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With arguable success, organisations like AusAID have increasingly engaged the PNG government through contractors of technical assistance – a move aimed to increase native decision making power over policy and development initiatives. Under the terms of conventional development practice, decisions had been seemingly forced upon the PNG’s central government. Free universal primary education for example, being a pillar for the first National Education Plan (NEP), was implemented using a model that was simply inappropriate for those areas beyond the National Capital District. Indeed, the same challenges currently haunt the 2ndNEP – serving to highlight the capacity (and capability) gaps between Port Moresby and its neighbouring provinces.
To confront such challenges it is important PNG are allowed to pursue and implement changes on their own terms and in their own time. With some technical assistance along the way, it is possible for the PNG government to gradually decentralise, while not overwhelm the provinces with requests and expectations that are unrealistic and ultimately, disheartening.
Initiatives like Oaktree’s Rural Teacher Training Program, provide us with a good example of how passing the torch to the PNG people can set complex processes in motion. With high levels of community participation one can appreciate the power local solutions can have for local problems. Embodiments of such power have also come to the surface. Rex Kipu, our first teacher graduate, has been instrumental in the school’s success and ought to be commended on his dedication to the school and the Yangis community. People like Rex don’t come along every day, but in those instances where the decision making control is effectively handed over to the people of PNG, I believe the stage will be set for us to see a lot more people like him.
Written by Pat Thomas, PNG Project Officer
Check out Rex’s Profile here!
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