Comments

Kate and Pippa, thanks for this illuminating analysis - this is a really important discussion and much overdue. Your innovation point is particularly well made. it reminds me of the policy emphasis given to women's economic empowerment and the lack of funds aid agencies actually commit to it (among so many competing priorities). You note that "Science and development agencies must collaborate to achieve a strategic alignment between what the science community does and what the global health community needs. To this end, the science community could also helpfully communicate more in the language of public health and less in the language of antibodies and targets." Your thoughts please: in working out the effectiveness of public health programmes to what extent should development practitioners consider the OECD DAC evaluation criteria - the WHO has an evaluation guideline which suggests this is appropriate. Do you as health analysts interact with these criteria, and if not, how do you assess the effectiveness of programmes? Would a common evaluation agenda help bring the science and health communities together?

Health and Education spending in PNG could be likened to a reverse feeding chain. Instead of the minnows and sardines first getting the plankton and then becoming food for the pelagic fish like tuna that are then eaten by sharks, the sharks are gobbling up all the food with any crumbs left for the larger fish with nothing for the sardines and minnows that actually support the food chain. In that scenario, clearly something will inevitable collapse. People who live in a 'western style country' don't seem to be able to comprehend that the same values and structures aren't available or have been allowed to atrophy due to lack or attention or by design in a 'developing country'. A few years ago in Milne Bay, it was reported in the PNG media there was a large gathering of press, health care workers and people who witnessed a local member handing over a large cheque to assist the local Hospital. After the media had taken photos of the presentation and departed the member told the surprised hospital staff how they were now to re-credit the cheque to his personal bank account. Anecdotes I receive indicate that all levels, corruption bleeds any available government funding to the point that very little reportedly reaches those who are actually in need of it. Apparently, the view of an increasing number of those in responsible positions is that if the opportunity exists, take it. If the PNG government sets the precedence, why resist some may say?

I love the Spice Girls ad - I think it's a really effective comms tool, particularly for those who are in their late 20s/early 30s and lived through the Spice Girls era (aka... me!). It brings a bunch of celebrity ambassadors on board as well, and it has been shared like crazy. I would say it is the best communications effort around the SDGs so far - particularly effective as it actually highlights the targets that sit under the goal as well, and encourages interactivity. Also, it is just good fun. Will be interesting if this approach will be able to be translated to other goals. It makes me wonder what other pop songs we could use to promote the SDGs? 'Hot in here' by Nelly to raise awareness on climate change? So many options. I personally would be looking to see if Salt'n'Pepper were keen to use 'Push it' to promote any of the goals really, because all the goals need a really big push - you can have that idea for free, UN.

Update: The Minister for Education, Nick Kuman, has <a href="http://news.pngfacts.com/2016/05/parking-tff-infrastructure-component.html" rel="nofollow">recently suggested that</a>, while approved by Cabinet in late 2015, the DEICs have yet to be implemented throughout the country, with mechanisms still to be finalised. Subsequent fieldwork in Gulf and East New Britain has confirmed that these institutions are not in operation in these provinces, although there is much concern about how they might work in practice once they are rolled out.

Thanks Richard for the good research on the gender violence related to alcohol consumptions in Bougainville. There are other gender violence studies that also identified others causes of gender violence between marriages, families and in societies as well that provides extent of harm to individuals, families and societies which impacts development. How to address the different factors contributing to gender violence, especially violence against mothers, wives and daughters does not require a single method of remedy. Taking legislative reforms to put in place laws to prosecute perpetrators and victims of gender violence would not improve the situation and in fact not a solution to the problem. To find solution to gender violence is more than institutional and legislative reforms in the society. Concrete solution is explored when the country’s economic and development capacity is able to support and sustain measures to reach real solutions to gender violence. For example, the above study identified alcohol as related to gender violence, however this could be the secondary cause, the primary factor would be poverty and to improve it will depend on Bougainville’s economy and development phase. So in real world, solution to gender violence is still a long way away.

Great article. I spent a few months in Cambodia last year and met some Christians from the US who had come to Cambodia to set up orphanages where the children were "encouraged" to become Christian. I remember feeling so furstrated and angry listening to one former resident of an orphanage (who, of course, wasn't actually an orphan) describe how at first she resisted praying, but then converted. She said when she went home to see her Buddhist family she felt very uncomfortable seeing them practising Buddhism. I just felt so sad that not only had she been raised separately to her family, and also had been coerced into yet another separation from them by changing her religion. I think these kind of orphanages need to be investigated too.

The credibility of any government department's evaluation of its own efficiency and effectiveness must be seen as liable to be skewed by a clear interest in self preservation of those who currently are in charge. Given that a Senate report on overseas aid was tactically released after the recent election was called and Parliament prorogued is <a href="http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2016/06/cherry-picking-the-report-on-australias-aid-program.html" rel="nofollow">a good indication of how any constructive suggestions will be lost and ignored</a> by those who are very happy, thank you, with the status quo.

Hi Paul, Thanks for leaving a comment. While I agree that it is difficult, if not impossible, to make detailed comparisons between defence and aid spending, I do (obviously) think there is merit in looking at the two at a broad level. That is to say, they are comparable in that they are two sectors competing, alongside all the other sectors, for shares of the overall federal budget. On your point about setting objectives and targets – to be fair, DFAT does have a set of strategic targets and reports on progress toward them on a yearly basis which you can read about in the <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/performance-of-australian-aid-2014-15.aspx" rel="nofollow">Performance of Australian Aid report</a>. <a href="https://devpolicy.org/performance-australian-aid-good-20160519/">Not a perfect metric by any means</a> but there is some effort to track progress and achieve value for money (you can also read about DFAT’s 'Value for Money principles' <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/aid/who-we-work-with/value-for-money-principles/Pages/value-for-money-principles.aspx" rel="nofollow">here</a>). Thanks again, Camilla

Thanks and sadly true. I've spent 30 years in aid, over 20 years overseas; about half in Australian and country offices, and half at field level, mainly PNG. I'm convinced 'we' live in a parallel universe, that we've lost our way, that aid is now an instrument of foreign policy (often not a very effective one), about contractor profits and first world reputations. And the people that matter come last. I'd like to think differently but I can't say I'm optimistic when it comes to the future of Australian Aid. Cheers, Phil

To compare Australia's Overseas Development Assistance spending to our Defence spending is like comparing apples with oranges. Defence spending is made up of two main aspects. Personnel and Equipment. Spending traditionally hovers between these two aspects. Our expenditure was in peacetime hovering around three percent of GDP and that has dropped over the recent years to around 2%. If discussion was to centre on the relevant costs of predator drones as opposed to Joint Strike Fighter/bombers I could understand the debate. The concept of purchasing a very expensive purchase over many years must be budgeted and managed over the life of the hardware. The issue of reduced Overseas Aid is a totally different concept however and aside from an ethical debate about what to fund and where, the issue is one of expectations versus outcomes. We at least can review and discuss the relative benefits of military hardware after they have been purchased and operated. What is never discussed or debated is what value we get for the money we spend on overseas aid. The only way an effective analysis can be made of our aid spending is to first set objectives and targets to be achieved. Since this never seems to happen, how can we effectively compare the two areas of expenditure? That is, unless we are trying to compare the ethical value of the two as opposed to the actual objectives being achieved each year.

Hi Anthony, thanks for your thoughts on this and a call out to others interested. As you note, the rapid spread of mobile phones has meant that hard to survey populations have become much more accessible to data collectors. Innovative data collection and analysis methods really are needed, and wouldn't it be great if they ultimately help communities make their own decisions about what should happen next. The ODI has had plenty to say on the depth and breadth of what we still don't know about things like the level of maternal infant child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example. <a href="https://www.odi.org/publications/9476-data-revolution-finding-missing-millions" rel="nofollow">Here's a great article</a>, which puts innovative data into a bigger frame (local statistical offices need strengthening, for starters, not to mention what household surveys can uniquely tell us). New technologies offer very great opportunities for monitoring and evaluation: and good M and E needs an equal devotion to better use of conventional tools and existing data.

I've also just heard from Matthew Morris about a <a href="http://pngpulse.com/" rel="nofollow">project that he is involved in</a> that seeks to crowdsource data on the recent famine in PNG. Also, <a href="https://devpolicy.org/the-future-of-aid-beckons20110127">here is a link</a> to a previous blog post of his on a similar issue. Please leave a comment if you have or know of a crowdsourcing or big data for development project (particularly if it relates to PNG and the Pacific) that you would like to share.