Comments

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your kind feedback.

Dear Qayoom. Thank you for your feedback.

Just went through your summary report. what you draw is quite similar to the situation of Afghanistan. One can say that donors travel around the world with their PFM models and impose it blindly.

Thank you for this comment Bryant. The factors you highlight show it can be more difficult for rural people than those living in urban environments to overcome barriers to participation. This can add substantial costs to the program. This can be very difficult as often employers in Australia talk about wanting to hire people from non-urban areas as the perception is they will be more productive given many have existing horticultural skills.

Beautiful analysis, thank you for sharing!

This is an important report and interesting summary - thanks for the succinct account.

Hi John. Thanks for the comment. Is there any public record of this? There is no press release from the IMF indicating the report has been delayed or won't be released (as as the case for PNG). When I did the research on PNG's standing in 2016 relative to other countries in the East Asia and Pacific region, I put Laos in a separate category of some open engagement with the IMF. Specifically, the IMF did include commentary on the performance of the Lao economy in press releases on 8 September 2016 and also on 15 March 2016 following visits by the Managing Director Christine Legarde. There is nothing similar for PNG. Possibly PNG needs a visit by the IMF's Managing Director? Cheers Paul

Hi Caroline. I'm not aware of any Australia data on what happens with the workers income and impact in their home countries however there is good data from a number of studies about what happens when workers remit income as temporary seasonal workers. I would recommend John Gibson and David McKenzie's work. <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDEVIMPEVAINI/Resources/RSEImpactPaperv8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Here is a World Bank paper</a> on the topic. Cheers, Henry

Papua New Guineans face great difficulties if they wish to participate in the Seasonal Worker Program. The information provided by DFAT lists an agent based in Port Moresby and also lists his phone numbers and email addresses. If a person who wants to participate in the scheme can get him to respond to their inquiries they then must obtain a passport . Before they can get a passport they must get a birth certificate. These things can only be obtained in Port Moresby and only by paying money. If they live in Southern Highlands or East Sepik, they face an expensive air fare to get to Port Moresby and then the costs associated with the passport and living in Port Moresby while they wait for these documents to be produced.. But they are unlikely to get a response from DFAT's agent. I have twice tried to help men who I thought would make excellent seasonal workers: mature, good horticulturalists, hard workers; good speakers of English; and very keen to learn about new ways of growing and selling vegetables and fruit from their Australian experience. One lived near Tari, the other near Maprik. I emailed and phoned the person listed by DFAT numerous times on behalf of these men but have never received a response. When I asked DFAT what to do, I was referred back to the agent. I can't know for sure, but it is possible that DFAT paying someone to do a job that they are not doing is the problem here.

Paul, Lao PDR also suppressed the IMF Article IV assessment (late 2016). So untrue that PNG is unique, but your point stands and is perhaps reinforced by the company PNG has chosen to keep in this regard.

Thank you for the interesting piece, which I have only just come across. As several other comments above have noted, private sector engagement is an umbrella term, which captures a wide variety of efforts of development organisations to work with business. For donor agencies, private sector engagement represents a shift away from a focus on bilateral work with developing country governments. One aspect of this that the DCED has attempted to capture (see <a href="http://www.enterprise-development.org/implementing-psd/private-sector-engagement/" rel="nofollow">here</a>) is the internal changes that donor agencies are making to better engage with the private sector. The DCED has recently produced a briefing note on the changes are being made in policies and procedures, staff roles and team structures, in order to pave the way for strategic private sector engagement (which can be found <a href="http://www.enterprise-development.org/implementing-psd/private-sector-engagement/#Find_what_you_need_DCED_guidance_and_knowledge_products_on_private_sector_engagement" rel="nofollow">here</a>)

Have we got data from the workers themselves?