Foreign aid is changing quickly in PNG but progress remains frustratingly slow
The Pacific island faces an ongoing struggle to deliver economic benefits from its gas riches.
The children at the preschool in the province where PNG Prime Minister James Marape hails from have spent weeks practising. One by one they present hand-made leis to the visiting dignitaries and perform a song at the ceremony that marks what heralds the evolving nature of foreign aid in the tiny Pacific island.
With the backing of the Santos Foundation, the Habare Literacy Library is close to being a PNG-government run preschool – a key objective of the government and the not-for-profit arm of the Australian oil and gas company – to deliver one year of preschool to children in the area.
Aid is changing. Gone are the days when aid would be delivered in gifts that did little to reduce the dependency of recipients on donations, instead replaced by sustainable assistance that fosters self governance.
Jodie Hatherly, chief executive officer of Santos Foundation, says the Santos Foundation’s strategy is to support and help develop embryonic community projects to a point where they can be majority funded and administered by the community or local authorities.
“We’re always looking at the back door. I know that sounds terrible but it’s a good thing because we can turn our attention to what’s next. The last thing we want to be doing is spending $5m every year on that one project because there is a lot of need,” Ms Hatherly says.
But as two children take turns to read, the school’s librarian reveals around half of the 40 children enrolled have been unable to attend at times through the year as a result of tribal unrest that have made commuting – often taking an hour by foot – too dangerous.
The pattern illustrates how aid in PNG, like all developing countries, can struggle to deliver the change demanded by Mr Marape when he came to power in 2019 demanding foreign companies pay more.
“Sometimes you feel like you take two steps forward and a tiny step back. But it is progress,” Ms Hatherly tells The Australian.
Violence, unfortunately, is not uncommon. Down the road at the Tari Hospital, which treats 8000 patients a year, the local doctor says about a third of patients are presenting with machete injuries or gunshot wounds.
Statistics are stark but also grounds for optimism. In less than a decade, the hospital has grown rapidly. In addition to the emergency room, it has two pediatric doctors, an operating theatre, a psychiatrist, and plans to develop a prosthetic service.
The success is the result of the hard work of Dr James Kintwa, who has worked with the Santos Foundation and its partners – including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – to improve the standard of the hospital so that it qualifies for more public funding.
In 2015, foreign aid was 10 times what the hospital received in public funding. It now receives 35 times more public funding than it does from aid donations.
Still, it must also contend with the issues of instability. To entice female workers, it sought help from Santos to install a security fence around the female dormitories. And the threat of unrest – the latest of which occurred just days prior to the visit – means the hospital struggles to attract an anaesthesiologist.
Growing pains
Less than 50 years old, the exact population of PNG is not known. Officially it is little over 10 million, but a report by the UN estimated the true population to be closer to 17 million.
What is undeniable, however, is the country’s harsh geography – consisting of mountains, jungles, and isolated river valleys – that is home to hundreds of different tribes and more than 800 different, often very distinct languages.
Development is often upended by natural disasters, the latest a landslide that struck just a few months ago. Hitting during the middle of the night meant most people were sleeping at the time of the disaster, with little time to escape.
Hundreds are feared dead, with the United Nations estimating that at least 670 people may have lost their lives.
Leon Buskens, PNG country chair at Santos, describes the cultural inhibitors to aid as “growing pains”.
“We come from a tribal system and some of that goes back many, many generations. Then there is the payback culture, which can extend conflicts,” Mr Buskens says.
“We are a young country. We haven’t gone through revolutions, industrial or agricultural. We will get there.”
Progress can be incremental, modest by some standards, but still impactful and consequential.
Neighbouring Pimaga, some 60km south of Hela, illustrates some of the impactful change possible.
After taking redundancy, Warubi Masahimu used his severance pay to develop a vocation training centre to train electricians, mechanics and carpenters.
Mr Warubi says it offers young people a second chance as many struggle to complete school.
On average PNG students complete year 10 but the figures are far worse in rural parts of the country.
Kacy Steven, 22, is one of nearly 300 students enrolled.
“I was a drop out. I spent two years back at home with my parents, but there was no financial support for people like me with no skills. This was a really good alternative,” she says.
Some 60 students are set to graduate this year.
Facilities are now enhanced by the installation of a micro-grid that will allow the students to use power tools, while the neighbouring community will have street lighting for the first time.
“We’re preparing them to be better skilled at home in their communities, and to be skilled and qualified for employment,” says Mr Warubi.
“For the first time we will have access to power to support our learning needs, provide a better environment for those students and teachers that live on campus and create a safer environment for everyone, particularly women and girls.”
The reporter travelled to PNG as a guest of Santos