Papua New Guinea is the only country in the Pacific to sign onto the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative of 76 countries that aims to promote transparent, participatory, inclusive and accountable governance. When it signed in 2015, PNG adopted commitments to improve access...
Category - Pacific and PNG
Pacific Island school education: what I learned
From 2018 to the end of 2021 I had the opportunity to work on school literacy and numeracy education programs in Guadalcanal Province in Solomon Islands and in Tuvalu. I was fortunate in these programs to continue my interest in quality of teaching and curriculum development, and build on my...
Confessions of an adviser
Gordon Peake’s marvellous new book Unsung Land, Aspiring Nation is based on the four years he spent in Bougainville as an Australian aid-funded adviser, from 2016 to 2019. It is both entertaining and insightful. Peake is a brilliant writer. He writes movingly about Arawa, Bougainville’s once...
Are family protection orders helping to prevent domestic and family violence in the Pacific region?
First introduced in high-income countries, restraining or protection orders aim to prevent further domestic and family violence by imposing civil court orders, that if breached result in a criminal penalty. Although the evidence suggests some caveats about the effectiveness of such orders, overall...
Fiscal consolidation in PNG: some promising signs, but will it...
PNG’s Vice Minister for International Trade and Investment, the Hon. Kessy Sawang, once described...
Fiscal consolidation in PNG: revenue woes
PNG’s 2023 budget is optimistic on the revenue front – by 2027 nominal revenue is expected to...
The Pacific Islands can benefit from an India-Australia...
Has there ever been a busier 12 months in the India-Australia bilateral relationship? Prime...
Using aid to shift power paradigms in the Pacific
“It’s the leadership, stupid.” This well-worn variation on Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 campaign...
Fictitious commodities: the forest carbon market in PNG
A recent investigation reported in the Guardian newspaper suggested that more than 90% of the...
The Opposition’s opposition to the Pacific Engagement Visa
Yesterday in Australia’s Parliament the Opposition decided to oppose the supporting...