Comments

It would also be interesting to know of any lessons from the ActionAid/Austcare consolidation a few years ago? My outsider perception is that both this example and Janet's CAA/FFH example looked more a takeover of a weaker agency by a stronger, rather than a merger of equals. Others will have more direct knowledge. Sitting in an Australian member of an international confederation, I can see there would be fantastic opportunities if two strong well-aligned global agencies chose to join forces - more effective work, greater reach, cost efficiencies, better appeal to the public. But I can also see the practical difficulties that the respective confederation structures would present in nutting through the issues raised by a process of merger. There would be winners and losers, and Boards and Members would need to concede power and take risks. While I'd like to keep such mergers in mind as a longer term vision, maybe the first step is to actively pursue closer cooperation in country where feasible, such as through more joint office facilities, consortium projects or other resource sharing?

Thanks Thomas. Great to hear from you. The Lost Decade report can be downloaded <a href="https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-budget-project" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Email me if you have trouble downloading it - grant.walton@anu.edu.au. We've been conducting follow up research into the performance of schools and health facilities in both Gulf (Kikori and Kerema) and East New Britain. We visited both these provinces <a href="https://devpolicy.org/in-brief/upng-anu-academics-begin-health-education-research-20160615-2/">earlier this year</a>. I'll send you a recent presentation on our preliminary findings. We'll also be presenting on our recent findings at the upcoming PNG update in Port Moresby on 4 November at UPNG. Wishing you and your wife all the best.

Hi Thomas - I will leave it to Grant to respond as he has the data. Congratulations on your many years of service to PNG. It is the dedication of you and your wife and the many like you that give cause for optimism about the future.

Hi Grant & Jane, Firstly, thank you so much for the very informative comments. I accessed this link by chance and by reading your commentary, it has opened my eyes and mind to two of the biggest social indicators that require a lot of budget funding and application in the right areas (priorities). I come from the Gulf Province and would love to see your full report - PNG’s lost decade? Understanding the differences between health and education for the Gulf Province, including the other 7 provinces. I have been a teach for 6 years, and my spouse is now in her 28th years of secondary school teaching hence, the data you have compiled in your research will be very useful to me as a citizen of this beautiful country and from Gulf. My contact details are stated below: Looking forward to your response. Thank you

Hi Grant, I am very interested in getting more info on this newly created DEICs. I come from Gulf Province and has been at some point in my professional career being a teacher with 2 years in Kwikila, then 2 years in Passam, 1 year in Aiyura and a year at UPNG undertaking my PDGE. My spouse has been teaching for the last 28 years in secondary schools including 2 years in a primary school right across this beautiful country. Furthermore I have been a school board member at primary, secondary & international schools over the last 20 years across the country. At present I am a member of a BoM's sub committee (Infrastructure) for the school my 5th born son attends year 11 in NCD. My work in the (O&G Industry) takes me back & forth between my home province (Gulf) and Port Moresby. Thus, I am very interested in your research report on the DEIC in Gulf (& East New Britain). The DEIC I presume is a new policy hence its objectives maybe very good, but the actual implementation may face some impediments along the way. Your report on the DEICs in the two Districts in Gulf Province would be very informative to me. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. my contact details are stated below.

Thanks Peter and Grant - there are too few such insightful positive articles about PNG. As you both know corruption is a very complex issue in PNG and understanding the challenges facing collectivist societies which are in transition is not easy for those of us who have grown up and worked professionally in contemporary western democracies of the past 40 years. Understanding how long it took feudal societies to transition to our current Westminster system is important - and we are still by no means free of corruption - perhaps just more sophisticated about it. The Australian public service of the 60s to the 90s (of the 20th century) was also still pretty nepotistic - just ask women, Indigenous people, and people from other cultures, for a start, and people running funding programs at that time. Private companies and individuals making massive profits from prisons, unemployment, detention centres, hospitals and aged care, today, leaves some of us pretty appalled. It's really important to listen to more stories like Peter tells from PNG. In a recent project I worked on in PNG, which aimed to inform an international donor about the service delivery reforms of the past 15 years, I think the evidence is there to suggest that change is happening and that PNG service delivery improvement is at a tipping point with strong policy foundations and strong leadership from many good leaders, politically and administratively, trying to make a difference. But still with many challenges - not the least of them being how to make a western governance system imposed on a collectivist society work; another set of complex political and public policy challenges which cannot ignore culture and social structures. We began exploring whether any work is being done to address incentives which encourage stronger positive actions and decisions by politicians and administrators, rather than punitive and lecturing approaches on weeding out corruption. The recent study by the NRI in 2014 on governance and service delivery improvements in PNG addressed this question and argued that a new approach to addressing corruption was needed (Reilly, Brown and Flower). The work of Ha-Joon Chang also offers other economic and political explanations for why we need to interrogate our existing understandings of what is happening in countries like PNG. The issues have implications for nation building and national identity in collectivist societies, goals which PNG is also striving to achieve. Would be good to explore this further and Dev Policy might be a good forum for doing so. Again many thanks - always enjoy your work Grant.

One of the most significant mergers in Australia was the Freedom From Hunger merger with what was then Community Aid Abroad - which subsequently rebranded (in stages) to become Oxfam Australia. No-one would know Freedom from Hunger any more - it's very good brand just disappeared over the years. As one who observed it from the outside, that " merger" was quiet a takeover really.

I think it might be whether charities do (or are perceived to do) the same thing that determines whether they would want to merge names or not. E.g. Merlin and Save the Children both provide services for disadvantaged children, but if two charities clearly provided different services (and had brands associated with that) it may be a different story, e.g. (hypothetically speaking) were Femili PNG and Fred Hollows to merge, I'm not sure it would make as much sense to consolidate the names.

Thanks for the post Lindy! I also found the balance difficult. I’d spent 8 years in Southeast Asia and New York before moving back to Australia to start a family. When he was almost one year old, I took one of the rare INGO jobs in Sydney. Lots of international travel and long hours. It didn’t work for me or my child. My mother’s guilt reached epic proportions and I wasn’t able to serve the organsiation as well as I could when I was single and time was my own. I am extremely lucky now to have a job which is flexible, keeps me somewhat engaged in the international space but without the travel. It’s not a job I would have chosen before, but it’s great for now.

It is good to see some actual numbers being used to assess this situation. It is also interesting, and important, to see that the Diabetic Foot Clinic was able to achieve both improved clinical outcomes (reduced infections etc) as well as significantly reduced financial costs compared to the hospital based care, thereby potentially freeing up health resources that can be reallocated to higher impact interventions.

Hi Tessa. Thanks for the feedback. I'd be happy to share with you more details of the arrangements I have in place with my employer - perhaps offline (I have your email). I agree, better support for the needs of mums (breastfeeding infrastructure, flexible arrangements) could make a big difference. Some may be costly - such as paying for a breastfeeding child and carer to travel internationally with the mother - but there are also plenty of low cost ways to support parents with young children. For example, becoming a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace only requires three things - space, time and support.

Hi Sharon. Sorry to hear you were discouraged from your job when you started a family. I wish I could say that times have changed, but unfortunately it remains a real issue for women. From the discussions I hear at playgroups, it's certainly not unique to the development sector either. I guess it's up to us to keep advocating, in the hope that our daughters don't face the same discrimination. Best of luck with the studies and your re-entry!