The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been operating in Papua New Guinea for 50 years. Roy Trivedy, the UNDP’s Resident Representative in Papua New Guinea, reflects on the country’s economic and social development and why working together—’Yumi Wok Wantaim’—is vital.

A Port Moresby road runner. Source: Business Advantage PNG

I am a runner. Every Saturday at 5 p.m. I run with the Port Moresby Road Runners Group. Almost 70 percent of the Road Runners are young unemployed people.

Most of them turn up every week, regardless of the weather conditions. They regard the running group as the highlight of their week.

They are full of energy, enthusiasm and passion. But they are also desperately looking for jobs and opportunities for a better life.

As we start our running each week, I remind myself that for all of our running group, the ‘race’ represents hope, well-being and improved prospects.

Fifty year anniversary

This year UNDP celebrates its anniversary. It has been a long 50-year ‘kilometre’ run, which we have done with the governments and people from about 170 countries.

Fifty years ago, one in every three people on the planet lived in poverty.

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We work to fight poverty, reduce inequality, empower people and—most importantly—to bring hope through peace, prosperity and sustainability.

The UNDP’s Roy Trivedy Source: UNDP

Fifty years ago, one in every three people on the planet lived in poverty. Within the last 15 years, extreme poverty has been reduced by more than half.

In Papua New Guinea—despite unmet Millennium Development Goal targets—progress is tangible. During the past 20 years, life expectancy has increased. People now live on average 10 years more than before. We’ve seen a 43 per cent increase in the Human Development Index value for PNG, from 0.32 in 1980 to 0.49 in 2013.

One million young people

We now have one million more young people going to schools than in 2000. We have stronger gender equality policies in place, better infrastructure and a vision for the country’s future.

Leading the UNDP team in Papua New Guinea, I am particularly proud of our work with the government and other partners.

Our community-led Millennium Development Goal Acceleration Project helps to mobilize rural communities to come up with exciting initiatives to improve livelihoods and well-being: building a community resource centre, improving access to water, putting in place a cassava production line and much more.

‘UNDP has pioneered and introduced an innovative corruption-reporting tool, which helped to recover US$2 million (K6.1 million) of fund mismanagement from the public purse.’

The project demonstrates the power of local communities to address their own needs and drive vital changes on the ground.

Sustainable development

UNDP has pioneered and introduced an innovative corruption-reporting tool, which helped to recover US$2 million (K6.1 million) of fund mismanagement from the public purse. It has resulted in a further 250 cases of alleged corruption currently being investigated.

Within our peace building efforts, UNDP supported the Presidential elections in Bougainville in 2015 and assisted the women of Bougainville to participate in the parliamentary elections.

‘PNG citizens are better off today than 50 years ago. But the people of the country have high aspirations and want to see further improvements.’

As a result, we saw the election of Ms. Josephine Getsi, the first woman to have an open seat to the Bougainville House of Representatives.

Thanks to these efforts, PNG citizens are better off today than 50 years ago. But the people of the country have high aspirations and want to see further improvements.

The limited progress on the Millennium Development Goals calls for all of us to focus on implementing the 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals.

Five transformations

Working closely with the government and development partners, I see five vital transformations that the country needs to focus on to advance the Sustainable Development Goals:

• Supporting an inclusive growth strategy that factors in climate and resource implications, through more use of ‘leapfrog technologies’ and investment in renewable technologies. These can create decent jobs and help to deal not just with the problems of today, but challenges that will affect citizens in the next few decades;
• Tackling more systematically and coherently the challenges in education, skills development, health and the well-being of people;
• Improving gender equality, supporting women leaders, empowering women and dealing with the high levels of gender based violence that impact on families, communities and businesses throughout the country;
• Investing more in agriculture on which 80 per cent of citizens depend. Aims include: better irrigation, agricultural extension, improved links to markets and better use of agricultural technology;
• Getting different levels of government—national, provincial, district—to work more effectively together and ensuring that this leads to better policy and practical outcomes, such as improved services and better law and order.

It will not be easy, but if we all work together—or, as we say in Papua New Guinea ‘yumi wok wantaim’— then we will succeed in achieving PNG’s Vision 2050 and make a real difference to the lives of citizens today, as well as future generations.