Certificate of completion for the Rainaou Water project and Announcement of
Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen
Monday 3 November 2008, Rainaou Village, East New Britain
Speech by Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Mr Bob McMullan
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
It is a great privilege for me to be here and I sincerely thank Minister Paul Tiensten for the invitation and the Governor and people of East New Britain for the warm and generous welcome that I have received.
I am also grateful for the opportunity to be able to see Papua New Guinea at the local level and hear the experience from the grassroots of peoples’ efforts to create a better life for their families and communities.
It is very valuable for me, in my role, to understand the potential of, and challenges for, the people of PNG and where better to see this than here in the community and among the people for whom our decisions and ideas can have so much impact.
Bilateral Relationship
This has been a big year for the relationship between Australia and PNG.
With the Labor Government coming to power late last year Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was quick to act to re-build Australia’s relationship with our closest neighbour and one of our oldest friends by making his visit to PNG his first official visit.
I had the pleasure of accompanying the Prime Minister on that visit and saw first hand the genuine warmth and respect Papua New Guineans and Australians have for each other. Indeed, the visit to Goroka was something I will never forget, with thousands of people turning out to witness the visit. It was a great atmosphere.
Partnership for Development
Since that time Prime Ministers Rudd and Somare have signed a PNG-Australia Partnership for Development at this year’s Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting.
The Partnership for Development is a central element of commitment to a new era of cooperation between Australia and PNG.
The Partnership commits Australia and PNG to work together to meet common objectives, in particular to make faster progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and PNG’s development goals.
The Partnership with PNG aims to provide better access to markets and services through improved infrastructure; faster progress towards universal basic education; improved health outcomes; and strengthened public administration, including at the provincial and district levels.
Both our governments recognise the importance of a partnership approach in working to enable PNG to reach its substantial potential.
But promoting PNG’s development is not just about our two Governments having a good rapport it’s also about the wide range of other people who have a role to play in PNG’s development. This includes people at the grass-roots level: men, women and children living in villages like Rainaou.
The Rainaou Water Project
I am happy today to present the Completion Certificate, and to join with Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development, and other PNG ministers, to formally open the Rainaou water project. I am delighted to be able to do so because this type of local community development is very close to my heart.
This small but significant project was driven by the determination of the community, built upon local potential using local skills. I am particularly pleased to hear that the women in this community were involved in the decision-making processes for this project and that they are benefiting from its results.
This project, which was funded under the AusAID Community Development Scheme, helped this community to realise a dream to meet its own water needs.
More than that, by realising one dream, the community was encouraged to follow more of their dreams. Families pooled their income from cocoa to buy a saw mill and chains, and built improved houses. This is a great story of hard work and community self-determination which resulted in a much brighter future.
I would like to congratulate the community members involved in this project, and all those who supported them, for their inspiring efforts and this successful outcome.
This project demonstrates that Papua New Guineans are active citizens in development. They can contribute their local knowledge and ideas, their time and their resources to achieve tangible results.
It is very pleasing that this community initiative, supported by Australia, was a catalyst for further social and economic development.
Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen
An event that celebrates the development efforts of a community is a logical place to talk about a new program for supporting community initiatives.
Over the past two years AusAID has consulted with many communities like this one and with government, and NGOs and churches. During those consultations a number of themes came up again and again that AusAID has taken on board:
- Civil society want support for their organizations and their strategies, not just for their projects;
- communities and their organisations need support over the longer term, so they can develop and implement longer term solutions at their own pace;
- communities want to be better connected with their government institutions and decision-making processes;
- sub-national levels of government want to be better skilled and resourced to meet the needs of communities; and
- it is not just formal organisations that need and deserve support; small informal groups should also be supported.
So I am pleased to announce today in Rainaou, East New Britain that Australia is now committing 300 million kina to a five year program of support to communities and civil society called Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen that is designed to respond to these requests.
While the new program will build upon the foundations of the previous Community Development Scheme which funded this project in Rainaou, we have taken steps to improve the reach and impact of assistance. Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen will stretch further into remote areas across PNG.
Seven field offices will be established including Kokopo, and in new locations such as Buka, Vanimo and Mendi.
Community grants will continue to be an important part of the program. They will still involve inclusive planning and decision-making processes, and seek to ensure that each member of the community benefits, regardless of whether they are men or women, young or old, or people living with a disability or HIV. Every individual has the potential to contribute to development and should benefit from development.
As Rainaou has shown, it is the people who use services that are best placed to identify what services they need and how resources should be allocated. If people are involved in decisions about the planning of their services, they take ownership. And if they take ownership, they contribute to making those services work, in whatever way they can. A local clinic or school cannot be successful or sustainable without the support and engagement of the community.
It is for this reason that Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen will support communities to involve themselves in government decision-making processes, and will support government to implement participatory processes. While communities can address some of their immediate development needs through a small grant, their involvement in decision-making about how resources are used will be a much more powerful tool for meeting their long term goals.
Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen will promote partnerships at all levels, and between all the actors in the development process. It will seek to strengthen civil society – by which I mean communities, community based organisations, the private sector, NGOs and churches among others – to work in partnership with government.
Civil society can work with the government to meet PNG’s development objectives. Civil society – especially churches – delivers essential services across PNG. Civil society can support government to develop appropriate policies, and can advocate on behalf of communities about the implementation of those policies. Civil society can also provide important data for government reporting processes, and provide valuable lessons from the ground.
Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen will support a wider range of activities including media and awareness raising, community sports, and peace building among others. It will support organisations with a track record in getting information out to local people or finding innovative ways to increase awareness on and participation in important development issues.
Organisations such as the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council will continue to be jointly funded with the Government as PNG’s key mechanism for consultation with civil society.
The Program will be overseen by a Joint Governing Council that includes representatives from the National Department of Planning and Monitoring, Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs and the Department for Community Development as well as AusAID and representatives from civil society. It will also involve a much closer working relationship with the Department for Community Development.
Department for Community Development
I am told that the Department for Community Development, under the leadership of its dynamic Minister Dame Carol Kidu and its committed and experienced Secretary, Mr Joseph Klapat, has gone from strength to strength over the past two years.
The Department has launched its Integrated Community Development Policy, and commenced piloting Community Learning and Development Centres, and it has taken the lead on a number of important development issues that I feel passionate about, such as disability and preventing violence against women.
Australia now looks forward to a stronger partnership between AusAID and the Department, and to supporting the Department to meet its mandate in the areas where we have mutual interest. These include community development of course, and also sports, gender, disability and family violence.
Conclusion
As you can see Australia is taking a comprehensive approach to funding and supporting communities, civil society and government in PNG.
It is intended to be a long-term program, based upon partnerships that are founded upon the same principles of mutual respect and accountability underpinning the Partnership for Development.
So without further ado, it is my great pleasure today to hand over the completion certificate, officially declare this Rainaou water project open and to announce Australia’s new program of support the Strongim Pipol Kirapim Nesen Program.
Thank You.