Comments

I applaud the KANI review team on what to me is an accurate assessment of the costs and benefits of KANI. Having had concerns over the high cost of the program vis-a-vis the development returns, I welcome the team's recommendations to improve effectiveness and efficiency and particularly the recommendation that an assessment be made of other potential options involving working with regionally based institutions. The inclusion of a cost-benefit analysis brings to the forefront a question we need to be continually asking: for the same amount of money should Kiribati (insert any other country you work in) be getting a better return? What other options are feasible for $2-3 million a year? Is this the only way to achieve this objective? We shouldn’t become so wedded to a program that we don’t see the forest for the trees. I know the Government of Kiribati thinks highly of the KANI program but the opportunity costs involved are accumulating with each passing year. I urge both the Australian and Kiribati governments to consider the recommendations of this review with an open mind to what else is possible that might deliver greater development benefits to Kiribati.

Anthony thank you so much for raising this issue. The issues with violence in PNG are far more complex than a straightforward dichotomy between male and female. Your point that analysis and understanding needs to go deeper is critical for progress to be made, especially to understand the determinants of violence by men is crucial. Also, violence is not just about the 'victim and perpetrator' but the causes may stem from other factors influencing both and the consequences certainly affect more than both. Having said that I think there are situations that make people more 'vulnerable' to perpetrating violence and I believe the Manus centre is one such case. Although I highlighted my fieldwork in the settlement I should qualify that by adding that based on life in Port Moresby similar issues of managing young men (or women) are faced by families living elsewhere (formal residential zones) in the city. Settlers face a different dynamic in that police and policy makers tend to view them as 'illegal'.

Thanks Victoria for this suggestion. I note the deadline for submissions is past but I will try to see if they can take a late submission.

I'd like to share an observation from my own experience in PNG that only relates to the periphery of the issues you raise in the blog but I think is still think it is relevant to finding a solution to the problem of violence in PNG. When my family and I lived in Port Moresby (in a very privileged lifestyle compared to most in PNG) our haus meri took great care of our children and was (and still is) a much loved part of our lives. Our haus meri often had health issues and her family, who relied on her income to a large extent, was a source of support but also a cause of much frustration to her, which of course is not unusual. One day I got a message that she was unable to come to work and would be away for a few days. When she did come back it was obvious that she had been severely beaten and was still in a lot of pain. It turns out that the cause of the beating was an argument that she had with her (adult) daughter (who was the one that beat her). Of course we were very concerned but our haus meri said that she was okay and that her only regret was that she didn't hit her daughter much harder with the fry pan beforehand. The point of this story is that violence is endemic across most parts of PNG and while the main consequences of this violence occurs through men, the cause is often at a deeper level - some of these deep causes may not be gender based. In the example of my haus meri, it was normal for violence to be used by both men and women to resolve conflict in her home / community and of course children learn from their environment and the problem becomes ingrained across generations. Yet, it was inconceivable for our haus meri to be violent in any way in our home environment and community. I'm not saying that our home environment should be replicated across PNG but it might be useful to think about the deep determinants of these social norms in PNG. While I agree that there needs to be a strong focus on the role of men in perpetrating FSV, I wonder how much research has been done on these deep determinants that give rise to the behaviour by men in PNG that we hear about so often.

PNG government should consider privatise B-mobile to a giant Telecommunication company that can compete effectively with Digicel. But, now we have a Awal Telecommunication company and digicel competition is on the way.

Just as an update to this, it looks like the competition to Digicel may be on the way. This week Awal Telecommunications of Saudi Arabia announced it hopes to begin its PNG operations later this year, under the name of 'A-Tel'. PNG Business Advantage has more on the story <a href="http://www.businessadvantagepng.com/meet-a-tel-papua-new-guineas-new-mobile-phone-company/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.

Have you thought of sending this in to the Senate committee into the incident on Feb 17th? It reinforces what many of us are saying about the background cultural/political situation and impossibility of providing safety for the asylum seekers.

Tthis is a clear evaluation of challenges being faced by most Papua New Guineans since the birth of this young nation . Remember that despite the the downfalls we have faced, i believe this is an assurance that we will achieve the core goals of this nation, like the vision 2050. Thus we shall all bloom to give a summed glory of PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

Totally agreed with Luc.

I agree with Mark. There is no single solution to such a complex matter. It is a two-way street; the donor and the recipient and within these walls are the processes involving politics, security, developmental issues, cultural understanding and the practices of procurement, and others. I am also in agreement with the left-wing NGO AID/WATCH critique on AusAID. AID/WATCH argues that "development projects can have detrimental effects on local communities when the donor country imposes decisions without the appropriate assessment of social, cultural and environmental needs." There is also criticisms of AusAID being hijacked or purposely serving Australian commercial interests through its procurement policies which 'promotes particular economic and trade policies' that disregards the poor, lacks transparency, and the misused of aid funding; in particular the extreme cases of overpaid consultants and cronies of public servants in Canberra. As known in the Pacific Islands as 'boomerang aid', AusAid has failed. Reports suggested that some consultants have been paid more than what the Australian Prime Minister earns in a year. Even removing AusAid and merging it with DFAT could still posed problems unless critical issues are adequately addressed. For discussion, I have posted critics that may serve as a guide for DFAT in the future. For example, criticisms have been levelled at AusAID by the right-wing, Centre for Independent Studies which claimed "aid has failed PNG and the Pacific" (Helen Hughes). I am in agreement with this claim as I used to work in the front lines in PNG (AusAid/IMF) and in the Cook Islands (AusAid/NZAid,EU) and saw how aid was delivered, managed, and implemented. To me, it was a waste of time as the way it was designed, delivered and implemented. Aid projects often take off on the wrong foot from the start which are likely to fail (before they ever started). But the fundamental issue in the criticism is not about the administration of aid when it is on the ground but the "broad policy and approaches of AusAID to developing countries" that is the concern. There has been media criticism leveled at AusAID over the selection, equality, effectiveness and transparency of its contracts with consultants and advisors are feedbacks that could be used to redirect its focus in policy shifts, scrutiny of the processes and engage more with the local communities aid was intended and so on. One media article in particular claimed that consultants are being paid more than Australia’s Prime Minister in a year needs to be studied and remedied. AusAid needs to go back to the drawing board and radically review its policies, approaches to development, and the procurement processes. AusAid may need to rely more on community partnership rather than 'fly-in-fly-out' consultants to make aid more effective. Hopefully, over time the stigma of 'boomerang aid' will become a memory of the past and AusAid can bring back its true meaning in development that will bring justice to Australian taxpayers, as well as recipients of developing countries AusAid now serves.

Allow me to leave a few comments from Oxfam: The figures in our report are based on up-to-date figures provided by Lesotho’s Ministry of Health during extensive research in February 2014 in partnership with the Consumers Protection Association of Lesotho. Oxfam conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Lesotho including representatives from the Government, Netcare, Tsepong Ltd, health worker associations, civil society organizations, as well as district level and other health practitioners. The figures we provide are more recent than those used in the Boston study. The new private hospital complex cost the country $67 million in 2013/14, accounting for 51% of its $133 million health budget. Oxfam also stands by its figures on the 25 per cent return on investment. The financial model for the Lesotho PPP issued in March 2009 confirms that the contract was projected to generate a 25.2 per cent rate of return on equity for Netcare and the broader Tsepong shareholders. Contrary to what is said in the article, the Lesotho Ministry of Health has not defended the project as a success. The Minister of Health Dr Pinkie Manamolela has raised a number of concerns about the project since our report was published. A recent article in one of Lesotho's Public Eye newspaper on April, 11, 2014 <a href="http://publiceye.co.ls/?p=5698" rel="nofollow">reported</a>, “The minister held the view that by establishing Tšepong, the government had not been well advised “because now we are even experiencing more congestion and high costs with the new hospital.” In another <a href="http://publiceye.co.ls/?p=5843" rel="nofollow">interview </a>with Public Eye on May 2, 2014, the Minister questioned the advice given by the IFC on this project and is very clear on the fact that the costs of the project have escalated, contrary to what was promised: “as negotiations got under way, around 2007, the costs as agreed between the parties were already at anything up to 10 times the running costs of maintaining the QE-II. And with the contract now in place the costs have only been escalating.” As she also says in this interview, she opposed the project from the beginning: “We all saw it coming as Basotho practitioners, at least those of us who were in the private sector, and we opposed it all the way but were ignored and even snubbed.” And she is not alone: her colleague from South Africa, Minister of Health Dr Motsoaledi <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/healthcare/2014/04/11/motsoaledi-says-netcare-project-will-fail" rel="nofollow">said </a>"When the minister of health in Lesotho came to invite me for (the launch of the project), I told her it’s not going to work". In an interview to the BBC on April 11, 2014, the Prime Minister of Lesotho himself said they were considering reopening the old hospital to correct the big mistake made in this project Oxfam stands by its figures and its recommendation that the World Bank leadership should take action to remedy the grave consequences of the PPP in Lesotho.

Thanks Joanna, excellent article raising very important issues. Few are working on aging issues (just as few are working on psychiatric illnesses) in the Pacific and I'm certainly not aware of anything or anybody raising awareness of the situation of the terminally ill or those caring for the terminally ill. UNFPA raises the ageing question in their population policy support around the Pacific and UN ESCAP have tried to raise the ageing issue and persuade governments to take it seriously, but, as you point out, it tends to get diluted in the wider Asian context. Disability has undergone a significant transformation in the Pacific over the last decade or so starting from a pretty low point and next to no support from the major donors in the early days - it makes for an interesting case study on how to get formerly invisible social issues on to governments' policy agenda. Thanks for this. Alastair Wilkinson