Comments

Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful question, Peter Graves. I am glad you found the article compelling. I will translate it into Pashto or Dari to ensure broader accessibility.

Congratulations to Matiullah Qazizada for this well-argued defence of educating Afghan girls. Will it be translated into Pashto and Dari, for local consumption? "The prohibition of girls’ education beyond Year 6 imposes a profound burden on Afghan society and the economy." It certainly does.

Thanks for publishing. I noticed that the BRAC report made no explicit comment on its work on microfinance, otherwise its oldest project: "Microfinance, introduced in 1974, is BRAC's oldest programme. It spans all districts of Bangladesh.[ It provides collateral-free loans to mostly poor, landless, rural women, enabling them to generate income and improve their standards of living. BRAC's microfinance program is estimated to give out around the equivalent of one billion dollars a year in loans." Are BRAC's microfinance loans underpinging this part of the current Brief: 1 in every 4 households who lifted themselves out of extreme poverty in Bangladesh in the last 13 years did so with Australia’s support. Approximately four million households lifted themselves out of extreme poverty in 2012-2024, It would be useful to remember that 20 years ago: 2005 was the International Year of Microfinance - Bangladesh's interim head of Government, Mohammad Yunus, being a well-known pioneer of microfinance.

Thanks Stephen - always good to read your analysis. I was rather disppointed to see - at the end - what should be the main outcome of all of Australia's budget "spending" - what did it achieve. How effective was it in achieving program objectives ? "now that's effective aid" should be asserted by formal evaluation of outcomes, even if the Government of the day/DFAT clearly wasn't so interested when it abolished the (former AusAID's) Development Effectiveness Committee in 2020. Having DFAT's Development Effectiveness and Enabling Division as an "ordinary" Division in one of Seven departmental Groups displays "just another bureaucratic organisation" approach. The Division in its entirety should be separated and report direct to the Secretary. And with respect, the amount of the Government Budget money allocated to Australia's aid (either up or down) is really not the main game. What demonstrable outcomes among intended recipients did those expenditures achieve ? Some alternative thoughts about the focus on results from our important aid expenditures.

I totally agree with this article and I think NCDC should take note of this issues and concerns raised as well as stats shown. Well done to the authors.

Thank you for your significant contribution to my bank of knowledge as a future leader of PIF.

What about this coming councillors' and presidential elections, is it or is it not constitutional?

Thanks for the comment, Bryant. Only formal private sector workers who are making superannuation contributions are included in the dataset, which includes agricultural workers employed in formal businesses. As Ryan notes, informal sector workers such as individuals working their own land are not included in the database, although there has been a recent push to get informal sector workers to save in super, so this may change in the future.

Thanks John for your comments. Yes, we are limited by the data, and it would be great to have more. As Ryan notes, a HIES would be good, and there is talk of a LFS this year or next. The IFPRI Rural Household Survey in 2023 gives some information about what is going on in the rural sector.

While I am pleased to contribute to the comments section, I would also like to commend you for detailed analysis of the VHV program that has been running for more than two decades. My fellow health professionals who have been part of the rural health systems have also highlighted most significant areas that need attention from NDOH and PHAs. As one of those nurses who had spent some 15 plus years working at health sub-center run by both churches and government, mostly in far-remote outback communities, and one who also involved in the VHV program that was trialed in early 2000s, would like to a few experiences. Firstly, I would like to commend the churches for what they are doing in most remote communities and the tireless CHWs, VHS and Village Birth Attendants (VBAs). Without the presence of these committed health workers, there would be total chaos, and maternal, infant and under 1 year mortality rates would have gone worse from bad. I totally agree to some significant issues raised by my colleagues that the government needs to address including strengthening and enforcing them through stronger policies. 1. Make it a policy for HEOs and Midwives (trained under AUSAID Scholarships) to serve at rural health facilities for their first three years post-graduation and residency. 2. Create separate structure/directorate within NDOH, PHAs and district health services with strong monitoring and evaluation focus for CHWs, VHVs and VBAs programs with logistic, supervision and upskilling with monthly allowance to support their families. 3. GOPNG must make its presence felt in remote locations through consistent infrastructure development including roads, bridges, airstrips, wharfs, and water supplies, to make their talking come true in real-time actions. 4. Those applying for rural jobs must sign a contract that legally binding to ensure they serve their full contract duration with full compliance to the terms and conditions without comprising them leading to failure of their contract obligations to the citizens and PNG government. I hope recommendations provided by my colleagues and myself are transmitted through your medium of communication to WHO and NDOH (GOPNG). Thank you.

Such an important discussion on the protection of aid workers. Stronger legal frameworks are key to ensuring both the safety of those on the front lines and the communities they serve.

Thank you Anna, I love the Taf Tumas series! I would also love to do that for PNG children at some stage but so many ideas and too little time. Hopefully, someone else down the line will use the dictionary entries to create a series for children or continue the series (Famous People of PNG) that Eric Johns started.