Comments

Hi Wilson. There was some work done by DPLGA and CARE PNG in 2016 to update the Ward level planning and data collection approaches. If you go to pngcdwstandard.com and navigate to the menu "other resources - for working with wards, communities, CBOs, SMEs & families" you will find it all available for download. https://pngcdwstandard.com/resources-for-use-by-cdws-working-with-wards-communities-groups-and-smes/

Thank you, Wilson for the article. It is a very practical solution. Worked in the past for patrol officers and is effective bridging information gaps at different tiers of government.

A very interesting and informative blog. Recent international reports add to those concerns, shedding light on gaps and weaknesses in underlying health systems. For example, the latest Sustainable Development Report 2025, <a href="https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/chapters" rel="nofollow ugc"> available here</a>, finds on page 23 that none of the 21 countries in East and South Asia are “on track” to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) which targets “good health and wellbeing”. The report also finds that 14 countries in that region face “major challenges” and 5 face “significant” challenges in achieving SDG 3 by 2030. The report also finds (page 26) that none of the 12 Pacific Island countries are “on track” to achieve SDG 3; all 12 have “major challenges” in achieving SDG 3; that 7 countries are “stagnating” and the remaining 5 are only “moderately increasing” progress to achieving SDG 3. Furthermore, the World Bank and World Health Organization separately report that “The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has increased….Moreover, the majority of countries (108/194) experienced worsening or no significant change in service coverage since the launch of the SDGs in 2015” (Source: Tracking universal health coverage: 2023 global monitoring report, page xi and xii).

Can I apply for a visa if I have not enough money in my bank account?

Hi Simon. It's a terribly bleak picture you paint but one which is brutally clear to us all. The challenge for all of us, I think, is to find new ways to have new conversations with power-holders both old and new, and to really think differently about what humanitarian action and development cooperation can look like in what is a a dramatically changing new world order. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

Well, erm, freeing up travel between Pacific Island countries and territories might be a start. The 2013 Pacific Plan Review, led by Mekere Morauta, assumed that Pacific Regionalism should allow for "the free movement of people between countries". In the 2014 Framework for Pacific Regionalism which came out of this, one of the means of fostering economic prosperity is by "Lowering physical and technical market barriers to enable freer movement of people and goods within and among countries". Have any steps been taken to put this into practice? In 2018, taking PNG students to the Pacific Islands Universities Research Network conference in Tahiti was an interesting exercise. PNG passport holders needed to visit a French consulate to get visas for French Polynesia, but there was none in their country. This left Australia (another entry permit required) or Vanuatu. Fortunately, there is free movement among the Melanesia countries + New Caledonia, so the first leg of the journey was to Port Vila to get the entry stamps. Then from Port Vila to Nouméa (free entry for them), then on the weekly flight from Nouméa to Papeʻete, and of course in reverse direction the next week. I doubt much has changed - surprise me!

I cannot see how the claim of rising rates of violence against children can be justified by the data collected. You do not have to use exaggeration to show that rates of violence are high - but the methodologies used cannot support the contention that climate change and COVID are driving higher rates.

Indeed. Let's keep the momentum going! Tom

Hi Amanda, Thanks for your kind words and useful insights. For dissemination of the app, we are largely relying on wantok networks, social media posts and 'word of mouth' throughout PNG. In Madang, we currently have three Hubs were farmer trainings (including Family Farm Teams training: link below), advice and extension occurs. Farmers travel to these Hubs to receive trainings, from which they disseminate information and generate further interest from other farmers to share knowledge and attend (hub and spoke model). I guess, proof is in the pudding. If farmers find the app useful, they may share it (Google Play download or bluetooth file transfer between Android phones) on and it could spread in this way too. A very interesting point about text messages and/or a phone call with a recorded voice message. We had not considered this at this stage, but this could be an interesting approach to scale this app to remote and rural areas. Being an app for cocoa farmers in PNG and co-designed with colleagues at the Cocoa Board, it is largely up to the Cocoa Board to decide how they wish to market, disseminate and scale this technology. Family Farm Teams: https://www.canberra.edu.au/uc-research/faculty-research-centres/csc/livelihoods-and-learning-for-sustainable-communities/family-farms-teams-program#:~:text=The%20Family%20Farm%20Teams%20(FFT,to%20develop%20their%20family%20farm. Tom

Great vision..Pacific Identity Passport..

Thanks for this interesting blog post. I hope that the travels in beautiful Madang Province have been going well and that the feedback received from community members will aid in refining the app. You wrote that the “PNG Cocoa App can be downloaded by anyone with a smartphone, making it especially valuable in remote and rural areas of PNG”. Aside from travelling to places to tell people about the app, how will you spread the word about it to the ‘remote and rural areas’ you mention? Have you considered text messages and/or a phone call with a recorded voice message? These two strategies were tested in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, with mixed success. See the research findings in the paper available at the following link: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/00632565-a999-44e4-9b88-eb590f3b085b Amanda

Thanks for drawing our attention to a new kind of digital divide that may be opening between Pacific countries and other countries. You acknowledge some of the potential harms of artificial intelligence (AI), such as bias. I feel it’s worth noting that Pacific scholars are already expressing concern about possible negative impacts of AI. See, for instance, Jope Tarai’s piece on Pacific languages, cultures and forms of knowledge: https://www.benarnews.org/english/commentaries/pac-ai-languages-02042025221840.html You suggest that Pacific nations require ‘National AI strategies’. Is it necessary to have standalone AI strategies? Or could AI be incorporated into digital development strategies or digital transformation strategies that countries are currently working on or already have in place? For an earlier assessment of the policy status of Pacific countries, in that case in relation to e-government, see Bart Hogeveen’s report: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/ict-development-pacific-islands/ Finally, I thought you might enjoy a piece I wrote for Devpolicy with a Korean academic in which we compared mobile network deployment in Korea and Papua New Guinea: https://devpolicy.org/the-digital-divide-between-and-within-countries-20190813/ Amanda