Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697636251065.pdf (Australia)
Inquiry into the delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New Guinea (PNG) The delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New GuineaSubmission 38 Inquiry into the delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New Guinea (PNG) RRRC Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade April 2015 The Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC) is a ‘not for profit’ consortium based in Cairns, North Queensland focused on delivering public good environment and community well-being outcomes in the Tropics.
The RRRC has been working in the Torres Strait Treaty zone since 2005 and with the PNG Treaty Village communities since 2009.

The research and implementation activities in PNG are focused on addressing the direct threats to the long term future of the region, these threats include the depletion of joint marine resources in the Torres Strait, biosecurity threats (human and environmental), extreme natural disasters, sea level rise, cultural erosion and declining community well- being.
The RRRC has been funded by the Australian Government to develop a community ranger program based on the highly successful Torres Strait Indigenous Ranger Program, to assist in the delivery of water, sanitation and community health in the Treaty Villages of the Western Province, PNG.
The “Building Resilience in the Treaty Villages, Western Province, PNG” program includes extensive training and support for Community Rangers from four Treaty Villages and the provision of four ‘fit for purpose’ vessels to improve transport safety.

Clean water, sanitation, community health and nutrition education activities, disaster response; food security and gender equity activities are included in the program.
This program includes the initial in situ training and support of 52 Community Rangers (including 12 women) to deliver these base services.

a.

The political, economic and social objectives of Australia‘s Aid Australia’s Aid Investment to PNG may be advanced through focusing on issues directly linked to Australia’s future in the Indo Pacific region, these include emerging heath issues, education, corruption control, corporate social responsibility and supporting the basis of sustainable economic growth.
To enhance the impact of Australian Aid Investment a greater emphasis is required to ensure that the Aid efforts reach through the bureaucratic framework to deliver tangible outcomes, particularly in remote, regional and Australia Border areas.

A stronger focus on situ capacity building is required to build great self-reliance and resilience to enable basic service provision to be reduced over time.
Inquiry into the delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in PNG Page 1 of 3 The delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New GuineaSubmission 38 b.
The role of multilateral and regional organisations, non-government organisations, Australian civil society and other donors There are clear benefits associated with the Australian Aid program engaging a wider range of providers, particularly where they are able to utilise the tropical skills and expertise that already exist in Northern Australia.

This represents a missed opportunity to achieve skills transfer that is ‘fit for purpose’ in the difficult and challenging environment of PNG.
Northern Australia and North Queensland in particular, share climate, marine resources, biosecurity threats and family ties with the Western Province of PNG.

The experience derived in conducting activities in North Queensland are highly transferable to PNG.
c. Scope for increasing private sector involvement in sustainable economic growth and reducing poverty Investments in private sector development and ‘aid for trade’ should not lose focus of the need to address local community development and local capacity.

Whilst focus on infrastructure is generally beneficial, it should not come at the expense of capacity building and the development of ‘soft infrastructure’.
This is particularly critical in the provision of community health programs such as the TB DOTS program, where hospital infrastructure does not replace distributed health care, on time delivery of medicines and community education.

d. Scope for expanding private sector partnerships in leveraging private sector investment and domestic finance A stronger focus on the development of small and medium enterprises is essential to the longer term sustainability of the PNG economy.
Promoting business-to-business engagement between equivalent enterprises in Australia will speed development and sustain general cooperation between Australia and PNG.

e. Improving PNG‘s progress towards internationally-recognised development goals The Australia Aid Program would benefit from a strong focus on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Promoting a social responsibility agenda with the private sector, particularly the large enterprises, will assist with progress towards the development goals.
Inquiry into the delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in PNG Page 2 of 3 The delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New GuineaSubmission 38 f. Supporting inclusive development by investing in good governance, health and education, law and justice and women‘s empowerment Though our work in Western Province we have found corruption at a political and bureaucratic level, the single largest obstacle to socioeconomic development.
While mineral resource wealth has driven up the gross domestic product (GDP), human development indicators in the South Fly of the Western Province have fallen.

Reducing and preventing corruption is clearly a long-term battle, which includes addressing the cultural divide between an introduced Westminster style bureaucracy and government system, and centuries of traditional governance frameworks based on acquiring and distributing resources to clan members.
Prioritising bureaucratic process over traditional governance structures has resulted in cultural erosion of the role of clan elders and an imbalance in village power structures.

Strong emphasis on investigating and addressing corruption in the use of Australia Aid funds is essential to improving delivery.

g. Establishing realistic performance benchmarks to assess aid outcomes against set targets and to improve accountability Australian Aid in PNG is a significant funding commitment.
This quantum of funding could readily justify a team of assessors to undertake ‘in situ’ assessment of program outputs and outcomes.

In field assessment by an experienced team at key intervals in the program would help reduce the potential poor or misdirected delivery.
h. the extent to which development outcomes in PNG can be improved by learning from successful aid programs in other countries We have the opportunity to learn directly from some of the successful programs in Australia, in particular Indigenous programs in Northern Australia.

To this end, the RRRC is replicating the functions and successes of the Indigenous Ranger Programs and extending the learnings into the Treaty Villages of the South Fly District of the Western Province of PNG.
Inquiry into the delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in PNG Page 3 of 3 The delivery and effectiveness of Australia’s bilateral aid program in Papua New GuineaSubmission 38