Papua New Guinea’s 2022 General Elections during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The upcoming Papua New Guinea (PNG) national general elections, scheduled to run from April through July 2022, are worrying, due to concerns not only about the health of Papua New Guineans but also the health of PNG’s democracy. In PNG, elections — held every five years — are one of the only occasions when citizens actively engage with the state on a nationwide scale. It is a period of high activity and mobility. In the midst of the pandemic, there are certain electiontime behaviours that make them likely superspreader events. Drawing from the experiences of two recent byelections in Goroka and Port Moresby North West, this In Brief examines some of the risks and implications associated with conducting elections during the time of COVID-19 as well as some of the negative aspects of PNG elections that might reoccur in 2022.Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad

‘When I go back’: Experiences and expectations of PNG women scholarship graduates on return home

Supporting education through scholarships has been a long-term development strategy of the Australian Government, including in the Pacific region, most notably through the Australia Awards Linkages Framework (DFAT 2020). This sustained investment has been regularly monitored and evaluated with tracer studies of Australia Awards alumni undertaken through DFAT’s Global Tracer Facility (GTF). These studies consider alumni perceptions of their relationships with Australia, and the extent to which alumni consider they have made a development contribution on return home (Edwards et al. 2020). In contrast, there is a more limited academic literature on the experiences of Pacific scholars once they have returned home from overseas, and more particularly, the gendered nature of those experiences (Howard 2019, Howard et al. 2019). This research aims to fill this knowledge gap and asks three interrelated questions: 1.To what extent do alumnae (that is, women scholarship graduates) expect, andfeel they are able, to act as agents of change on return home? 2.What factors either support or hinder alumnae approaches to facilitate changeon return home? 3.What are the consequences of alumnae attempts at – and/or achievement of –change? In answering these questions, a small-scale pilot study was conducted with a group of women who were not only recipients of an Australia Award (AA), but had also participated in a niche enrichment program known as the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI). Since its inception in 2017, almost 130 Pacific women scholars have participated in the WLI, with half of these from Papua New Guinea (PNG), reflecting the larger pool of AA recipients from PNG.Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad

Domestic violence, the law and related services in Papua New Guinea: A survey of young adults in Port Moresby and Lae

A survey of young adults was conducted in Port Moresby and Lae towards the end of 2019 and in early 2020 as part of a larger study on the use and efficacy of family protection orders (FPOs) as a key response to domestic and family violence (DFV) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This report presents the results from all 180 participants in the survey, of whom 95 were interviewed face to face in Port Moresby, 27 completed the survey online and 58 were interviewed face to face in Lae. The results are presented under the headings found in the questionnaire: characteristics of participants, perceptions of domestic violence, attitudes to gender and violence, knowledge of PNG family violence law and FPOs and recommended sources of help for victims. As this was an exploratory survey rather than a representative sample, a final section on the findings examines a limited number of independent variables — gender and place of residence — for the significance of their impact on key dependent variables.Australian Ai