resource exploitation has exacerbated a what has always been a delicate situation. For many in a country like Papua New Guinea the notion of poverty is misplaced. When you live on your own land and grow or catch your own food, poverty is not the issue. Empowerment and participation in decision making and nation building is. Our aid focus has been way too much directed at propping up systems we bequeathed to a fledgling nation in 1975: systems that all to often have been found to be inappropriate for the environment into which they were thrust. If we wish to be helpful good neighbours, I believe, we need to drop the claptrap objectives that serve no purpose and focus on empowering people on their own terms to create the lives they wish for themselves. Lives that potentially include access to appropriate economic empowerment, health and education services as defined and envisioned by them - not us.

Thanks Stephen If I might add some comparative figures to your concerns about Australia's contributions to reducing poverty around our world (or at the least, within the Indo-Pacific region). From <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview" rel="nofollow ugc">the World Bank</a> (Nov 2022): "For three decades, the number of people living in extreme poverty— defined as those who live on less than $2.15 per person per day at 2017 purchasing power parity—was declining. But the trend was interrupted in 2020, when poverty rose due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The number of people in extreme poverty rose by 70 million to more than 700 million people. The global extreme poverty rate reached 9.3 percent, up from 8.4 percent in 2019. .............. "The recent crises have pushed the world further off track from the global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. Given current trends, 574 million people—nearly 7 percent of the world’s population—will still be living on less than $2.15 a day in 2030. And the challenge is made harder by the fact that extreme poverty is concentrated in parts of the world where it will be hardest to eradicate: in Sub-Saharan Africa, in conflict-affected areas, and in rural areas." US$2.15 a day is an unimaginable figure of personal hunger, distress and lack of opportunity.

Thanks again, Cameron I read that "Factsheet" with a great deal of interest and note it made no reference to any existing and annual responsibilities for reporting the Department's "performance" under the PGPA Act, where Section 39 specifies: "39 Annual performance statements for Commonwealth entities (1) The accountable authority of a Commonwealth entity must: (a) prepare annual performance statements for the entity as soon as practicable after the end of each reporting period for the entity; and (b) include a copy of the annual performance statements in the entity’s annual report that is tabled in the Parliament. Note: See section 46 for the annual report. (2) The annual performance statements must: (a) provide information about the entity’s performance in achieving its purposes; and (b) comply with any requirements prescribed by the rules." I could only find them using this search key https://www.dfat.gov.au/search?keys=PGPA+Performance+reports, where it was possible to find examples, such as * Technical Disaster Risk Reduction Program in PNG Evaluation Report and * Mid-Term Review Report of the Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme (PICAP) and on the last page is * Achieving the millennium development goals: Australia's support 2000-2010 These have now been required for 10 years, since the PGPA Act was introduced in 2013, yet not publicised.

Thanks Xavier. Clarification: There are two versions of OLIPPAC online. OLIPPAC 2001 and OLLIPAC 2003. The first OLIPPAC was passed in 2001 under Mekere Mourata. It was amended and new provisions (restrictions to movement of MPs) were added in 2003 under the Somare Government. OLIPPAC 2003 is therefore replaced OLIPPAC 2001. Whilst provisions on government formation come under section 76 in the earlier version, under the updated version - OLIPPAC 2003 - section 63 provides for government formation. Section 63 of OLIPPAC is therefore the correct provision on government formation. Regards, Michael

Mike, correction on 63 of OLIPPAC; Invitation to form govt is under s. 76 of OLIPPAC, not s. 63. Just a correction. Thanks.

Thanks, Peter. DFAT has stated that it will "work closely with the recently established Australian Centre for Evaluation to further ensure the rigour of our evaluation practice." https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/monitoring-evaluating-development-factsheet.pdf This will be something to watch. But I suspect the Centre's capacity will be stretched across larger govt programs and it's ability to engage on DFAT programs will be constrained.

Thanks, Ian. I agree that if the government is not going to re-establish ODE/IEC (it is still not clear why they are not doing this given Labor's strong criticisms at the time) then it should, at the very least, increase the number independent members of its Development Program Committee and appoint a senior evaluation officer who reports directly to this committee. Several submissions recommended the latter. DFAT have produced this factsheet which compares pre-aid policy arrangements with the new commitments: https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/monitoring-evaluating-development-factsheet.pdf