Improving Local Level Government in Papua New Guinea

Synexe has recently undertaken a project looking at ways in which local level government in Papua New Guinea can be made more effective

Problems of low capacity continue to bedevil development efforts in Papua New Guinea. This is particularly the case at the sub-national level. Indeed, for many individuals in the more remote rural areas the PNG state is little more than a myth with no real impact on their day-to-day lives.

This ‘lack of fit’ is particularly strong along three key areas, these being: wantokism, leadership and gender relations. However, despite these issues there are ways in which donors can work within these existing frameworks to increase the effectiveness of service delivery.

The key points of focus should be on helping provide ‘bottom-up’ support to the district level through empowering local communities and strengthening local level administrative structures and processes. Development interventions should focus on three groups: communities; LLG elected members and LLG and District level bureaucrats.

These interventions should involve a range of modalities including embedded technical assistance, support in the initiation of social accountability mechanisms by communities and awareness raising on the impact of increased female participation in local level government – including as elected officials. Combined, these and other initiatives should provide a stable platform for the achievement of effective development at the local level which, when linked through to similar reform initiatives at higher levels of government being supported by other donors, should provide a basis for the achievement of more robust development outcomes for Papua New Guinea.