Papua New Guinea

Democratic Governance

PNG's government, like the governments of many developing countries suffers from low capacity, low levels of skill and training, occasional corruption and a lack of transparency. In order to help achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by the year 2015, UNDP is helping the government tackle these issues and make itself more efficient, more focused on human rights, more democratic and more accountable so that it can better deliver services to the poor.

PNGs public sector is a key ally in alleviating the poverty that most Papua New Guineans find themselves in every day. With help from international aid agencies, the government is attempting to implement a programme for reform and UNDP is part of this process. The objective of UNDP assistance is to improve the government's ability to provide services to the poor. Inefficiency in government, corruption or a lack of aid effectiveness seriously hampers the country's ability to deliver pro-poor policies, lift the country out of poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

In practice, this means training provincial and central government officials in best practice using a range of mentoring and traditional training methods. UNDP experts often advise governments in such areas as financial planning, how to be more accountable and reduce corruption, strategic planning and how to simplify processes for offering services to poor people.

PNG is one of few countries in the region with a functioning parliamentary democracy. However, there is significant scope for improving the effectiveness of the parliament and its ability to liaise with other branches of government to ensure development occurs in an efficient manner.

Papua New Guinea has several human rights challenges. Gender based violence is widespread, and there are problems linked to police violence, violence against children, extended use of remand, and trafficking in women.