Comments

Thanks Amanda. For those of you interested in Amanda's corruption research, please follow <a href="http://ssgm.bellschool.anu.edu.au/news-events/podcasts/audio/3808/reporting-corruption-papua-new-guineas-public-financial-management" rel="nofollow">this link</a>. (the previous link in the last paragraph above is broken). If you're interested in mobile phone panel surveys I can also recommend <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24595" rel="nofollow">this guide</a> from the World Bank.

Thanks Jeremiah for the insightful observation and commentary on the betelnut trade and consumption in Port Moresby. Some more observations and views to add in regard to the NCDC effort to ban and apply spot fine to betelnut traders and chewers in the city are these: Over 75% of the NCD residents at one point in life trade betelnut at the local market or at the resident streets or within living compounds and settlements to make cash income and sustain lives. To ban it or apply spot fine will not totally make a different to NCDC dream world of Port Moresby as free of betelnut (just imagine). There is confusing messages coming out from NCDC on its ban and fine conditions. Are they targeting (1) chewers or (2) traders or (3) both or (4) transporters or (5) growers or (6) stain and husks littering on the streets and office precincts. They need to get their target audience right and apply appropriate rules and regulations. They should not do that blindly. The NCDC still need to do extensive advocacy on health issues, public place image concern and other related issues to do with betelnut and adequately inform the public what is good and bad about betelnut before taking corrective measures, otherwise they are forcing on what people enjoy doing and keeping themselves busy. Also NCDC needs to do a number of surveys on betelnut trade and consumption in Port Moresby including: (1) the economics of betelnut trade and consumption (2) percentage of sellers/traders and chewers (3) the health issues associated with (4) what initiatives do traders and chewers prefer in the face of ban and spot fine (5) what’s the next option for traders and chewers and (6) how long the ban and spot fine will last. They need to hear from the traders and chewers, rather than imposing on them. However, the thriving informal betelnut industry will still remain in Port Moresby and support three quarters of the city residents and the neighbouring Provinces of Oro, Central, Gulf and other access route to Port Moresby.

Thanks Tony!

Good idea Terence! I look forward to reading your blogs not just on improving aid effectiveness but also aid advocacy effectiveness!

Hello Anthony. Thank you for your interesting blog post. You have provided a particularly accessible explanation of 'big data', so thank you especially for that. I also wrote a blog post about the potential for new technology to be used in data collection. My post specifically focused on Papua New Guinea and suggested some concrete techniques that could be applied, such as phone interviews and SMS surveys. You can read it <a href="https://devpolicy.org/remote-data-collection-in-papua-new-guinea-an-aid-to-policy-deliberations-20150707/">here</a>. I’d be happy to talk to you further about this. Amanda. 🙂 www.ahawatson.com

Thanks Anne, That's a great question/idea. And there would be really good research to be done by someone working alongside an NGO in this area. (As you say, access to data like usage stats would be crucial.) Thinking about your comment, one thing that struck me is that many big companies (the example given is usually the New York Times) randomly allocate different versions of their website to different visitors, and then analyse how visitors behave (in the NY Times' case, whether they click through to read articles or not). I'd be fascinated to know if any NGOs did this and what they found when they did. Thanks again. Terence

It would be interesting to look at usage stats alongside this analysis to see how people are using the sites and what they're looking for from the sites. I realise 2 things in saying this: 1. you won't have access to usage stats and 2. How people use it will be partly driven by how it's set up and the information that's available. But it would be interesting to see if people are only looking for donation/fundraising information and that's why the NGOs have put so much emphasis there, or is there a disconnect between what's provided and what's wanted.

Tff policy was developed to achieve governments objective of universal education. However, the policy created other issues such as poor quality education, ineffective teacher deliver, misuse of funds, delay in delivery of funds, and it made the parents lazy. For these reasons other stake holders disagree with the policy. In order to balance the interest of the government's objective and the stakeholders disagreement, the government should revisit the user pay policy which I believe is in the trash bin and improve it. The user pay policy will still achieve governments objective of universal education at the same time it will minimise the negative attitude from the teachers and parents. Thank you

Thanks Ian - good to see this being covered. The schools example is a good one, as is urban design - trying to go for a jog in Jakarta for instance is a pretty scary experience... One of the most prominent, and effective, programs in the physical activity space is the DFAT-funded netball program Kao Mai Tonga, part of the broader Sport for Development program. It's based on significant formative research, and has involved a broad combination of social marketing/infrastructure development/human resource development. It's been shown to change attitudes and behaviours, and has broader impact on issues like gender equality and disability inclusion (though in it's early days was not without its unintended consequences, including the DFAT staff member who badly broke her ankle on a netball field...)

Very useful direction of analysis - will take some brave political leadership but very necessary given the brave lives that were lost recently and brave work that will be needed in the future by the families of the workers who died. See my recent comment <a href="http://www.nzipr.ac.nz/en/news/nzipr-news-2016/labour-mobility-and-the-workers-beyond-stock-answers.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>

Paul, many thanks for your thoughtful and detailed response. It has now been six months since the SME policy was distributed. While the policy has not been implemented it has led to a discouragement of foreign investment especially from investors already in PNG. These investors have the potential to reinvest their depreciation and profits but most are unwilling to do so if there is a policy that illegalizes these investments. The policy has unfortunately led to plans or implementation of disinvestments. The SME Policy comes on top of the problems faced by domestic producers of an overvalued kina and the lack Of foreign exchange. Neither of these critical problems have been adequately addressed with needed changes in policy. Frank.

1. Remittances are generational so, to maintain levels, new waves of economic emigration are necessary. 2. Investment and employment creation in the islands is constrained by the availability of investment and emigration to other countries. There needs to be a serious policy debate about island government policies and this probably needs to be led by a new generation of analysts abreast of the next "industrial revolution" innovations that are coming. 3. Too much emphasis on climate change with regard to this issue is diversionary rather than mainstream. Migration because of climate change is not about economic or social development. It is a "disaster" response. 4. Mobility is the key issue and, unfortunately, recipient countries have not proved to be outstandingly adept at developing decent policies in this regard. Here, and 2. above are where the main contributions can be made in my opinion.