In this year's economic survey of Papua New Guinea, we look at the possibilities for reaching the forms and levels of investment necessary to raise income and employment, and thus accommodate the population growth expected over the next 25 years. By 2029, the population aged 15-29 years will have increased by around one million to 2.6 million. We look at what the present government has done to establish the conditions necessary for income and jobs growth that will satisfy these young people's expectations.
The arrival of Anne Marie Tietjen and myself in Uiaku village in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, in November 1981 triggered a great deal of speculation. I had made contact with the local priest and village leaders through the good offices of the Anglican Church and some of the people who met us were clearly familiar with the odd pursuits of researchers. Some fifteen years later, I learned that some of the older people had speculated that we were returning ancestors who would hopefully rejuvenate the fortunes of the Maisin people. Others, perhaps more in tune with the national times, hoped that we would draw upon our vast business connections in "America" to bring development to the Maisin. These reactions were the kind we expected in light of what we had read and heard about New Guinea. What we did not expect was that the majority of villagers had already decided that we were missionaries. Anthropologists working in Papua New Guinea expect to encounter "strange" customs and "exotic" beliefs, by which we mean phenomena that we assume to be indigenous in origin, that make sense within the distinctive logic of a cultural "Other". We tend to be decidedly less impressed by things that look familiar – churches, schools, trade stores, and the like. Anthropologists have always studied such things – and in recent years these studies have become quite sophisticated – but usually as signs of the impact of outside agencies with which, as outsiders ourselves, we are already familiar. Like other anthropologists who have worked in Oro Province in recent years, I could not help but be impressed by how central the church was in Maisin life in the 1980s but I still perceived it largely as an import that duplicated Christian institutions elsewhere. So too, incidentally, did the Maisin. But Maisin notions about the nature of and their need for "missionaries" provided an early clue that much more was at work here. Christianity was an import but one that Maisin had over the course of decades remoulded to fit with their own cultural orientations, the contingencies of interacting with outsiders, and aspirations for social and economic improvement in their community. In greeting my wife and myself as missionaries, Maisin gave us our first clue that Christianity meant something different for them than it does for people in my own country. When we arrived in Uiaku in 1981, most Maisin longed for missionaries who would assist them in achieving political and moral unity and, thus united, economic prosperity. In the mid-1990s, this dream seemed to be coming yes. The Maisin have gained practical and moral support from a wide variety of organizations, most of them involved in environmental conservation. The activists do not think of themselves as missionaries anymore than my wife and I did. They tend to view the Maisin as an autonomous indigenous people whose traditional ways of life are now threatened by the rapacious forces of multinational corporations, particularly logging and mining interests. I do not think that their perceptions are entirely wrong. I do want to suggest, however, that the Maisin have been dealing with outsiders for a long time. Their prior experiences necessarily shape their perception of and ways of dealing with the newcomers. And to a considerable extent, they are treating the newcomers as if they were the long-awaited missionaries. Unfortunately, there is often fierce rivalry between different groups and agencies that work in partnership with indigenous peoples. There is a long-standing rivalry between some anthropologists and missionaries although their battles tend to pale when compared to the nasty sectarian sniping that occurs between missions and between rival environmental organizations. What I write here could be read as a put down of the environmentalists who have arrived in large numbers in Collingwood Bay in recent years but this is not my intention. I feel tremendous respect and gratitude for the generous time, energy, and imagination that these activists have put into direct assistance to the Maisin and to the development of projects meant to benefit the community. Indeed, I have joined their ranks. I hope, however, that twenty years of researching and thinking about Maisin society and history have provided me with some insights that will be of interest and use to my new colleagues. I use the term "colleagues" here deliberately. I have myself become a missionary in the Maisin sense. ; AusAID
In this paper I intend to focus on women's role in the development process in Papua New Guinea, in particular, what I think has contributed to the neglect of women's traditional roles and their knowledge in, for example, agriculture and resource management in development projects. I want to suggest some alternative methods that may eventually contribute to the inclusion of women in decision-making and the planning of projects that so far have focused primarily on men. Nowadays, development projects are usually preceded and accompanied by a gender awareness analysis, and there has been a growing focus on women's productive roles and the integration of women into the national economy. However, in the final stages of project planning, development planners and donor agencies still seem to remain ignorant of, or refuse to acknowledge, indigenous social and economic structures. I would argue that the reason why they fail to understand indigenous structures, and the roles that men and women play in the local society, depends on which model is applied in the gender awareness analysis. Ideas about gender roles often reflect the development planner's own views of gender roles in Western society, and not in the one being studied. However, even though women in Papua New Guinea usually do not have formal rights to land, and rarely perform in public, they often control stages in the production of food and goods, and have valuable knowledge and skills to which men might not have access. Such skills and knowledge are embedded in local structures and cannot be understood with the use of Western models. In order to understand indigenous structures, it is necessary to broaden the perspective from public performances and ownership, and look at the roles in which men and women perform in economic and political life in the indigenous culture. Before any project planning for resource management we must study how knowledge is transferred, the division of work according to gender in the productive chain, and the rules that decide who should do what and cooperate with whom. We should also ask whether the incorporation of indigenous models in development planning might in fact contribute in a better way to sustainable development and equal participation by both genders.
Over the past quarter century there has been a resurgence of warfare in the New Guinea Highlands. Much of this warfare and other violence has occurred at the interface between electoral politics and more "traditional" forms of segmentary social organization: tribes, clans, and the like. It has been seen by some scholars as a matter of "upward colonization," whereby local political traditions have penetrated the state. Although this view is illuminating, it has its limits: in practice, state and local forms of politics cannot be articulated with each other without having a substantial impact on both. Here I illustrate this ethnographically, drawing on case materials from the Ku Waru region, Western Highlands Province. Tracing the history of marital and ceremonial exchange relations between two Ku Waru groups over the past two generations, I show how an emerging alliance between them was undermined by a conflict of interest over the 1992 national election. Although such conflicts could never be avoided altogether, I argue that they could be reduced by a change from the present first-past-the-post voting system to a preferential system.
Over the past quarter century there has been a resurgence of warfare in the New Guinea Highlands. Much of this warfare and other violence has occurred at the interface between electoral politics and more "traditional" forms of segmentary social organization: tribes, clans, and the like. It has been seen by some scholars as a matter of "upward colonization," whereby local political traditions have penetrated the state. Although this view is illuminating, it has its limits: in practice, state and local forms of politics cannot be articulated with each other without having a substantial impact on both. Here I illustrate this ethnographically, drawing on case materials from the Ku Waru region, Western Highlands Province. Tracing the history of marital and ceremonial exchange relations between two Ku Waru groups over the past two generations, I show how an emerging alliance between them was undermined by a conflict of interest over the 1992 national election. Although such conflicts could never be avoided altogether, I argue that they could be reduced by a change from the present first-past-the-post voting system to a preferential system.
The Country Opinion Survey in Papua New Guinea assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Papua New Guinea perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Papua New Guinea on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Papua New Guinea; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Papua New Guinea; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Papua New Guinea; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Papua New Guinea.
In November and December 2013, a controversy erupted in Papua New Guinea when the speaker of the national parliament, Theodore Zurenuoc, a devout Christian, tried to rid Parliament House of what he described as 'ungodly images and idols'. Zurenuoc had already begun by removing the carvings from a lintel above the entrance to Parliament House, but planned to remove many more carvings throughout the building. His plans were strongly opposed, and considerable debate was generated in the two national newspapers and in social media. Those who opposed him saw him as a 'religious fundamentalist' and his actions as 'sacrilege' and 'cultural terrorism',1 while those who supported Zurenuoc's plans saw him as a 'God-fearing', 'modern-day Reformer' and 'God's anointed vessel'. Despite the protests, which included a number of high-profile critics, and the intercession of the prime minister, the speaker was unrepentant, vowing to continue his work until there were 'no traces of elements of cult and demonic worship in the national parliament of PNG' (Evara 2013). (First paragraph of paper) ; AusAID
This publication summarizes the current status of urban sanitation in Papua New Guinea, highlighting conditions in informal settlements in Port Moresby and peri-urban communities in selected provincial towns. It discusses opportunities to make sanitation more inclusive through the introduction of an operational fecal sludge management framework and offers lessons and practical recommendations for the government and sector stakeholders.
Evidence gleaned from media, anecdotal, and hitherto unpublished sources suggests that violence resulting from small arms and light weapons in PNG is distinctly gendered. While it is important to recognise that conflict and post-conflict situations affect men and women in different ways, it is instructive to go further, and examine the different experiences of men and women in the context of the 'gun culture' that has developed in parts of PNG in recent years. Our research uncovers both important gender differences in perceptions of security and the gendered nature of gun violence. By situating the proliferation of small arms in the context of culture, power, and security in PNG, our contribution is grounded in a social and political history of PNG, with an account of the changing pattern of conflict and violence, gender relations, and in particular, the role of firearms. Our investigation proceeds through a discussion of the three broad and overlapping settings in which the gun culture has emerged. These are raskolism, tribal fighting, and election-related violence. The investigation then moves to an overview of the gender of violence in PNG, and concludes with a discussion of the alternative responses of the state and community-based organisations to violence and conflict. A number of policy implications follow. ; AusAID
In November and December 2013, a controversy erupted in Papua New Guinea when the speaker of the national parliament, Theodore Zurenuoc, a devout Christian, tried to rid Parliament House of what he described as 'ungodly images and idols'. Zurenuoc had already begun by removing the carvings from a lintel above the entrance to Parliament House, but planned to remove many more carvings throughout the building. His plans were strongly opposed, and considerable debate was generated in the two national newspapers and in social media. Those who opposed him saw him as a 'religious fundamentalist' and his actions as 'sacrilege' and 'cultural terrorism',1 while those who supported Zurenuoc's plans saw him as a 'God-fearing', 'modern-day Reformer' and 'God's anointed vessel'. Despite the protests, which included a number of high-profile critics, and the intercession of the prime minister, the speaker was unrepentant, vowing to continue his work until there were 'no traces of elements of cult and demonic worship in the national parliament of PNG' (Evara 2013). (First paragraph of paper)
In a recent report on Papua New Guinea (PNG), the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) noted its concern at the alienation of land held under customary title through the granting of Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABLs). Its concern centres on the impact of SABLs on human rights, with the UNHRC citing that the granting of these leases "had negatively affected the ability of indigenous communities to maintain customary land use patterns and sustain their traditional way of living" (UNHRC, 2016:12). Yet, I contend, such an Indigenous rights-based approach to the issue is problematic on two levels. First, it is not clear which groups in Papua New Guinea should be considered 'Indigenous' given the country's universal franchise and the lack of a politically or economically dominant identity group. Second, such an approach does not account for the widespread commodification of land held under customary title. The majority of land in PNG is held under customary title and is occupied by Indigenous smallholders producing crops for immediate consumption, the local market and for export. These two problems show that framing the question of land as an Indigenous rights issue glosses over the ongoing struggle between these smallholders and the Indigenous capital class in Papua New Guinea. This means that challenging the use of SABLs to alienate land held under customary title by positing such use as an infringement of Indigenous groups' rights to traditional or non-capitalist land use would have little potential to protect customary land rights in PNG, seriously circumscribing the capacity for achieving positive development outcomes.
An analysis of political statements, government reports, scientific debate and the remarks of international health officials on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Papua New Guinea. This commentary to a grim future unless decisive strategies are implemented.
The new theoretical literature on security in developing countries can contribute to the understanding of Papua New Guinea's overall security predicament. This study uses such ideas to reconceptualise the country's security in a more comprehensive way. Since the late 1980s, it has become widely recognised that conventional security analysis, which emphasises the military defence of states against foreign attack, cannot address the most pressing and violent challenges faced in Papua New Guinea. The term "security" is now applied to all manner of problems and goals, in official policy, academic commentary, and public debate. However, such accounts have tended to lack a unifying approach, and provide little guidance as to how the country's security predicament might be re-assessed as a whole. Two unanswered questions are pivotal. Firstly, it is uncertain whether official emphases of new security threats to the state or scholarly accents on security interests beside those of the state offer the superior basis for re-analysis. Secondly, the scholarly accounts are presented in terms of an oversimplified dichotomy of state and societal security, and it remains to be shown what the components and particular security imperatives of each might be. The thesis turns to the specialist theoretical literature for tools to explore these questions. That literature readily explains the general circumstances —especially the structural challenges— faced by developing countries, but lacks a satisfactory analytic core focus for the practical investigation of actual security situations at the more immediate level. This focus is needed to help determine which of a very wide range of potentially relevant problems, goals, actors, and coping strategies should be considered, and how they ought to be explained. The thesis proposes a simple analytical framework to provide such a focus. This emphasises a consistent "search for security", based on the pursuit of a distinct core value, by each of five key categories of security referents or ...
This paper examines the causes and characteristics of corruption at the provincial government level in Papua New Guinea. The aim is to develop a holistic education and training approach towards preventing corruption. This approach will incorporate aspects of the ethical framework proposed by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales which are relevant to provincial government in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The study of corruption at the provincial government level includes local governments operating at the district level. Both political and administrative corruption are addressed at the provincial level.
This paper examines the causes and characteristics of corruption at the provincial government level in Papua New Guinea. The aim is to develop a holistic education and training approach towards preventing corruption. This approach will incorporate aspects of the ethical framework proposed by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales which are relevant to provincial government in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The study of corruption at the provincial government level includes local governments operating at the district level. Both political and administrative corruption are addressed at the provincial level.
