Speech by AusAID A/g Minister Counsellor to the Alumni Conference
15 November 2007; Port Moresby, PNG
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen and of course Alumni, good morning.
Thank you for the opportunity to address the second PNG-Australia Alumni conference.
Since the Alumni’s inception there has been much positive activity which has seen substantial growth in member numbers, which now exceed 500.
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Alumni on a fine effort in such a short time. It is a reflection of the commitment of members towards the association but more importantly towards a better PNG.
Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate the awardees of Australian Scholarships for 2008 – many of whom are here today.
This year, 130 Australian Development Scholarships were offered to Papua New Guineans for a range of courses at both the undergraduate and post graduate level.
In addition, 13 Papua New Guineans have been awarded the prestigious Australian Leadership Award Scholarships, competing against thousands of candidates across the Asia-Pacific region.
Well done to you all and I wish you success in your studies and look forward to your participation in the Alumni Association on your return to PNG.
I have been asked to talk to you today on the theme of engagement and impact and discuss Australia’s response to, and support for, the Government of PNG’s development priorities.
This time last year Margaret Thomas, the head of AusAID in PNG, spoke on a similar theme. So rather than reiterate the same themes I will focus a little on how we are delivering our new country strategy in PNG and whether the program is positioned to respond to a changing environment in PNG.
I hope to demonstrate that, firstly, the core objectives and approach are highly relevant to PNG’s circumstances. And secondly, that we are able to respond effectively to emerging issues.
2007 has been an important year for the Australia Government’s aid program in PNG. It has been one year since our two Governments committed to the Development Cooperation Strategy, 2006 to 2010.
Developed collaboratively with the PNG Government, this strategy signals a different way for the Australian aid program to operate in PNG.
This new approach includes mutual commitments on both sides to focus more on development outcomes and to plan within total resources, both domestic and aid.
The strategy also focuses on further aligning with PNG planning – specifically the Medium Term Development Strategy – and to use PNG systems more extensively and, most importantly, to encourage greater development of partnerships in all areas and at all levels.
The Development Cooperation Strategy directly addresses and supports implementation of PNG’s own development goals.
A key strength of this strategy is that it focuses directly on addressing the fundamental development challenges facing PNG, including improving governance, generating broad-based growth, improving service delivery and tackling the challenge of HIV and AIDS.
These objectives ensure that our program teams are always keeping the big picture objectives in their minds even when working at a sector or local level.
The strategy places strong emphasis on sector program-based approaches rather than separate stand-alone projects.
Key features of this approach are firstly, agreement on a PNG Government strategy and action plan. Secondly, assistance from development partners helping the PNG Government to deliver its own plan. Thirdly, all resources in the sector are considered, as are all stakeholders – for example, churches in health and education. And lastly there is shared monitoring and reporting arrangements.
Sector-based programming provides for a more flexible mix of inputs timed to meet developments on the ground and provide the potential for more effective PNG leadership of its own development agenda and programs.
We already operate a program-based approach in the health sector and with law and justice agencies and are increasingly operating this way in supporting PNG’s HIV and AIDS response.
Over the next two years a range of sectors under the aid program including Education, Democratic Governance, and Economic and Public Sector Governance will move from project to program-based approaches.
In addition, our sub-national program, which works at a provincial level, is another interesting approach, working to support PNG’s Provincial Performance Improvement Initiative.
In addition to supporting PNG Government strategies and progress, our strategy highlights the importance of building a range of partnerships beyond government. Key partners include churches, other NGOs, community level organisations, the private sector and PNG’s other development partners.
But enough about strategies let me talk about what is actually happening on the ground under this evolving approach.
I will use our new program to support PNG’s response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic as an example of how we are now working.
Appropriately enough our HIV and AIDS program is called Sanap Wantaim.
Let me begin with a quick reminder of context.
PNG has the highest incidence of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific Region. The virus is firmly established in the general population and although found mostly in urban centres, HIV infections have been detected in all provinces of PNG and the trend of the epidemic is increasing strongly especially in rural areas.
Projections suggest that the prevalence rate among the rural population will overtake the urban rate in 2007, so the response needs to move increasingly into the rural areas.
The 2007 estimation report on the HIV epidemic in PNG indicates that 1.28 per cent of the population is living with HIV and AIDS.
If it’s allowed to grow, this epidemic will have a devastating impact on every facet of PNG life – communities, the economy, the workforce and on government service delivery.
But there are answers and key among these is strong, focused and committed leadership.
For six years AusAID operated a national HIV and AIDs support project. The project had considerable achievements.
This included training over 10,000 people in the areas of HIV prevention and home-based care; supporting the establishment of 75 voluntary counselling and testing centres; and supporting the development of the HIV and AIDS Management and Prevention Act which protects the rights of people affected by HIV and AIDS.
But the project was not able to lead to sustainable strengthening of the National AIDS Council, the National AIDS Council Secretariat and provincial AIDS committees in a way which allowed PNG to lead the response. To some degree the project was the response.
Now, Australia is continuing to support PNG’s national response to HIV and AIDS through the new PNG-Australia HIV and AIDS program, Sanap Wantaim.
Sanap Wantaim started in January this year and it is a 7-10 year program directly managed by AusAID working through PNG Government’s systems and policies.
Sanap Wantaim is supporting activities within agreed priority focus areas to contribute to the achievement of the PNG National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS 2006 to 2010.
Funding for activities is approved in the annual planning process which involves PNG Government Departments, civil society and donors. All sectors, government and civil society, come under one plan and budget. This means that existing agencies and partners are supported to deliver activities.
Sanap Wantaim is also committed to support capacity development of individuals, institutions and sectors. We are working with NACS to build capacity for leadership in relation to the national response through the “Leadership Support Initiative”.
This year for the first time a major forum on HIV and AIDS research in PNG was held in Port Moresby. It showcased all key HIV-related research conducted in PNG over the last 8 years.
The forum identified gaps in research and established a national HIV-related research agenda.
We are also one of a group of donors supporting the Independent Review Group of PNG’s national response to HIV and AIDS that is reporting directly to the National AIDS Council.
An additional characteristic is the mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS into all sectors supported by the Australian Government like education, law and justice, rural development and infrastructure, private sector and churches. In other words it is about reviewing our core work and making sure that it is appropriate in the light of the generalized epidemic in PNG.
Addressing emerging issues
The Australian aid program in PNG is also responding to emerging issues both from developments in PNG and arising from the Australian Government’s White Paper on the aid program which was delivered in May last year. Let me give some examples.
You will all be aware of the growing importance on the global agenda of addressing climate change.
In March of this year the Australian Government announced a two hundred million dollar Global Initiative on Forests and Climate to significantly reduce global greenhouse gases through reducing destruction of the world’s remaining great forests, increasing new forest planning, and promoting sustainable forest management practices worldwide.
Through the initiative we will work with developing countries, including PNG, and have invited developed countries including United Kingdom, United States, Germany, New Zealand and Japan to collaborate. We will also work with international organisations including the World Bank and the private sector.
The Global Initiative on Forests and Climate is looking to bring together both developed and developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global deforestation and to sustainably manage the world’s forests by placing an economic value on the ecosystem services which forests provide – that is, protection against global warming.
Our job now is to sit together with the PNG Government and see how our policies and objectives fit together and where an initiative such as this can support the Government’s own plans to sustainably manage PNG’s forests. This work will commence in the near future.
And how are we helping PNG to tackle economic growth?
The Enterprise Challenge Fund will directly tackle the challenge of broad-based economic growth, the type of growth which lifts people out of poverty.
The Fund is part of a new approach being piloted in the Pacific and South-East Asia including PNG, to increase the private sector’s contribution to poverty reduction.
The Enterprise Challenge Fund will provide incentives for the private sector to invest in commercially viable projects which extend the range of investments in the country and provide economic opportunities for a broader cross-section of Papua New Guineans.
Applications for funding are now being sought from the private sector.
Responding to a changing PNG environment
PNG is a land in which some things stay the same but many things change surprisingly rapidly. So it is important for PNG and Australia to ask themselves whether the aid program is able to respond appropriately to new developments in PNG.
Three key developments since our strategy was agreed in April 2006 – all very positive – are the conduct of national elections and formation of a new government. Secondly, continued and probably accelerating economic growth and thirdly, growing strength in PNG’s budget position which has resulted in four supplementary budgets containing extra expenditures in the past 18 months.
Let me focus on the third of these key events – PNG’s great fiscal strength – to illustrate how Australia’s aid program is responding to this new situation.
I should start by recognising and communicating the prudent way in which the PNG Government has managed the extra resources, which largely have accrued due to high global commodity prices to date.
The Government has reduced its debts to more manageable levels, better funded future commitments such as public servants’ superannuation, and put aside substantial funds for the rehabilitation of transport, health and education infrastructure.
Everyone agrees that this rehabilitation of key public infrastructure is long overdue. But it appears at the moment that the PNG bureaucracy is having difficulties in mobilising these funds quickly and effectively.
In the very short term at least, money is not the constraint. Instead there is an implementation constraint which is to do with both the capacity and performance of people and systems of Government.
The Australian aid program is centrally focused on helping the PNG Government to address these issues.
Working through PNG government systems also means a commitment to strengthen those systems where necessary and build capacity within PNG to plan, implement and monitor programs effectively, whether government or donor funded.
Sometimes there is an expectation that the Australian aid program should deliver goods and services directly. But our focus is on supporting PNG to deliver.
In order to build capacity within PNG, the aid program utilises PNG people, systems and organisations in order to deliver where possible.
The participation of PNG individuals and companies in the aid program has increased substantially over time.
For example, currently, in the infrastructure sector over 85 per cent of road maintenance funding goes directly through existing PNG Government implementation agencies such as the National Department of Works and also the Technical Services Division of the Autonomous Bougainville Government.
That means Australian funds are being used to maintain PNG roads, using existing systems established and managed by the PNG agencies responsible for maintenance.
Of course, Australia and other donors don’t just support PNG in financial terms but we, and all donors, have a strong focus on capacity-building throughout all the programs that we implement in partnership with PNG.
Capacity-building is a gradual process of strengthening institutions, organisations, and the individuals within them to perform their roles and functions effectively and deliver the outcomes necessary for sustained progress.
Right now, and in response to discussions with key PNG officials, Australian-funded advisors are actively working with their counterparts to help the central and key line agencies of government – such as health, education and works – to plan and deliver these infrastructure projects effectively, for the benefit of all Papua New Guineans.
This example demonstrates that building and maintaining a strong relationship with the PNG Government, which enables us to discuss and debate the issues and challenges, is an important part of achieving the necessary flexibility to deliver an effective aid program.
Leadership
Finally, as the theme of this conference is Alumni Leadership for Papua New Guinea’s Development, I would like to close my presentation by saying a few words about the importance of leadership in promoting good governance and the development of PNG.
The Australian Government’s 2006 White Paper on the Australian aid program identifies the effective functioning of a state’s institutions as central to development.
It recognises the importance of strengthening political governance, building demand for better governance, and promoting and supporting good leadership as being keys to improving governance of a country overall.
Of course it is easier to recognise this than it is for an external development provider such as Australia to know how best to support good leadership in PNG and elsewhere in the region.
Ultimately, leadership is up to individuals and comes from within. And we recognise the many and varied challenges and constraints facing leaders in PNG and the Pacific.
Nevertheless, there are a range of existing activities within the aid program that directly and indirectly support leadership and strengthen the capacity of PNG institutions and we plan to further extend our efforts to support effective leadership.
Our activities complement and support the Government of PNG’s major reforms to the public service such as the Public Sector Workforce Development Initiative and Provincial Performance Improvement Initiative.
You are all familiar with the PNG Australia Targeted Training Facility or PATTAF, which supports leadership not only through the administration of scholarships, but also focuses on public sector leadership through its support for the Public Sector Workforce Development Initiative and other activities such as the HIV and AIDS Leadership Support Initiative. And, of course, PATTAF supports your own organisation, the PNG Australia Alumni Association.
The Pacific Leadership Program initiative, arising from the White Paper, aims to strengthen governance in the Pacific, especially by building demand for better governance at community level.
The purpose of the Program is to improve leadership practices emerging at national, local and regional levels. It will be implemented through four focus areas: policy engagement; support for innovative leadership practice at national levels; development of a strategic research and analysis agenda; and partnerships with regional institutions.
The Pacific Leadership Program will engage with a broad cross-section of stakeholders across the region, including the private sector, women, youth, the media, academics, parliamentarians and the public sector.
Developing the PNG component of this program is a key activity set down for 2008 and we look forward to working with PNG partners to achieve this.
Conclusion
There are many challenges ahead for PNG.
Australia plays a role as a donor in supporting and enhancing the talent, enthusiasm, and energy of Papua New Guineans for addressing those challenges.
It is a complex role, in a complex country and only one part of a complex and dynamic bilateral relationship.
But we are committed on both sides to making it work well and to ensuring that it is serving PNG’s development needs and aspirations effectively.
Thank you.
A/g Minister Counsellor, Bill Costello