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“Global economic and political challenges mean that resources to support poverty relief programs are finite. It’s clear that ... we need to allocate those resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.” Calum Scott Agreed. There is an enormous need to identify what works and support it in a big way. Are micro finance providers (MFP) then a major part of the answer? Possibly. Understandably, MFP like all lending institutions focus upon the capacity of the borrower or in the case of MF, the borrower and their peer group to repay the debt. While we understand that the model pioneered by the Grameen bank was a huge success in Bangladesh, this model has not translated well in Papua New Guinea for example. As a tool to lift rural people out of poverty on a family by family basis it is largely a nonstarter because culturally that model does not integrate well within Melanesian communities. Individuals at the bottom of the social hierarchy are not of themselves agents for change in these societies. It is true that PNG Microfinance, Village Bank and others have had a modicum of success but in each instance, they became reliant upon retaining a handful of success stories that developed into SMEs to cover costs. Rather than focus upon the individual households as agents for change, I am of the view that mobilising whole communities around common goals resonates more strongly in these settings. If an idea resonates strongly enough in a community or group of community settings, there is the possibility of reaching the economies of scale to effect real change. This idea has been demonstrated in Western Province, PNG. The single largest province by area, most sparsely populated, with least accessibility to basic services and 4 km from Australia's northernmost border. An industry built around family rubber blocks, started by a visionary thinker in the 1960s is today collecting rubber from close to 10,000 families each of whom can expect returns of around AUD$800-1,000 per annum. Each block was funded by a MFP as part of a broader vision supported by the necessary transport and downstream processing to create impact at language and cultural group scales. This model of economic empowerment which integrates well within cultural and social norms, can reach the economies of scale to also bring positive change to health and education outcomes on a significant scale. I suggest that this type of integrated approach is where Australia, as the leading provider of development assistance to PNG, should be directing greater focus to.

Hi Jeremy The PNG Update is free for all presenters and attendees. No registration is required. The conference program will be released on Friday 23 September. See https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/png-update

Hi, is the PNG Update forum open to the public for attendance? Or is it paid?

This policy will be helpful to every businessman and woman in our country and most of all it will reduce the rate of unemployment and increase job opportunities for the people.

Hi Bernard, Thanks for the observations. Yes the support of those 4 will be crucial, as well as Hela and Highlands MPs in general. A lot will also have to do with commodity prices. The more money the PM has, the more DSIPs the MPs get. Happy MPs means stable government. O'Neill's 2012 - 2017 term is a good case. To get those constitutional amendments he needed numbers. He bought the support of MPs with DSIPs. Due to space limit I couldn't talk about these factors, including the big 4.

Hi Philip, As noted in the article, votes of no confidence in PNG usually needs a narrative. Sometimes the narrative doesn't make sense except to the politicians. If it's not the issues listed above, it will be something else. But there will be at least an attempt to remove Marape. Even if he's does a great job in the next 17 months. That's been the case since 1977. Vote of no confidence is a permanent feature of PNG politics.

Thanks, Ryan! Happy you enjoyed the review. Both of those books are in my queue. I've also heard great things.

Lovely review, Matt. Thank you. I am not sure if you are taking requests, but I hear great things about 'How the world became rich', by Koyama and Rubin, and 'Fully Grown', by Vollrath.

Inflation is a global issue. Marapes son’s alleged case is minor and before the courts. We can’t deny that we have serious law and order problem even before the 2022 elections. Thus there is no justification to get into vote of no confidence unlike O'Neill term where he literally manipulated the constitution. Just my take away from this blog.

An interesting and informative post. The notion that George Speight led the 2000 coup is misleading; it was the armed CRW soldiers who led the unsuccessful putsch on 19 May 2000. Speight had become thier mouthpiece and subsequently, leader. Bainimarama and RFMF carried out the actual coup on 29 May when he asked Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara to 'step down'. He was accompanied by the then commissioner of police, Isikia Savua, his son-in-law and former military commander, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, and Sitiveni Rabuka. The fact that the elected PM, MP Chaudhry and his government side were held hostage for 56 days had to do with the prevarication among the security institutions of the country. The prominent role of the military in Fiji's civilian politics and the fact that Bainimarama and Rabuka are the top contenders for political power in the country is covered in my 2021 (b) “Fiji: The Militarization of Politics in a Small-Island Developing State” , Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (March), Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1817.

The West does not understand that Mr Bainimarama is trying to set Fiji on the road that leads to a successful multicultural democracy Thanks to him the country has been turned away from political conflict that was likely to have turned into a civil war. He should be supported by Australia and the West in general.

I think Annabel has raised an important issue. I agree that a HRBA has an important role to play in PNG - noting your picture is taken in front to Koki village. It is fair to say that some program providers do focus effort on the poor and disadvantaged. Save the Children, Family Health, Plan, Care and Red Cross among others come to mind. However, I would suggest the present DFAT allocations suffer from a lack of balance. The annual assistance budget appears to be disproportionally directed at governance and infrastructure at the expense of human capital development. If we accept that access to basic health and education services constitute human rights, then a population of 9 million people starting 4 km from our northern doorstep are increasingly missing out. Access to basic health and education services and economic empowerment are parts of the same picture that I feel Australia must pay more attention to. If our current efforts effectively fail to address the needs of the sixty percent of the population who are under the age of 25 then I fear for the near-term stability of our closest neighbours. The cracks in the edifice of nation building have been widening for the past two decades and the appalling episode that passed for assistance during the era of the Manus arrangement has been a disaster for Australia’s reputation throughout the region. With a new administration steering the ship there is an opportunity to reset the focus with greater attention to supporting human capital development as part of a HRBA. I sincerely hope this is the case from now on.