United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the EU-funded Preventing and Countering Corruption in PNG Project implemented in partnership with Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) partnered to host the round-table discussions.

UNDP Papua New Guinea Resident Representative, Nicholas Booth, shared that the key objective of the roundtable was to discuss the status of a way forward related to the Access to Information legislative framework in PNG.

The aim is to effectively communicate with the general public complex economic information in a simplified manner.

This was made possible through a knowledge session provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with USP as part of the Vaka Pasifika Project funded by the European Union (EU).

Effective public finance management is vital for good governance, yet often technical information fails to reach the public effectively.

This week saw a significant milestone with the official opening of two new office units for the Family Sexual Violence Unit at the Gordons and Badili Police Stations respectively. 

UNDP provided the infrastructure to allow highly trained and specialized police personnel to provide protection services and access to justice for survivors experiencing violence, especially for women and children. 

The consultations were facilitated under the Strengthening Integrated Sustainable Land Management Project.

The project will establish two new conservation areas as a part of its efforts to protect biodiversity while also enhancing smallholder agricultural livelihoods in a sustainable manner.

This undertaking is a new phenomenon in Enga Province, where despite community desires to protect biodiversity, there are currently no protected areas.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Communicating with Disaster-Affected Communities (CDAC) Network, are formally launching the report.

“Yumi Wok Bung Wantaim – We Work Together” culminates findings of nationwide consultations with key humanitarian stakeholders in all four regions of PNG. Local communities; government leaders at district, provincial, and national levels; NGOs and CSOs; and international partners operating in PNG were among the stakeholders consulted for the report.

As the number of infected people continues to soar, emergency response services in rural regions are in need of effective ambulance services. On presenting a new ambulance today to the PNG Government for Finschhafen District in Morobe Province.

UNDP Resident Representative, Dirk Wagener explained that the ambulance will “help to address some of the pressure, but we must lift vaccination rates and raise community awareness as an absolute priority,” Mr Wagener said.

On Ormot Island in the Morobe province, the islanders share the impacts of the shrinking islands due to the rise in sea level.

Ormat Islander Sipora Nargara said, “We are islanders. We live on fish and there is no fish where they wanted us to resettle. We are not used to life there.”

In Milne Bay, provincial disaster officer Steven Tobessa said the province has over 600 small islands and atolls. He anticipates locations for these islanders in the near future.

Made possible through the collaborative efforts of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF, these ventilators will bolster the nation’s investment in building frontline health systems capacity. The six are the first batch of 30 such ventilators scheduled to be delivered to Papua New Guinea.  

Ambassador Catherine Ebert-Gray signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) alongside UNDP’s Resident Representative, Dirk Wagener, to manage and deliver UNDP’s Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Ready project. 

“The U.S. government believes that every country must be given the opportunity to carve their own path to self-reliance and sustainable development,” said Ambassador Ebert-Gray.

However, challenges still remain with regard to unifying the women of Bougainville; having them take a seat at the same table to further the common goal of maintaining peace by peaceful means.

In August 2017 an historic conference took place that saw women from North, Central and South Bougainville come together to highlight the significant role, both in times past and at present, women play in both building peace and fostering social cohesion in the region.