Comments

You are absolutely correct that the global community is obsessing about other conflicts while ignoring the conflict in Sudan which these days directly affects many Australians.

Hi Kelly and Stephen this is very useful. Thank you so much for conducting such research. The views expressed by the students reflect broader public perceptions!

Many thanks for picking up, Kelly. I suspect that the study of "economics" means the eventual graduate is more marketable, public or private. The universities' paradigm of "economics" favours the private sector over the public, unless it's Keynesian economics. So I was more thinking of graduates not in economics. For example, my course went to the heart of what good and effective government means and can be tested. I would have hoped that UPNG would have been very interested in what happens to the lives of its general graduates.

Thank you, Pak Eddie, for your thoughtful comment. I’m truly impressed by your work, especially with OpenSID. I completely agree that empowering civil society organisations (CSOs) and ordinary citizens at the village level to speak out about issues related to resource allocation is vital for tackling corruption. However, it's not as straightforward as it may seem. One major challenge is the absence of a dedicated whistleblower protection law in our country, which would shield those who report corruption. When we consider the risks and consequences involved, the costs for whistleblowers often feel much greater than any immediate incentives they might receive. Additionally, there are cultural factors at play—individuals who report corruption often face social exclusion from their communities, which can significantly impact their lives. This is a tough but crucial issue that needs to be addressed. Therefore, the state must ensure the physical, emotional, and economic safety of whistleblowers and their families. Another factor that could help is increasing the willingness of public officials, including district heads, mayors, and parliament members, to seriously confront corruption at the local level. Salam, Garry Rosario da Gama

Glad that you mentioned the need to encourage and facilitate the involvement of civil society organisations. Grass-roots movements can complement and fill the gap that top-down approaches have not been able to reach or sustain. Our experience at Perkumpulan Desa Digital Terbuka has shown that involving and empowering villages directly in a sustainable manner can achieve results that uncoordinated and intermittent national efforts struggle with. With this village-centric approach, our open source community based village information system, OpenSID, is now actively used daily by more than 8,200 villages (and growing) to improve village administration, services to all their residents, and importantly transparency and accountability. In particular, many villages using OpenSID have regularly been successful in the annual KPK village anti-corruption competitions.

Keep up the great work! Thank you so much for sharing a great post.

Hi Peter, Most postgraduate students at SBPP are employed in the public sector and often return to their departments, particularly if their studies are employer-funded. For UPNG undergraduates, comprehensive job data isn’t available. However, a 2018 survey of UPNG economics graduates showed that 50% work in the private sector and about 35% in the public sector. From my experience, our economics graduates typically find roles in commercial banks, private advisory firms, and government departments like Treasury and the Central bank. Here's a link to the student employment survey from 2018: https://devpolicy.org/upng-student-employment-outcomes-survey-results-20180725/

I concur with the concluding sentiments. It is interesting to see the increased sense of unity amongst the younger generations, who have rightly identified the primary root cause of law and order: poor management of resources and funds, corruption, and a need for good leadership and governance.

Commend you both for the insights; correct me if I am gone wrong here. Please can you both clarify where does the legitimate landowners of Porgera fits here. The land is own by the people of Porgera and where are their potions of their shares in all these deals. I see something is totally wrong in this mining deal done. I see no legitimate landowner representative being in any major stakeholders meetings and so forth......pigs and dogs have been benefiting since 1990 and its enough, lets be fair...we need to put it out clearer for the good of this God given beautiful people of Porgera Valley. Let them see some lights now, 30 plus years of living in no mans land and doing cowboy mining must come to an end. May the Mother Nature blessed those who have benefited over the past years and let go now so the poor legitimate land owners can enjoy the remaining of the mining. Thank you for this platform so I can view my thoughts as a neighboring district of Laiagam.

Thanks to both, Kelly and Stephen. But something that always occurred to me, when I was teaching "Policy Monitoring and Evaluation" to UPNG students, between 2021 and 2023. Where are they now? What jobs did they get after graduation - if any?

Excellent article, Kingtau. Important lessons for PNG government and policymakers to learn to turn the trajectory of socio-economic development of PNG around for the better.

Thank you, Mark, for an excellent blog with such clearly presented practical advice.