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Press Release
16 May 2022
Journalists and Media Professionals Undergo Media Training facilitated by the United Nations
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Press Release
09 May 2022
Assessing Displaced Communities to Aid Drafting of a Policy Document for Internally Displaced Persons
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Press Release
05 May 2022
Helping Communities Heavily Affected by King Tide Related Flooding in Manus, East Sepik, and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
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Latest
The Sustainable Development Goals in Papua New Guinea
The Sustainable Development Goals are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the earth’s environment and climate, and ensure that people everywhere can enjoy peace and prosperity. These are the goals the UN is working on in Papua New Guinea:
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02 March 2022
Empowering communities to improve livelihood and promote peace
Hoiebia Village acts as a sanctuary for communities affected by conflict in the Hela Province. Councillor Maureen opened her home to her community and those displaced by conflict back in 2013 when she first became the councillor.
She first started backyard farming because she observed that the community planted only sweet potato and were not exposed to growing other garden foods such as potato, carrots, cabbage and broccoli.
“I lived for 30 years in Mt Hagen, and I saw they planted a lot of variety of vegetables. I wanted to do something similar in my village, so I came back, and mobilized mothers and youths and we started our backyard farming. This was in 2013. We started changing the practice of planting sweet potato mounts to creating plots for different vegetables,” she said.
Her backyard plots have now become a multiplication site and she is supplying seeds, providing training in farming, sewing and horticulture to both the host and displaced communities in Hoiebia. Her ambition is to supply the whole of Hela Province with seeds from her multiplication site and ultimately improving farming practices.
Councillor Maureen said that they initially lacked the skills and knowledge, but persevered. The perseverance paid off when their first partner, the Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) stepped in to assist with basic agriculture training.
Fast forward to 2022, other partners have come on board to assist the community. The United Nations in Papua New Guinea, through its agencies FAO, IOM, and UN Women are supporting Councillor Maureen to help her community.
“I saw that a lot of mothers, their husbands had left them, and they struggled with their children to put food on the table and pay school fees. I’m also a single parent who struggled to put my six children through school. This has motivated us, and we are all working towards a better livelihood for us and our children,” she said.
Councillor Maureen said the UN have given her community a lot of training.
“IOM provided us with a water catchment, FAO trained us on how to plant sweet potato, potato, wheat and rice, UN Women provided baking training and GBV training, Peace training. The National Agriculture Research Institute have also provided farming and animal husbandry. When these trainings came, I noticed that there is change in the community,” she said.
“When we empower women and youth in the community with life skills, there will be peace.” Councillor Maureen aims to build a training center for her community. In 2021, with consent from her community, she invested a ward development grant of K15,000 to co-finance the establishment of a UN-supported community resilience resource centre. This centre will also be equipped with water catchment and storage capacity with the community in Hoiebia having free access to clean water.
On the change she would like to see in four to five years, Councillor Maureen declared, “I would like to see farming practices in Hela change, women and children to be healthy and to have good clothes. Children to go to school.”
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20 March 2022
Provincial GBV Focal Points Leading Community-level Implementation of National GBV Strategy
“Everyone in the Highlands region, they grew up in that kind of environment. I say it's in the DNA.” continues Robin Yakumb.
Robin is the interim GBV Focal Point for Western Highlands Province, one of several individuals around the country appointed to connect families and individuals to government services and legal protections that assist women and children experiencing violence.
In Jiwaka, GBV Focal Point Mary Tol highlighted that local resource constraints have led to perpetrators being set free. “Sometimes the murderers of women and girls are being set free because the police say that there's insufficient evidence to bring them to court.”
These perpetrators are then free to reoffend, leaving women and children vulnerable and communities hesitant to report violence.
On paper, the right of women and children to live free from violence is assured in Papua New Guinea, with protections outlined in the Family Protection Act and Lukautim Pikinini Act, in addition to the Criminal Code. In practice, however, the country has one of highest rates of violence against women and girls in the region.
A persistent challenge for policy-makers and advocates working to end violence against women and girls in Papua New Guinea is ensuring that protections and services established at the national level are available at the village level; that individuals are reporting cases of violence to police, that police have the resources to respond and the appropriate documentation to present to the court, and that village court magistrates apply the law appropriately and do not permit negotiations for compensation.
The National GBV Strategy was launched in 2016 and is a blue print to guide the work of all agencies across the national government, as well as provincial government bodies, civil society organisations and development partners. The National GBV Strategy is underpinned by the understanding that addressing GBV will require strong leadership, a holistic and coordinated approach supported by ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and research.
Responsible for implementing this strategy is the National GBV Secretariat (NGBVS) which, through lack of funding, has faced significant roadblocks. The NGBVS has an interim Director and is not fully staffed.
The Spotlight Initiative, launched in 2020, aims to address the challenges in putting the National GBV Strategy into practice, and key to this is operationalising the National GBV Secretariat.
In Eastern Highlands Province (EHP), Siviri Lalave has been appointed as the provincial GBV Focal Point. She was also a member of the province’s Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee.
“That committee has been like a meeting on ad hoc basis up until 2021 when National Parliamentary Committee on Gender-Based Violence was set up,” said Siviri. “That's the time that the provincial government has seen the importance of having those committees in the provinces set up in addressing this issue.”
“When the government supports, we will see that it will help deliver the services that the people need and women and children, and those who are affected by gender-based violence, get the justice that they need.”
Provincial GBV Focal Points are now developing strategies and plans to address local gaps in institutional capacity to prevent and respond to violence against women and children.
“I'd like to see bringing in all the districts together to come up with their own district strategies,” said Robin. “We need these plans as to how we can address these issues at the district level or the community level.”
“I want funding to be very consistent over five years to ten years,” says Mary. “We don't need a strategy that sits at the corner and collects dust.”
The Spotlight Initiative has supported the appointment of provincial GBV focal points as part of activities to operationalise the National GBV Strategy. Support has also included the development of a National GBV Secretariat website to keep provincial contacts and the general public updated on activities and materials.
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18 March 2022
Milne Bay Provincial Disaster Risk Management Strategy and Standard Operating Procedure Launched Through IOM, USAID Support
The Provincial DRM Strategy and SOP for Milne Bay received technical inputs from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and funding assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance in its development.
This DRM Strategy and SOP is a living document that promotes the localization of the Sendai Framework (2015-2030) principles, contributing to strengthening resilience and reducing disaster losses. It defines the roles and responsibilities of the provincial government and its stakeholders in preparing for, and responding to disasters, including implementing recovery actions following a disaster.
“It is great news for Milne Bay to have its Provincial DRM strategy and SOP to better coordinate disaster risk reduction interventions and emergency response,” said Milne Bay’s Provincial Administrator, Ashan Numa in his remarks at the launch. He highlighted that there had been lack of coordination in DRM matters in the past and launching the DRM Strategy and SOP will improve coordination in in the province.
“The DRM SOP is a guide to help us better respond to emergencies and disaster with the support of our partners, and also provides a leverage to the Milne Bay Integrated Provincial Development Plan,” noted Steven Tobessa, Milne Bay Provincial Disaster Coordinator.
The launch was attended by various stakeholders including Papua New Guinea Red Cross Society, National Airports Corporation, and the National Broadcasting Corporation.
IOM in partnership with the National Disaster Center, continues to support provincial governments to strengthen capacities in DRM, through the Provincial Disaster Centres.
IOM recognizes inadequate funding and insufficient human capacity as a challenge during the implementation, and it remains committed and pro-active to supporting the province in risk management and disaster response.
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20 March 2022
Community Outreach Combats Violence Against Children in Western Highlands Province
Many children in Western Highlands province face multiple forms of violence. In addition to family violence, children are directly and indirectly affected by sorcery accusation related violence.
“When the parents are accused of sorcery, those children are affected very badly because they believe these things they’re told about their parents,” explained Issac Keru from the Archdiocese of Mt Hagen child protection team. “There’s almost no hope for children when their parents are accused.”
Issac also noted the rise in kidnapping and ransom of children in the province. “They get these kids and then later they expect some payment and then the kids will be returned,” he said.
The Archdiocese utilises networks of parishes and schools to raise awareness of violence against children and provides a safe house that provides temporary accommodation to children in need. Issac shared that prevention remains the most important part of the team’s work.
“We have child protection officers and a total of 27 parishes within Western Highlands and Jiwaka where we can offer parenting programs and family programs,” said Issac. “I see the parenting program is important because we have to address childhood development early. When they reach middle age we can’t really do anything because they are grown up and it is difficult for them to change.”
The programs include workshops and community outreach and Issac has noted that demand is high. “From interviews we’ve done with parents, they say that they regret this program didn’t come about earlier.” This same sentiment has been shared by facilitators from the Highlands Youth Rehabilitation and Training College in Banz, Jiwaka Province, which is also implementing a positive parenting program that engages parents in Jiwaka and Simbu.
“Through the Spotlight Initiative the parenting program has reached many parish communities and we’ve seen they go back to their communities and villages and make changes,” said Issac. “I think with the support of Spotlight Initiative, we can reach many more.”
Through the parenting program, the Archdiocese is also promoting other services and programs that seek to address the issue of violence, including counselling and family violence programs.
The Archdiocese of Mt Hagen is supported by the Spotlight Initiative to provide community outreach programs to end violence against children.
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09 April 2021
UN Agencies Continue Support to COVID Prevention and Control Across PNG
UN support to the COVID-19 response in Papua New Guinea has been led by WHO and UNICEF, who are assisting the PNG Government in emergency and humanitarian coordination, clinical management and procurement, risk communications and community engagement, protection and secondary impacts, and socio-economic impact and recovery.
In 2021 we will be welcoming the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines and work with our partners to set a path for recovery, including socio-economic assessments and support to the hardest hit populations.
The weekly COVID-19 National situation report, jointly published by NDOH and WHO, details the scope of the pandemic in PNG and the national response effort. More information on UN assistance provided in 2020 is available at papuanewguinea.un.org.
Here is a look at what we've been doing around the country in March.
Kiunga, Western Province
IOM Installs Handwash Stations at Kiunga Airport, Improves Toilet Facilities in Western Province
IOM completed a comprehensive rehabilitation of the toilet facilities at Kiunga Airport, creating a safer environment for travelers. The team installed a handwash station on entry.
The team installed latrines in several locations including schools, health facilities and local communities, benefitting at least 8,949 people. Installations of solar panels and accessories across several communities has improved lighting of common areas around latrines. This additional light improves the safety especially of women and girls when accessing the facilities at night. IOM estimates this initiative will improve the safety of over 30,000 people in Western Province.
UNFPA Delivers PPE to Kiunga Hospital, Customised Dignity Kits
With the given surge of covid 19 cases, UNFPA supplied various essential PPE to Kiunga Hospital, Western Province and Port Moresby General Hospital. These include 500 reusable face shields, 500 long sleeve gowns, 15,000 examination gloves, 2000 surgical gloves, 30,000 disposal facemask, 300 protective goggles and 44 thermometers. UNFPA locally procured 600 customised Dignity Kits enroute to Kiunga, Western Province.
IOM Provides WASH Supplies to Communities and Defence Personnel in Western Province
IOM distributed soap and water containers to 1,203 people in Western Province, with additional wheelie bins (25), dust bins (14), hand gloves (24) and rubber boots (24). The team supplied collapsible water containers, tents and sleeping bags to the PNG Defence Force Forward Operating Base in Kiunga that is responsible for monitoring points of entry along PNG’s Western Border.
Tari, Hela Province
UNFPA Supports Emergency Response, Provides PPE and Dignity Kits
UNFPA procured and distributed 400 Dignity Kits to displaced women and girls that were affected by the inter-clan violence in Tari Pori District. UNFPA procured 800 PPE to support the participants of a Gender Based Violence in Emergency training and staff at Tari Hospital.
Through the emergency response projects, UNFPA, in partnership with PNG Family Health Association and Hela Provincial Health Authority, established sexual and reproductive health mobile clinics at four sites in Tari, Hela Province to support and provide services to internally displaced women and girls as well as the host community who cannot access the main hospital freely due to ongoing insecurity. Currently the team is conducting training on Minimum Initial Service Package in Tari to 9 males and 8 females with plans to conduct Clinical Management of Rape Training in April. Providing PPE ensures these essential services can remain open and operate safely.
“On a daily basis, we check if the IDP [Internally Displaced People] have any sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), rape cases, pregnant mothers or injuries," sais Sister Mae Lohis, team leader of one of PNG Family Health Association's mobile clinics in Tari. "We are providing the necessary care that they should receive during this time of crisis, including awareness raising on safe sex, family planning, and teenage pregnancies.”
Support to People Living with HIV
UNAIDS works with COVID19-HIV Crisis Group on Support to PLHIV
Together with the COVID19-HIV Crisis Group, including WHO, NDoH, World Vision, USAID, and FHI360, UNAIDS is ensuring services for PLHIV continue to operate during the growing COVID-19 pandemic. The team is also working on messaging surrounding the vaccine for PLHIV and key populations.
With high level of COVID 19 vaccine hesitancy and misconceptions among PLHIV and key populations, UNAIDS have developed a short vaccine acceptability survey deployed by the KP consortium in late March. From the results, the current FAQs will be revised and targeted for this population.
Support to Emergency Services
UNDP Procures Additional Ambulances, Delivers Training to Frontline Medics
UNDP is partnering with the national ambulance service, St John’s Ambulance, to upgrade of a number of ambulances across the country with support from the Government of India. Progress the procurement of new ambulances which will be greatly strengthen the capacity of Papua New Guinea’s health system to respond to COVID’s impacts. A funding agreement with
UNDP has also supported training of frontline medics and the procurement of additional medical equipment to support an expansion of services. This will also contribute to broader strengthening of the health system.
UN agencies have secured funding from Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, United States and the World Bank. Additional support was provided through the UN Secretary General’s Multi-Partner Trust Fund for COVID-19 which ensures UN activities can reach the most at-risk populations during this pandemic. The UN is also engaging with donors to re-programme funding where relevant.
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23 March 2022
Visions for a Future Free from Violence Against Women and Girls
The Spotlight Initiative envisions a world with zero violence against women and girls. We asked women and men across Papua New Guinea about their vision for the future.
“My hope is for a future where, when you ask someone if they or someone they know has experienced violence, they will say no. I want a kind of future where young people will think of violence as something strange, not something normal.”
“Already in our organisation, 60% of our officers are women and 40% are men. We have produced more women leaders during our ten years of existence and I have seen a dramatic change in the lives of women. So, I believe if we continue to train more women in this country they will become the agents of change. We have seen it in Eastern Highlands Province.”
“We want our parenting program to continue. I have to turn my phone off because I am getting calls all the time asking when we are starting again. People are really proud of this program.”
“We want to go out and create a movement where we create community-based organisations on the ground. If we can do that, we can create a transformational movement, a social movement.”
“We feel it’s time now for a law to protect us. For so many years we’ve been working on this and we talk, talk, talk, but no actions. Now, we want actions and we want to see some protections for us.”
“We run a safe house. I would like to see this service be expanded and receive support from the community, churches, and non-government organisations. I’d like to see outreach and reconciliation programs to prevent the violence at the family level.”
“We cannot change the country if we continue in our present state. I think with positive parenting programs, in ten or twenty years we can change the mindset of the children of Papua New Guinea. When they grow up, they will make positive changes.”
“At the council leaders, the village court magistrates, the peace officers, and the mediators, they need to be trained and educated to know their roles and responsibilities. Without this, the laws that are passed cannot be implemented.”
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23 March 2022
Spotlight Initiative Podcast Highlights the Organisations Working to End Violence Against Women and Girls in PNG
The Spotlight Initiative in Papua New Guinea has launched a new podcast aimed at promoting the voices of the grassroots organisations working to end violence against women and girls.
‘Towards Zero’ is a deep dive into the organisations working towards a world with zero violence against women and girls in PNG. The podcast features interviews with civil society leaders and community members on the projects currently being implemented to prevent and respond to violence. The first episode, released Friday, features two provincial GBV Focal Points, Robin Yakumb and Mary Tol as they discuss the importance of connecting the different actors on-the-ground and the challenges in setting up a fully staffed and funded GBV secretariat in Western Highlands and Jiwaka.
Future episodes will look at how health care providers are connecting survivors to justice services and how youth outreach is breaking the cycle of violence and improving access to sexual and reproductive health services. The Spotlight Initiative is a programme that takes a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women and girls by addressing legislation, provincial institutions, and grassroots actions to both prevent and respond to violence. This series will look at how the different levels of action complement each other to bridge the gaps between the protections for women and girls that exist on paper and the attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls in families and communities.
This podcast series aims to put civil society and grassroots organisations at the centre of the conversation on ending violence against women and girls. Being available worldwide, this series is also an opportunity to show international audiences the real, complex challenges faced by civil society in PNG. It is also a series that shows the expertise of the individuals working in the GBV space, the extensive experience and insights of local CSOs, and why these organisations need to be supported in order to advance actions to end violence against women and girls in PNG.
The first season of Towards Zero will feature ten episodes. New episodes are released every Friday.
Towards Zero is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts or online: https://anchor.fm/spotlightpng
The Spotlight Initiative is a multi-year programme of the United Nations which has received generous support from the European Union. In Papua New Guinea, the Spotlight Initiative is implemented by UN Women, UNICEF, UNDP, and UNFPA across 11 provinces.
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23 March 2022
John Ericho, Eastern Highlands Family Voice, Goroka, Eastern Highlands
The Spotlight Initiative envisions a world with zero violence against women and girls. We asked women and men across Papua New Guinea about their vision for the future.
John Ericho, Eastern Highlands Family Voice, Goroka, Eastern Highlands
“We want to go out and create a movement where we create community-based organisations on the ground. If we can do that, we can create a transformational movement, a social movement.”
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21 March 2022
UN Women-DCDR conclude Consultation for the Informal Policy Review
UN Women in partnership with the Department of Community Department and Religion has concluded consultations with stakeholders on the review of the informal economy in the four regions of Papua New Guinea. The review of the Informal Economy Policy is implemented under the Markets Economic Recovery and Inclusion (MERI) program with funding from the Government of Australia, and European Union.
Speaking at the consultation meeting organized for stakeholders from the Niugini Islands in Kokopo, UN Women Deputy Country Representative Caroline Nyamayemombe, noted that the common issue raised in all regional consultations, was the lack of implementation of the former informal economy policy, which is undergoing review.
“Issues of implementation must be addressed strongly in the revision of this policy. The implementation part was not addressed in the first policy and that is why we have not seen any progress in the lives of women in PNG,”
Nyamayemombe noted that collaborative effort is needed among stakeholders in the implementation of the policy for the country to achieve sustainable development goals.
“We believe that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will not be possible, unless we are able to tap into the potential of the informal economy,” she said.
The European Union’s Policy Coordinator- Economy, Public finance management and Trade, Carlos Padilla noted that for the policy to have an impact on the livelihoods of the people of Papua New Guinea, stakeholder involvement was key including at the time of implementation.
In a speech read for him by his first secretary Mark Manenga, the Minister for Community Development, Honourable Wako Goi said the current policy was outdated and required a review to match the current economic situations in the Country. The informal Economy policy is being reviewed concurrently with the validation of the Voice strategy and Community Development Bill.
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20 March 2022
Peer Educators Lead Community Outreach in East New Britain
“I would say most, more than 60%, of the survivors of gender-based violence that we see in the clinic are young adults,” says Primrose, Youth Coordinator for the Family Health Association (FHA) in East New Britain.
Primrose leads a team of peer educators from the FHA to end this trend through community outreach to schools and communities across East New Britain. She has just stepped off stage after delivering a presentation to senior students of Kokopo Secondary School.
“We do clinical outreach and we also do community outreach,” she says. “We focus on family planning and especially preventing unwanted pregnancies so young girls are able to complete their education.”
Primrose’s session emphasised that students can reach out to the FHA for help and that violence is never the survivor’s fault. Empowering youth to report instances of violence is crucial to the FHA’s outreach program.
“We believe that it’s very important to ensure that young people realise that violence against anyone, whether it’s in a relationship or between any other young people, it’s not okay,” said FHA Director Michael Salini. “We need to get that message across to them.”
“So that’s why we engage these young people to do it on behalf of the organisation. Young people talking to young people is the most effective way of changing perceptions and values in communities.”
“When peer educators speak to young people, it’s like we’re speaking the same language,” says Primrose. “We’re in the same peer groups and we’re better able to get that message across.”
Emerging harms to young people’s health and wellbeing, alongside traditional threats of intimate partner violence and child abuse, demand innovative, peer-led solutions. Being proactive in these solutions is critical to breaking cycles of violence and modelling safe, healthy relationships for the next generation.
The program has significant support from students who confess information from adults often fails to recognise the experiences of today’s youth.
“I, personally, had gone through that kind of experience with cyber-harassment,” shared Margaret from Kokopo Secondary School. “I can testify that at that time there were no teachers that really understood that because they were older.”
“So, I think cyber-harassment is one of the issues that older people have a hard time to understand. If a young person stands up and speaks to young people in a way that they understand, people will pay attention.”
Following the school outreach session, the team from FHA moved to Kokopo markets where volunteers distributed pamphlets and condoms, part of their wider clinical outreach program to educate the public on sexual and reproductive health, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.
The Spotlight Initiative is supporting the Family Health Association in East New Britain to conduct youth outreach activities that promote positive relationships and connect young people to sexual and reproductive health services.
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Press Release
17 May 2022
Journalists and Media Professionals Undergo Media Training facilitated by the United Nations
United Nations Resident Coordinator a.i. Mr. Dirk Wagener in his opening remarks thanked the participants on their tireless efforts in keeping us informed every day, and how the society is counting on each of them to continue to learn and contribute to taking journalism to greater heights in PNG.
“The United Nations values the work of the media in Papua New Guinea and is committed to empowering the media by providing capacity development training. I hope that through this training, participants will have gained an enhanced understanding of the importance of their role and more importantly, take away practical skills that can help reach the highest standard of professional journalism”.
The workshop is held to empower journalists and media professionals by providing judicious and updated information and communication approaches that are vital as the country progresses with its sustainable development plans. Participants were also welcomed to reflect on their role in protecting ‘Freedom of Expression’, including press freedom and freedom of information, as a fundamental human right.
Protecting these rights are essential to empowering vulnerable populations, building peaceful communities, and advocating for improved health for all, especially as the country recovers from the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Anup Gurung, World Health Organisation Officer In Charge (WHO OIC), highlighted the importance of accurate reporting on COVID-19 and the risks involved during the election period.
“The risks of COVID-19 transmission during the election is very high. The more people gather in a crowd and the longer people interact with each other, the greater the risk of COVID-19 spreading,” he said. “People will need or want more information from reliable and trusted sources to make informed decisions; this training will be valuable in preparing you to report and share information accurately, not only during the elections but throughout your role.”
Training sessions are led by staff from the United Nations agencies, programmes and funds including World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and OHCHR. Topics include conflict sensitive reporting, combating COVID-19 and misinformation during election period, ethical guidelines for journalists reporting on children and young people, anti-corruption and sexual reproductive health data.
Participants from the National newspaper, NBC Radio, Post Courier, Sunday Chronicles, Wantok Newspaper, Equal Playing Field, Tribe FM, Hope PNG FM (Lae/Morobe), UCB PNG LAIF FM (Wewak), TVWan and Loop PNG, and Radio FM 100 attended the first day of the media workshop, in-person and virtually. The second day of the media workshop will be held this coming Thursday 19 May 2022.
Following this training, the UN is committed to working with our media partners to provide training that will ensure Papua New Guinea’s news media is held to the highest standard of journalistic quality and integrity, and that the nation’s journalists can fulfill their role in educating the public and holding individuals and institutions accountable.
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Press Release
09 May 2022
Assessing Displaced Communities to Aid Drafting of a Policy Document for Internally Displaced Persons
IOM and DPLGA teams joined by local authorities from the respective provinces carried out assessments in selected areas hosting displaced communities in Manus, Milne Bay, and Madang provinces.
Vital information, including the living conditions of the displaced population and the challenges experienced to attain durable solutions, was collected and fed into the drafting of the IDP’s policy document for Papua New Guinea.
In discussions with local authorities during the fieldwork, the DPLGA highlighted that the IDP's Policy input document would focus on displacement induced by climate change, natural hazards, disease outbreaks, and human-induced hazards, including law and order, and gender-based violence related displacement.
“We are thankful for your visit to our community. We have been displaced many times because of river flooding. We hope that this assessment will outline some better solutions in the policy to capture our needs as vulnerable people so that we can see better responses when disasters struck and displace people,” said Mr. Tokwakwasi, Divinai’s Ward Councilor in Alotau district, during a discussion with the assessment team in Milne Bay province.
Information gathered through the assessments is being drafted as a case study and will be incorporated into a National Situational Report (NSR) on the displacement situation. IOM and DPLGA will convene a workshop that will review the NSR and identify policy gaps and specifications to support drafting the IDPs' Policy input document.
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Press Release
06 May 2022
Helping Communities Heavily Affected by King Tide Related Flooding in Manus, East Sepik, and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Informed by assessment reports, IOM procured, transported, and distributed various shelter/ non-food items (S/NFIs) to these target locations. The assistance included collapsible water containers, buckets, soap, facemasks, mosquito nets, kitchen utensils, shelter construction toolkits, tarpaulins, solar lanterns, and water treatment tablets.
IOM worked closely with the local leaders and communities in the target locations in identifying the most vulnerable persons, including internally displaced persons, persons living with disability, and women heads of household.
Through financial support from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), and in-kind support from Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Centre, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Australian Government, the response addressed the immediate needs of 10,600 vulnerable persons affected by the king tide.
The response complements IOM's current USAID-funded disaster risk management project that is being implemented in AROB, East Sepik, and five additional provinces. The project has the overall goal of contributing to reducing economic and human losses and displacement by natural hazards through building community-based resilience and the capacity of government officials of all levels in Papua New Guinea. The technical and human capacity built under the project at the provincial and national levels enabled IOM and its partners to mobilize resources to assess and respond timely to the affected communities. IOM also used some of the S/NFIs pre-positioned under the project to respond to the effects of the king tide.
"On behalf of the Carterets Islanders, I am thanking you all for your help,” noted Chief Paul Tobas, Carterets Islands’ representative during a distribution by IOM, local authorities, and partners. Autonomous Bougainville Government Member for Atolls, Pais Taihu also appreciated the assistance noting, “This area is remote, and we are so grateful to see you come and assist our people.”
Co-leading the Shelter/NFI/Camp Coordination Camp Management cluster coordination system in Papua New Guinea, together with the National Disaster Centre, IOM worked closely with Government through the National and Provincial Disaster Centres, and the United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office in delivering critical NFIs to the affected communities.
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Press Release
27 April 2022
Working with partners to develop local quality human resources for rural transport infrastructure works in Papua New Guinea
Wewak, Papua New Guinea – Forty engineers, including two women, attended 3 days capacity development training conducted in collaboration with the Civil Engineering Department of the PNG University of Technology (UNITECH).
Among the civil service engineers and sub engineers were company directors/managers, CEOs and officers of Provincial Division of Works, ESP, National Department of Works and Highway, Wewak, who deal with contract management and administration for road infrastructure works.
“The program aims to transfer knowledge and skills on Contract Management, Administration and Claims and Dispute resolution to officials and developing quality human resources in the field of road transport infrastructure, as well as to develop the capacity of local contractors to implement quality road works on time for the EU-STREIT PNG Programme in the Sepik Region,” explained Mr. Arun Kumar Yadav, ILO’s Training Engineer, who led this capacity development training.
Naomi Duna, a 32-year-old lady, was one of the two women participants in this intensive training. “I’m a director in the company, not an engineer, but I learned many good things. This course gives me a fair idea of the contract management and administration to complete quality works as per contract on time with no cost overrun. I can now advise if engineering work is not done properly,” said Naomi.
These 3 days training is the first of seventeen modules envisaged by the EU-STREIT PNG Programme to upskill local engineers and contractors in 2022. The next training will be hosted by UNITECH at the Lae East Taraka Campus.
Some important topics covered in this training include: Quality assurance and control of roads and crossing structure; Contract management, administration, dispute resolutions and arbitration; Occupational safety and health at construction sites.
Concluding the training, the EU-STREIT PNG Programme Coordinator, Dr Xuebing Sun, after the presentation of certificates, shared with participants the importance of learning, which he says does not stop and called on the participants to continue to explore how best they can improve their practice to deliver quality road transport infrastructures in the country.
The Programme Coordinator also acknowledged the Civil Engineering Department of UNITECH for the collaboration, and emphasised the sustainability aspect of the EU-STREIT PNG Programme which is also aimed at supporting and enhancing the capacity of local institutions to provide capacity development programs for engineers and local contractors, not only in the Sepik Region but in Papua New Guinea as a whole.
Extending on the benefits of this capacity development course, the East Sepik Deputy Provincial Administrator, Mr James Bololoi, and East Sepik Provincial Works Manager, Mr John Posagi also emphasized that this kind of training for contractors will enhance the capacity of local contractors in the Province to compete the contract and deliver quality service and works.
As part of the EU-STREIT PNG Programme’s mandate to support capacity development, this collaboration with PNG UNITECH will also fulfil the PNG government’s requirement to develop professional transport infrastructure contractors in the country.
The EU-STREIT PNG Programme, being implemented as a UN Joint Programme (FAO as the leading agency, and ILO, ITU, UNCDF and UNDP as partners), is the largest grant-funded Programme of the European Union in the country and the Pacific region. The Programme aims to help improve the lives of the people from East Sepik and Sandaun provinces, by focusing on increasing sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas through improved economic returns and opportunities from cocoa, vanilla and fishery value chains while strengthening and improving the efficiency of value chain enablers, including the business environment, and supporting sustainable, climate-proof transport and energy infrastructure development.
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Press Release
31 March 2022
Work of EU-funded UN Joint STREIT Programme in PNG reaches 55,000 households benefitting more than 330,000 people across the Sepiks
In many of the communities, this was the first time in many years that smallholder farmers received formal and technical assistance and training, – offered in close collaboration with a range of PNG stakeholders.
Amongst the main achievements is the inclusive and systematic approach of Public-Private partnerships with national and provincial government and partners, nationaly-recognised research institutions, civil society organisations, and private sector enterprises.
The EU STREIT PNG Programme works with more than 40 Local Level Governments (LLGs) in 10 districts of Greater Sepik.
Working for improvements to agricultural value chains
With respect to work on agriculture value chains, this joint project has achieved the following results for community benefits:
trained nearly 7 000 lead farmers and extension officers in the cocoa, vanilla and fishery value chains;
distributed nearly 250 000 cocoa pod borer-tolerant seedlings from main and satellite nurseries;
established around 250 cocoa budwood gardens in strategic locations across different districts, LLGs and wards in the Sepik region;
created a database of more than 250 cluster groups and cooperatives in cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chains;
conducted a baseline survey, developed in partnership with the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), which will be published soon, to provide verified benchmarks for the Progarmme’s indicators.
Developing and improving climate-resilience transport infrastructure
Developing climate-resilience transport infrastructure for farming communities across the Sepiks is critical to supporting improvements to value chains. The Programme, with support of line governmental and provincial departments, has recruited 138 local Road Maintenance Group members and, thus far, has provided maintainance to 80 km of farm-to-market roads out of the initial 300 Km target, in 2021, which created 18 000 days of work in total, bringing decent work for rural communities.
EU-STREIT PNG has also developed the ‘Road Transport Information Management System’ (RoTIMS), an online accessible monitoring and management platform for transport infrastructure activities with the Department of Works.
The following are results of improvements to infrastructure achieved by the Programme:
18 feeder roads identified and profiled based in engineering estimates using GIS technology for collection of data and information in both Sepik provinces;
trained 70 contractors in roads construction, maintenance and contract procurement through an e-bidding process for competitive bidding;
partnered with, and contracted, UNITECH PNG to train nearly 400 participants related to road Infrastructure construction and maintenance; and
collaborated with the Technical Education and Vocational Training center at Yawasoro in rolling out skills development training programme for 150 youths in proper road structure construction.
Improving access to financial services in remote rural areas
As of January 2022, the EU-STREIT PNG Programme had adopted and began implementing a number of initiatives to improve access to financial services to remote rural areas in the Sepiks. In partnership with Digicel, Mibank and Mama Bank the Programme has rolled out a finance access and financial literacy initiative to provide ‘Digital Financial Services’ to 50 000 people, including 35 000 women, and opened mobile branches across rural communities of the provinces.
The EU-STREIT PNG Programme is a fully-fledged part of the community in Papua New Guinea. We would like to once again express theirits utmost appreciation to the people of Sepik and Sandaun who have welcomed the programme and our staff into their communities and have joined the proposed activities with great enthusiasm and professionalism. As COVID-19’s restrictions on movement and delivery ease, we are rolling up our sleaves and looking forward with great anticipation as we move to the next level of our joint-collaboration and promised delivery.
COVID-19 in PNG, a setback but not a roll-back
Clearly the unfortunate convergence of COVID-19 and the beginning of this Programme has had a significant impact on our timetable of work, just as it has for every other commercial and development sector in PNG and elsewhere across Asia and the Pacific. Regardless of these stebacks, the implementing UN partners are fully committed to deliver the expected results for the people of the Sepiks and to accelerate action at every opportunity and in full in collaboration with our many partners.
Who we are:
The EU-STREIT PNG, is implemented as a UN joint Programme (FAO as leading agency, and ILO, ITU, UNCDF and UNDP as partners). It is the largest grant-funded Programme of the European Union in the country and the Pacific region. The Programme aims to to help improve the lives of the people from East Sepik and Sandaun province, by focusing on increasing sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas through improved economic returns and opportunities from cocoa, vanilla and fishery value chains while strengthening and improving the efficiency of value chain enablers, including the business environment, and supporting sustainable, climate-proof transport and energy infrastructure development..
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Amir Khaleghiyan, International Reporting and Communication Officer, Amir.Khaleghiyan@fao.org | Mobile: +675 7410 2860, +675 7866 4508 | WhatsApp: +675 7410 2860, +98 935 524 0215
Leo Wafiwa, National Communication Officer, Leo.Wafiwa@fao.org | Mobile/WhatsApp: +675 7369 2213 | Phone: +675 7955 2501
Kelvin Sogoromo, National Social Media Associate, Kelvin.Sogoromo@fao.org | Mobile/WhatsApp: +675 7422 3769
More on the EU STREIT Programme in Papua New Guinea:
Website: http://www.fao.org/papua-new-guinea/streit-png/en/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FAOinPNG
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STREITpng
EUD in PNG: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/papua-new-guiea/65829/eu-support-rural-entrepreneurship-investment-and-trade-papua-new-guinea-streit-png/en
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