Economist and lecturer Andrew Anton Mako, who left his own rural community at the age of 13 in search of an education, outlines what is needed to reverse the decline of many of Papua New Guinea’s rural communities.

Andrew Anton Mako delivering the 11th Henry Kila Memorial Address in Port Moresby, 16 May 2023. Credit: Roan Paul/Business Council of PNG

I was born in the mid-1980s, and grew up in the Highlands, in Enga, in Porgera District, in a beautiful government outpost called Kolombi.

During its heyday, Kolombi was more than just a government outpost. It had a well-functioning health centre that supervised more than 10 aid posts.

There was a police post with a permanent police officer, and a formidable village-court magistrate. Together they ensured law and order was maintained.

There was an agriculture extension officer to promote agriculture services, particularly for cash crops, and a kiap or government administrator.

There was an LLG [local level gvoenrment] chamber, which ensured regular local council meetings were held, and a community school which I attended as a boy.

However, disaster struck in 1996 with the closure of Kolombi’s airstrip, apparently due to a lack of funding for maintenance.

When the airstrip closed, Kolombi started to face ‘rural decay’. All the vital government services slowly ceased: the police post closed down, the kiap left, most health workers left and all the aid posts shut down; the agriculture extension officer departed, and the community school closed down as the teachers left.

Without the presence of a government authority, law and order started to deteriorate.

‘Economic diversification requires a conscious government policy shift to alter the structure of the economy away from the resources sector.’

I myself made the decision to leave. As a 13-year-old, I walked for 12 hours to Porgera town, in bare feet over treacherous terrain. I will forever be grateful to the family who adopted me, a complete stranger. They took me in and looked after me, enabling me to complete my schooling, and from high school I went to the University of Papua New Guinea and then the Australian National University.

However, as far as I can tell, I was the only one to escape Kolombi. By 1997, when I returned, again on foot, it was clear that government services had already stopped, and cash-cropping had been abandoned.

Since then, things have only got worse. All the development gains, even from before independence, have been lost.

What I have related is not uncommon. Indeed, it is the typical story of rural collapse in PNG. Reversing the decline will not be easy. But we must try. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but here are four reform priorities.

Governance is key

First, although Papua New Guinea started off well after independence in 1975 full of promise and the opportunities a new country could offer, in the decades since independence, corruption and maladministration have permeated both the public and private sectors of the country.

We now have a toxic mix of bad governance, and in my view, the Melanesian ways of doing things around allocation of resources, especially through the so-called big-men system, whether in politics, public administration and in business. The big-men system ensures that political, and public leaders receive automatic deference irrespective of their conduct.

‘Smart investments will not go far if we do not have a smart population.’

We, therefore, have members of parliament concentrating powers to themselves, especially under the auspices of devolved funding allocation, such as District Services Improvement Program (DSIP). The MPs decide the allocation of funding at the districts and provinces, which significantly dilutes their primary role as legislators in the national parliament.

How long will the PNG government continue to devolve scarce funding without demand for transparency and accountability? This is a crucial issue going forward because the government plans to allocate over two billion kina annually for the next five years to the provinces and districts.

Invest in people

Second, building the human capital of PNG is an important requisite for the nation’s development. Smart investments will not go far if we do not have a smart population. It is a known fact that the quality of education in PNG has either stalled or fallen over the years.

Investments to uplift the country’s education standards, as well as to build its human capital through teaching, research, staff and student exchange, and scholarships including at the tertiary education level are critically important. An educated young population is an important prerequisite for both the private sector’s growth and the overall economic expansion in this country.

Diversification

Third, economic diversification requires a conscious government policy shift to alter the structure of the economy away from the resources sector to support growth in the non-resources sector, underpinned by improvement in the real sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, tourism, ICT and other services.

Importantly, it is about the government providing the enabling policy and investment environment that would facilitate a private sector-led growth in the country.

After all the gold, copper, oil and gas of this country are exhausted, this country and its private sector will fall back on its human capital and its non-resources sector – such as agriculture, fisheries and manufacturing – and its institutions to drive economic growth and development in the long-term.

We need to invest in these sectors, using the proceeds from the mining and petroleum sectors now because, as Jerry Garry of PNG’s Mineral Resources Authority recently warned, our mines will run out in a generation’s time.

To conclude, it is both sad and worrying that we now have a young population growing up in PNG, in my old township and elsewhere, in a vacuum of good leadership, good governance, reverence to the rule of law, and with no meaningful exposure to the outside world. The collapse in basic education services in many rural areas  only makes the task of reform more urgent and important.

We need to make a significant push towards strengthening of our governance institutions. We need to embark on growth-enhancing policy reforms, strengthen our human capital by investing in our young people, and put more emphasis on the non-resource sector.

Andrew Anton Mako is a visiting lecturer and project coordinator for the ANU-UPNG Partnership. This article is an edited extract of the 11th Henry Kila Memorial Address made last month in Port Moresby. You can read Mako’s full speech here.