Comments

Thank you Maree for those thoughtful comments!

Hi Roden, Thanks for your comment. I gave just a few examples of the 'spectrum' of bad behaviour in this piece. Some of them are from my personal experience, some are cited from other people's research. Nancy Cook's book has been published by a highly prestigious publisher in the US, and the research she did on women development workers in Gilgit is widely appreciated. Coming to the specific instance of women dancing with other girls: I think you have misunderstood the quote. The point here is not about 'with whom', but the fact of 'dancing' itself, to the tune of bee gees, seeing this as a way to import a bit of 'normalcy' in life that seemed extremely hard for them.

Hi Sally, Thank you so much for those kind words and the thoughtful comments. I am amazed at the wonderful way you are always able to be insightful and self-reflexive. I see that you have raised an age-old issue here with sex-work: no one does it voluntarily. Indeed, one could say that about many other kinds of work, particularly those that are bunched together in the descriptive term of 'dirty work', grave digging, sweage cleaning and so on. experts who deal with sex-work have wtitten volumes on it and you must be aware of that literature (which has now matured beyond the early binary of 'good' and 'bad'), so I won't go into that broad field. What is important here, beyond the use of terms such as 'prostitutes' to describe vulnerable - and perhaps traumatised women - is the manner in which the situation is being described: as a purely masculine thing. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction such as this, we as development workers should try to go to the 'source of the evil', which remains a gross power inequity between the 'giver' and the 'taker'. We need to focus on power issues here, not gender. I was amused to hear some women development workers comment on how this is a male affliction, how men behave badly when 'on mission', thus putting themselves above all questions.

Thank you Tony for that observation. Indeed, a significant part of donor funding actually goes to benefit donor country 'specialists' of various sorts, through the procurement of services. I was not focussing so much on the goods, but yes, that too is a matter of concern.

The opinions must be very subjective, tainted by personal experiences.

We, all like-minded Papua New Guineans had this view that Professor Howes has now shared. Indeed a sad moment PNG! And for Albert Schram, we citizens know that the arm(s) of government have lost touch with reality!

There is an obvious worry here about the unfair curtailing of digital access to people living in remote areas - those who are least likely to have met the registration deadline. If deactivation goes ahead as announced, it could have the effect of further marginalizing those who already are disadvantaged in terms of access to services.

As an expat male, not an aid worker, who has lives some 40 years in the developing world, I can tell you, the MOST aid workers, both male and female, have opinions of their own worth, that only they have.

The Haiti revelations have done immense damage to the charity sector. Obviously a big problem of proper oversight. The other big problem with foreign aid is that most of the contracts and supplies are sourced in the donor country. Far better to source as much as possible locally.

UNDP and Office of the Development for Women within the Department of Community Development through CIMC Family Sexual Violence Action Committee had established GBV /FSV Secretariats in provinces to coordinate work on GBV implemented by various stakeholders in provinces in PNG. If the Secretary for National Department of Community Development can get a brief from Executive Director for ODW and support the initiative and effort put into establishing Provincial GBV Secretariats so reports on coordination of GBV work in each province can be provided to the government to inform of status and outcome of GBV work in each provinces around the country.

Very well said Amanda. In Papua New Guinea, many citizens do not have identification documents, which is one of the factors that has made the process difficult and the bulk of the population lives in rural areas and access to towns and cities to register their SIM cards is difficult.

Hi Sally, I also enjoyed the article and her discussion on the power imbalances in the sector. However, I was concerned with Lahiri-Dutt’s statements that “women dancing with one another” was bad behavior and that it could be put in the same category as men who engage with (often underaged) sex workers. As an aid worker who has seen these power imbalances firsthand I strongly support her overarching argument but believe she could find more appropriate examples to back up her statements. Thanks for addressing this in your comment.