Welcome to UNDP Papua New Guinea
UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We work in 166 countries, helping people find their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.
Despite vast natural and mineral wealth, Papua New Guinea is a very poor country and poverty impacts on the daily lives of almost all of the population. Poverty is exacerbated by among other things; extreme rural isolation; high rates of crime and violence; a burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic and recent political turmoil.
Only about 40 percent of Papua New Guineans enroll in school, 5.5 percent of babies born will die before they are two years old and the average life expectancy is just 57 years at birth.
UNDP works to improve the government's ability to deliver public services to the poor and in doing so, plays a vital role in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, raise the standard of living and protect human rights for ordinary Papua New Guineans. UNDP gives practical support to the government's efforts to become more efficient, effective, equitable and accountable. It attempts to foster greater participation in democratic and civil society and helps the government encourage private sector growth that makes use of the country's natural resources in a sustainable manner.
UNDP has been working in PNG since 1981, when it signed an agreement with the government to operate in the country. It has continually expanded and today works in these focus areas: MDGs and Poverty Reduction, Gender, Democratic Governance; Environment and Energy, Nation Building, and HIV, Health and Development.
About Us
Programme Aims and Accomplishments
UNDP Papua New Guinea has been working in PNG since 1981, when it signed an agreement with the government to operate in the country. It has continually expanded and today works in these focus areas below:
UNDP Programme Coverage
| Programme Areas | Province | Town/District |
| Sustainable Livelihoods (Energy and Environment) | N.C.D.
Work in other provinces constitute grant support to communities from Small Grants Programme | Port Moresby |
| Gender | N.C.D., Bougainville, Eastern Highlands, Milne Bay
(All provinces visited during roadshow on Legislation for 22 Reserved seats) | Port Moresby, Buka, Goroka, Alotau |
| HIV and AIDS | N.C.D., All provinces (For ProMEST); Priority provinces – Eastern Highlands, Morobe, Western Highlands, Bougainville, Milne Bay | Port Moresby, Alotau/Trobriand Islands, Goroka, Lae, Buka |
| Democratic Governance | N.C.D., Milne Bay, Central, East New Britain, Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western | Alotau and all districts, Port Moresby and all districts, Kokopo and all districts, Lae and all districts, Goroka and all districts, Tabubil and all districts |
| MDGs (MDG localisation workshops with Provincial stakeholders) | Madang, Chimbu, Central | Madang, Kundiawa, NCD |
| Crisis Prevention and Recovery | N.C.D., Bougainville, Oro (Northern), Eastern Highlands | Port Moresby, Buka, Buin, Arawa, Siwai, Popondetta, Goroka |
Accomplishments and Progress:
- MDGs and Poverty
UNDP’s technical assistance to the National Department for Planning has resulted into increased awareness of the people of PNG on the national and international MDG targets and indicators, monitoring, and demand for MDGs. For instance, In order to address these challenges, the Government came up with the long term vision of PNG, Vision 2050 in 2009 and PNG Development Strategic Plan (DSP) 2010-2030 and Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) 2011-2015 in 2010. The country tailored MDGs have been integrated in the MTDP. In this context, the MDG Coordination and Implementation Programme in PNG is continuing to support the government and civil society organizations in achieving the targets on the eight MDGs at the national and sub-national level as well as monitoring them.
- Gender
UNDP has continued its work to advance women’s representation in Parliament through advocacy efforts, road shows and workshops on the measure to set aside 22 Reserved Seats for women, to unpack the meaning of the Women’s Bill for communities at large, and to garner support from grassroots women to lobb y their MPs’ support for more women in Parliament.
Almost a million people in 22 provinces received the messages through media advocacy, public rallies, and village and community meetings. The pathway for the proposed Women’s Bill has been fraught with many hurdles that were seen to be impossible to overcome in a country like PNG where women are disadvantaged in numerous ways relative to men and to women in other parts of the world.
The Women in Leadership (WIL) project generated much debate nationally and became recognized regionally in the Pacific as a “champion” project for women’s rights. It connected the people of PNG at all levels and made some strategic partnerships with key high-level Government officials and supporters, and with the international community in PNG. While initially the demand for more women representatives in Parliament was UNDP-driven, during the last Parliament session in November, more than 400 women attended the session when the Bill was to be tabled, demonstrating the ownership and commitment of women for better governance and representation in parliament.
There is no doubt of the policy impact of the proposed Women’s Bill and the legacy it will leave for the people and future generations of PNG. UNDP support included: coordinating this work on behalf of the Minister for Community development, sharing innovative practices from other regions/ countries, providing upstream technical expertise and focusing on communication for change.
- Democratic Governance
UNDP assistance to provincial governments has unlocked the capacity of treasuries to fulfil their functions effectively. A mid-term review of provincial treasuries has found that they now show improvements in the quality and timing of financial reports and bank reconciliations, thus reducing back-logs. Public servants have reported an improvement in computing skills and treasury staff's ability to manage financial data from PNG Government Accounting System (PGAS). These results point to increased accountability and management of financial resources at the sub-national level. In the past delays in financial reporting has been a bottleneck in the issuance of subsequent resources for provinces which contributed to a recognized lack of service delivery.
- HIV and AIDS
UNDP’s technical assistance to institutional capacity development of CSOs in the area of HIV/AIDS since 2008 has resulted in improved financial management capacity y of these organizations, enabling them to effectively mobilize resource for HIV programmes. For the first time, 4 out of 20 provinces have channelled funds through CSOs to scale up HIV response at community level, acknowledging their capacity to deliver services on behalf of government. Those CSOs have now taken up advocacy for Most At Risk Populations including married women, MSM, and Sex Workers and developed advocacy strategies aimed at creating enabling environment for access to HIV and health related services. Leadership HIV positive networks that were engaged in UNDP’s leadership programme are now addressing culturally sensitive issues on stigma and discrimination, and have secured breakthroughs with provincial leaders to allocate significant resources for provision of antiretroviral therapy.
In addition, UNDP‘s long term support to the National AIDS Council Secretariat in the areas of Monitoring and Evaluation for the National Response resulting into the establishment of the M&E unit an the Secretariat. Similarly, the support resulted into the establishment of Provincial Monitoring, Surveillance and Evaluation Team (ProMEST), that coordinates HIV response at the sub-national Level. With this coordination mechanisms both at the provincial and national levels, there has been an increased flow/reporting of data from provinces, with enhanced capacity of the M&E team to analyse and disseminate findings regularly.
Leadership Programme has resulted into the establishment of national core team of coaches who are scaling up the transformational capacity development for leadership at various levels. Transformational Leadership Breakthrough Initiatives have impressive results such as women leaders establishing micro Credit facilities to support HIV affected women, energy innovations whereby village health centres have been solar electrified to enhance health service provision throughout the night; Leadership at policy level has taken on board HIV and legal reform initiative through making a submission to the National Executive Council to repeal certain clauses of PNG Sex Laws, that hinder access to HIV and Health Services for the most At Risk Populations.
- Disaster Risk Management
Due to UNDP’s advocacy, the Department of National Planning included Disaster Risk Management in the Development Strategic Plan (2010-2030) for the first time. UNDP provided technical support to the National Disaster Center in drafting DRM priorities for 2011-2015, which was included in the Medium Term Development Plan (2011-2015). For the first time, Government has allocated Kina 92 million in the MTDP (US$33M) for disaster risk management, in recognition that DRM is no longer a sectoral issue but a key development challenge for PNG. This is in sharp contrast to previous years, when no funding was allocated at all.
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Papua New Guinea
