Incentive Fund

In 1999, during Development Cooperation Treaty negotiations, the PNG and Australian governments agreed that Australia’s development cooperation program would include joint programmed assistance known as the Australia Papua New Guinea Incentive Fund.

Incentive Fund began in 2000 with the broad goal of encouraging PNG organisations to be more effective, build their capacity and ultimately contribute to the economic development and advancement of PNG.

The 10 million Kila expansion project within the ongoing master plan of improvements at the hospital was funded by the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership, through the Incentive Fund, and includes 2 million Kina in counterpart funding.

It has expanded the hospital emergency room, surgical outpatient area and operating theatres, as well as constructed a new obstetric ward and nursery, pharmacy, laboratory and dental clinic.

A new purpose-built training and administration building will support the training of doctors and nurses.

Francis has been an administration assistant, supporting her predominantly male colleagues at DWU for almost five years. She faces significant challenges as a woman working in construction administration but is grateful for the support of her colleagues.

“I’m grateful for the support of the admin staff, they always stand up for me and help me. We started really small and now we have come so far over the years.”

The Incentive Fund, a partnership between the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia, has provided K8 million, with the hospital providing K2 million of its own funding for the project.

The project includes a 70 percent increase in bed space for the Emergency Department; a doubling of surgical space for outpatients and the surgical operating theatre; a newly renovated ‘Krai building’; more storage for drugs; a new laundry; an additional obstetric ward and nursery, a new administration building and a dental clinic.

The Papua New Guinea-Australia partnership will fund the Palmalmal Secondary School in Pomio District, which is one of Papua New Guinea’s least developed areas.

The upgrade of the school will be funded through a K3.5 million Incentive Fund grant and a K1 million counterpart contribution from the Pomio District Development Authority (DDA). 

This is a result of a K10 million Incentive Fund grant to fund the redevelopment of the Hela Provincial Hospital in Tari.

The Incentive Fund is a jointly managed program delivered through the Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership. 

The purpose built teaching and learning facilities including new classrooms, computer labs, staff and student amenities, and two new lecture theatres that seat a total of 330 students.

PAU Vice-Chancellor, Raul Lozano, said “This additional purpose-built facility will alleviate the problem of room allocations for learning in various programs at the University. With these new facilities, students will have a better day-to-day academic experience. Ultimately, this will improve their overall learning experience and their future career prospects.”

Funding for the facility was made possible through the Incentive Fund, a partnership between the Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The 30-bed facility, to be called the Supportive Living Centre, will offer palliative care for terminally ill people and high quality care for the critically ill. It will also develop a support system to assist families to care for their terminally ill relatives at home.