Australia's aid programme in PNG under spotlight

Transcript

The effectiveness of Australia's aid programme in Papua New Guinea has come under the spotlight after a Senate inquiry heard sorcery-related violence, poor maternal and child health and limited access to water still plagues the country.

PNG is the largest recipient of Austalian aid, receiving more than 333 million US dollars this financial year.

Mary Baines filed this report.

Papua New Guinea is off track to meeting most of the Millennium Development Goals. World Vision's PNG country programme director, Curt von Boguslawski, told the Senate inquiry that the country's poor performance represents real problems in maternal and child health in the country.

CUR VON BOGUSLAWSKI: Stunting rates are close to 50 percent. This is higher than in many other countries of the world, even in more fragile contexts such as the Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of Congo. The under-five mortality rate is 61 in every 1000 live births - more than double the rate of neighbouring country Indonesia. One in every 120 expectant mothers faces the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth.

The non-government organisation, Water Aid, says over recent decades, much of the country's development has been limited despite strong economic growth in the country. Its policy officer, Luke Lovell, told the inquiry part of this lack of progress is due to limited access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

LUKE LOVELL: PNG has one of the lowest coverage rates in the world. Only one in five people use improved sanitation, and only two in five have access to a safe water source. This has a direct affect on people's health, education and productivity. Many girls drop out of school once they start menstruating because of a lack of sanitation and hygeine facilities at school. Given the documented benefits of female education for the girls themselves, their future children and their communities, this is a problem that must be addressed.

The Senate inquiry also heard of high levels of violence against women and sorcery-related violence. The PNG Oxfam country director, Esme Sinapa, says women are being accused of witchcraft when the real issue is often about land rights. She says many women have died because they couldn't get help soon enough.

ESME SINAPA: I think Papua New Guinea needs to declare an emergency on sorcery related violence. It is widespread in the country, an issue that is crippling and really is focused on women and people with special needs and the aged. People, they are using the sorcery accusations to grab land, to grab properties and things like that. So it's gone to a different level.

The Senate inquiry was also told the government should be ready to help Papua New Guinea deal with the effects of an El Nino event causing drought and frosts. The chief executive of humanitarian aid agency CARE Australia, Julia Hewton-Howes, says it is closely monitoring the drought situation impacting on PNG's Highlands region. Dr Hewton-Howes says CARE is concerned about people's access to food, and for a successful response, Australia must work out how to get aid out to remote communities.

JULIA HEWTON-HOWES: We think that it will be important, despite the government of Papua New Guinea not yet requesting external assistance that Australia monitors the situation and is ready to help. We know that people died of starvation in the 1997/1998 drought and that Australian assistance was important, but there are lessons to be learned.

In its submission to the inquiry, the International State Crime Initiative says Australia's aid programme has enabled, rather than remedied, state fraud and market distortions in the country. Kristian Lasslett says Canberra's approach to aid in PNG centres on the idea that the best way to foster development is through making the country more business friendly. Canberra's argument, he says, is that fostering economic growth and investment creates a trickle-down effect that leads to improved human development outcomes. But he says this approach is incompatible with the reality on the ground, where business has too much liberty.

KRISTIAN LASSLETT: And when I say liberty, they have the liberty to set prices that are far in excess of the market value of the services and goods they provide; they have the liberty to misappropriate landowner assets, state assets with impunity; they have the liberty to develop completely superfluous projects that are often inflated in price and are not delivered at all or to inadequate quality; they have the liberty, as we've seen in the legal industry, to steal state funds en masse.

Dr Lasslett says the aid programme should make more of an effort to listen to and empower PNG grassroots communities.

KRISTIAN LASSLETT: What strikes you when you look at the Australian aid programme - where does most of the money go? It goes on Australian higher education institutions, it goes on Australian companies who are now the private service providers of aid, it goes on Australian advisors. Then of course most of the consultation is done with a lot of these international companies and international organisations. And the people who are left out are Papua New Guineans. And there is a lot of knowledge there about how to go about changing things for the better. People are deeply in tune with local development strategies that suit them - their culture, their custom, their ways of life and their ambitions as communities.

Dr Lasslett says the Australian aid programme should also provide more support to civil society projects and to assist to developing a free and independent media in PNG.