PNG’s Lost Decade? PEPE Budget Forum – 19 September at PNG’s National Research Institute

Over the last ten years, PNG has experienced a minerals boom that has led to a rapid rise in revenue and subsequent increases in public expenditure. However, PNG has struggled to translate the benefits of its resource wealth into effective development outcomes.

In an effort to better understand if service delivery conditions have improved or worsened over the last ten years, The Promoting Effective Public Expenditure (PEPE) Project completed extensive expenditure tracking and facility surveys across eight provinces at the end of 2012. Survey teams visited 215 schools and more than 140 health facilities in some of PNG’s most remote and isolated communities in order to complete over 1250 separate surveys.

The first findings from the surveys will be presented at the next PNG Budget Forum on 19th September at PNG’s National Research Institute in Port Moresby. The survey findings will be compared to a similar survey conducted by NRI and the World Bank more than ten years ago in 2002. The data from the 2002 and 2012 surveys will be compared to help assess progress or regress in key aspects of service delivery over the last decade. The forum will also examine differences across provinces. Subsequent budget fora will examine recent reforms in service delivery.

For further details on the next budget forum, please contact Colin Wiltshire or Andrew Mako.

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Colin Wiltshire

Colin Wiltshire is a Research Fellow at the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. He conducts research on political economy aspects of development in Melanesia. Prior to completing his PhD on the politics of service delivery in PNG, he worked at AusAID where he served in Timor-Leste and PNG.

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