Comments

Thank you Fiame and Devpolicy blog for this beautiful piece about Pacific belonging, highlighting connection to country that indigenous people feel, and the need for development to occur in people's homes in the Pacific. I am a descendant of colonial people with only one generation in the country I consider home, so my connection cannot be as strong as those of indigenous peoples who live where hundreds or thousands of generations of ancestors lived. I feel uncomfortable that Pacific people must travel to someone else's country to build their country's economy. I think of the PALM scheme which appears successful economically but betrays people's connections to their land and sea. This highlights, as this blog does, the need to build a truly local economy rather than depending on work in and for another nation.

Is the Baimuru people really own the land?how about doing the proper social mapping to find out who are the rightful landowners are

I'm very interested to work there in your farm. I'm from Papua New Guinea the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Any of the work in farm is available, I'm very interested.

Some of these evictions happen because there is a land grabbing syndicate that operates in Papua New Guinea, which is consist of Politicians, Lands Dept Officers, Foreigners, Corporate Businesses, Private Businesses and Fraudsters all collude to deprive the poor citizens of Papua New Guinea. I'm commenting because I have first hand knowledge of the situation because I was evicted twice due, only thing we need is legal aid, since some of us have our facts to defend in court.

Thanks for this lovely piece, Nemat. My dad bought me the bottom billion as a present when he saw I was interested in development topics as an undergrad. The rest is history. I've never met him, but always enjoyed his books (with the big exception of exodus), research, and leadership around extractives governance, and this was a wonderful tribute. Thanks also for bringing the new book to my attention, looks very relevant for us.

Hi Anura, thanks for your kind words and the comments. On one, I'm careful not to do any valuation of environmental benefits or cost, rather just focusing on comparing measurable outcomes (not converted to money values, or indicies, etc.). There is a lot of variability in the conditions though, in terms of both agricultural practices (principally fertilizer and pest control methods, which have environmental implications), intercropping, and animals roaming around. I haven't seen any particularly rigorous research that works through how these different conditions relate to either development or environmental outcomes. On two, the district and village expenditure and "public good" estimates in the paper (Table 8) speak to this. In an earlier version of the paper, I did break down the main household expenditure impacts by types of expenditure (see Figure 10 here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d5edcf197aea51693538dc/t/5c98e6b4a4222ff822715558/1553524407756/eard_v9_1903_JIE-merged.pdf). In relative (%) terms, education and health spending are responsive and there is movement in durables and assets. I have a companion paper to this one which speaks to your last questions (https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/uvjef). This paper is focused on what happens to the very local economy around mills where adoption is strongest, and looks at the business data. The figures to most of the talking in that one, so you can skip straight to the end of the PDF. All my best, Ryan

Fascinating paper - thanks Ryan. I remember reading about sunflower, rapseed and soybean oils in the US and Europe and their efforts to keep Indonesian palm oil out of those markets. Aside from not appreciating how interesting cooking oils were(!) I wondered how much those trade and geopolitical dynamics influence how we've come to see palm oil, while recognising some real environmental and human rights concerns?

What a brilliant and informative piece Uate. Kudos to MSP and IPPF for walking the talk. When alot has been said about HIV increases in the last few years in Fiji, the actions of this moonlight initiative is addressing exactly the fight against prevention and action on HIV. Thank you for shedding light into the trusted work and important work of Peer educators whilst also addressing the need for trust, relationship building and creating a safe space to access this services where it's needed the most. All the very best to the team in navigating and providing services to the most marginalized members of our society.

My sincere thanks to the Devpolicy blog team for publishing this blog post, so as to highlight an important issue and draw our attention to a recently-published report. I would also like to thank Paul Barker and Martin Davies for their efforts on this blog post. I met Jerry Hensen on numerous occasions at events at the Institute of National Affairs and elsewhere around Port Moresby. I remember him as being polite, courteous, friendly and encouraging. I am saddened to learn of his death. Thanks again to all involved in this initiative. It is great to see Jerry’s advocacy highlighted in this way. Amanda

Great piece Bradley. Well done. Always good to see analysis coming out of PNG that is backed up by credible evidence.

I'm very interested to get employment with as a logistics officer like receiving medical items, sending items to air transport and sea transport to maritime provinces. I have experience with city pharmacy, 6 years experience working.

Thanks Bradley - your work has been really insightful. The question you pose is one of 'equity in planning' - it is a perennial challenge across all planning systems around the world. I've spent a few years travelling to observe how cities treat those living outside the formal housing system whether illegally or otherwise. I am never as surprised by the treatment from the government as I am by the formal residents of the cities in the way they talk about those who they see as 'a problem that needs to be solved'. It is shameful but reflects the politics of the willing. If there was willingness in society, the politics would priorities equitable development. As a planner and a Papua New Guinean who worked between several planning systems, I can say that there is only so much that planners can do to ensure equity in planning. Legislation and governance limit our authority and arena for responsibility. The 'urban policy' you refer too lies in our physical planning act from 1990 but the act is not the framework for how development occurs in this country, it only outlines the process to get to an approval. A planning framework would setup a system to ensure an outcome. But all this comes down to the politics of the willing, and judging by the rhetoric spewed by the 'urban elite' in PNG, it will take a while to understand how to solve the 'problem'. I know you explained to me in a previous email exchange the limits of your project being a desktop analysis, but this is a great start to what is needed. If you were a bit more curious, I would implore you to ask the itching question - why can't planners plan equitable cities in Melanesia?