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Important standards for community development workers tailored for the PNG context. It should be a requirement for any organisation involved in community development activities in PNG to be aware of these standards. Having awareness of these standards will also help with identifying potential areas for improvement as CDWs are exposed to new contexts/situations in development work.

If you go up to the highlands you’ll see all kinds of diversity. People that have dark Afro hair to light skin people (not mixed race/albino) but they just look like it. If you go to the coasts you see people with long curly/wavy hair (Papuans). If you go to our islands we have kids with dark skin and naturally blonde hair. We even have some small groups of Polynesians. Because, as Papua New Guineans we know that some of our baratas and susas share some relativity of that of Polynesians and others who don’t, but we consider ourselves one. So the only definition you can give is “Diverse” heck! If you said you were half mermaid I bet us PNGeans would be more accepting of that claim – we’re a melting pot of diversity and that’s what make us Papua New Guineans.

What an odd decision. That is partly because with the aid budget at an historically low level, you might have expected Australia would then want to leverage, and help shape, the much larger lending portfolio of the World Bank. It is also on odd decision given that the "integration" of AusAID into DFAT resulted in a substantial loss of in-house technical expertise in areas such as public financial management, and the economics of infrastructure, health, education and rural development. These are areas where the World Bank, for all its possible faults, has genuine technical expertise, and unparalleled access to Ministers of Finance, and Planning, in the 17 neighbouring countries of Australia that receive aid. Again, you would think it is in Australia's interests to leverage and help shape such technical expertise and access that the World Bank has.

Wow! Local body representatives are now connected virtually. We should definitely start from the urban ones first and aim to establish access to the rural LB representatives. All the best for your team. Love to hear more.

Thanks August for your comment. The Department for Provincial and Local Level Government (DPLGA), which oversees Ward processes, have a member on the Industry Panel responsible for the National Standard for Community Development Workers. DPLGA already plan to train Ward Development Committee members in CDW skills, when and if funds allow. Community development would benefit greatly if Ward Development Committees (and Community Government Committees in Bougainville) had members with CDW skills, or even dedicated CDW positions.

I am for the National CDW Standard..This is a very important Worker Standard and my suggestion is for NATTB and our powerful team to visit all provinces to do awareness to CD practitioners on the CDW Worker Standard so there is uniformity in how we conduct our CD work and accreditations given accordingly...

Thanks Adrian, All of us would love to hear any suggestions and ideas for improvement. The National Standards for CDWs gradually evolve over time and help drive improved practice. It would be great to hear your ideas!

Thankyou Craig, One of the many great things about the CDW Standard is that it applies across diverse sectors. It is especially relevant to the ways that CDWs facilitate a truly participatory process with communities or community groups to lead their own development - whether that be for climate change adaptation or any other priority they identify. I hope that you find it useful. Kind Regards, Rebecca

Yes, these are worrying trends. But what is missing is an analysis of tax elasticity or tax buoyancy relative to GDP, i.e. how responsive have tax collections been to economic growth. It may well be that the public borrowings have contributed to economic growth, but that the growth in tax collections has not matched the growth in national income, and are not able to keep pace with debt servicing costs. Or worse, it could be both, i.e. that the public borrowings have not contributed sufficiently to national income growth, AND that growth in tax collections have not kept pace with growth in national income.

Thank you all for this timely piece. I was oblivious to the fact that such a standard existed for PNG. I'm keen to learn about the standard and look towards exploring it's application towards climate change adaptation programs within PNG.

Many thanks Rod Reeve for your comments and sharing your work. It is something we can learn from greatly as we study these changes in Tuvalu and elsewhere in the Pacific Islands.

Thank you Mr Joe Kapa for well articulated blog.