Comments

Great work, Rohan! I hear you on the challenges we face in the limited settings environment. The one thing we try build in our health field researchers is the ability to identify quality publications. That's an important skill given that not everything free is good quality. In fact sometime the measure of quality comes on the basis of an indexed citation. Being able to pick these citations in search databases is key. Having said that, as you've mentioned some of the development partners try to support developing countries institutions of higher learning with free access to journals that would otherwise have a cost implication (e.g. World Health Organization's Hinari is a good option accessed through institutions ).

Interesting blog Tara and Grant. As you mention, if local level government is relying on these corporate entities for development projects, how can they stand up to them on regulation and governance issues? Surely it just gives these private entities (that in some cases have already proven themselves to be environmental plunderers) more power to behave as they wish. Having spent a lot of time in Indonesia, seeing the gutting of areas of formerly pristine forest in Sumatra (it also occurs elsewhere in the archipelago) for oil palm, the inability of the Indonesian government to control the transboundary smoke haze issue due to deforestation by burning, and the massive impact of these issues on human and environmental health (not to mention the global climate), this seems highly concerning. In Indonesia governance capacity is significantly stronger than PNG, there's also a high level of decentralisation similar to PNG, and protracted issues with corruption. People in Indonesia (on the whole, there are obviously exceptions) are more connected and less remote. Even without the dependence on these logging companies for 'development projects' and better mechanisms for monitoring it has proven very difficult for Indonesia to regulate and rein these companies in. So what awaits for PNG?

Interesting article

I do not think you fully understand what SME is - SME businesses are those that generates less than K1m per year. The government's aim of promoting SME to the people is to put money into their pocket, reduce unemployment and improve their standard of living. Domestically our economy, welfare and employment rate would look good if we harness and take heed of those policies of SME on hand but how about at the broader perspective? Will it increase our foreign reserve? Will our exchange rate rise? Will it improve our GNP and economic inflows? From my understanding this SME policy by the government is good but lacks long term vision. If the government is to promote SME in PNG, the government also need to take into consideration what good impact this on our economy at large. A simple case in point is that if government is encouraging people to grow vegetables in their place which is an SME business, then people can grow vegetables and sold it at domestic market but how will that improve our economy at large? Will it improve our GNP or economic inflows? Will government receive any tax out of it? If the government is really about promoting SME in PNG then it need to help citizens as well. Like for these vegetable growers, government can find a market for them abroad so that our local vegetables growers can market their produce offshore. Those countries with highest value in their currency are best countries which we can sell our produce. This will improve our GNP and inflows and boost our local economy as well.

I was not aware of these, they are truly excellent resources thank you! And you were right about OMICS. It is validating that someone has put a lot of effort and resources in to a resource like JURN, that uses the same custom search feature. I'm going to give a bit of thought to defining a niche and adding more Pacific-related sources, and re-naming the search function as the Pacific Open Access Research Portal, as the search tool I put together has a number of PNG and Pacific related sites that don't seem to be searched on other portals (e.g. NRI, PNG govt, SSGM, PNGeconomics, and others, not to mention Devpolicy!)

A valiant effort, although you should investigate the reputation of the OMICS publishing group and consider removing them. Are you aware of JURN http://www.jurn.org/ and GRAFT http://www.jurn.org/graft/index.html ?

Thanks Tim, appreciate your comment, and really glad to hear that it has been useful for you!

Excellent initiative and very useful resource! Thanks for setting this up, Rohan. I'm doing quite a bit of research on PNG but I'm not affiliated with an academic institution, so lack access to their academic subscriptions. I did some trial searches on your OARP and already got some good results that would have taken me a fair amount of time to find using the regular Google approach or individual open access portal browsing.

thanks Kerry and family for your kind contribution to seasonal welfare towards the Solomon islanders.

What a great testament to the Seasonal Workers Program! It's been a pleasure for the Australian High Commission in Honiara to work closely with the McCarthy family here and on the Darling Downs. Kerry and Simon are superb ambassadors for the program, and the bond they and their children have formed with a small village in rural Malaita is a terrific bonus. I hope that other Australian farmers will discover the great benefits of employing the strong and reliable workers of the Solomons. As Kerry notes, it's a win-win.

Great story Kerry. Good reminder of all the positive things that can come from the SWP and why we should be aiming for a level playing field for Pacific workers compared with backpackers. Is our priority to support grass roots sustainable development, or holidays?

Great post and a moving story! I cannot wait to see the SWP scaled up. More stories of this nature will prove valuable in convincing policymakers and the public of the mutual benefits of a bigger labour-mobility scheme.