NZAID Field Blog

Life on an Outer Island

2009-12-24T10:30:00.012+13:00

In early December Communications Advisor Pip Robertson and NZAID Manager Julie Affleck visited two outer islands in the southern Cook Islands. They accompanied Cook Islands government officials and a team of engineers from Beca International who were working on designs for two harbour upgrades, which NZAID is funding. Pip shares her impressions of Mitiaro, one of these islands.

Flying over the Mitiaro and coming in to land, the view from the aeroplane window is startling. The island is tiny - just 6km across at its widest point - and ringed by a wide coral reef. The terrain is extremely flat and there is only a scattering of buildings on the south coast, where the population of less than 200 people live.

In these main village areas, brilliant orange pumarumaru and fragrant tipani (frangipani) trees line the streets laid with crushed white coral. Gardens are well-tended and rubbish non-existent. Inland, communal village plantations yield kumara, taro, corn, bananas and watermelons all produced without pesticides or fertilizers. As a visitor it would be easy to idealise life on Mitiaro, but there are serious issues Mitiaro residents face in their everyday lives.

Mitiaro is 50 minutes by air from Rarotonga, with flights scheduled just twice a week. This provides a supply link, but the vast majority of goods (including fuel for the island's generators and all imported food) are transported to the island by a cargo ship that docks in the open sea. A barge then ferries goods from the ship to the shore via Mitiaro's harbour. This harbour is really just a channel through the reef to an excavated area and dock where goods can be unloaded. Weeks, and sometimes months, pass between the cargo ship visits and because conditions can be treacherous in this small channel, the ship sometimes returns to Rarotonga without the cargo having been unloaded.

Making the harbour safer and therefore more efficient was the main purpose of the visit to the island. The team of engineers from Beca were there to gather information to redesign and upgrade Mitiaro harbour as well as the harbour in Mauke, another of the outer islands east of Rarotonga. Both harbour projects are funded by NZAID.

The Beca engineers did a lot of technical work on the islands: measuring water depth, observing wave patterns and the condition of the sea bed, and testing the strength of the existing rock and coral to ascertain how best to design the harbour. They also investigated materials that exist on the island that could be used as the aegrogat to make concrete from, reducing the need to import materials from Rarotonga.

However, the engineers’ trip was not just about materials and measurement. Equally important was meeting with the community who use the harbour and gaining information from their long term experience of the sea conditions. This was also a chance for the community to talk about their priorities. Consultative meetings were held where plans were laid on the table and the costs and implications of different design aspects were discussed.

Richard Frankland, the lead engineer in the Beca team, stressed how important this was. “Hearing this local knowledge and having the time to observe the harbour is what makes coming here worthwhile. We’ve learned so much from being here; we couldn’t have designed this harbour just sitting in our office in Auckland.”

Safer, more efficient cargo transport will be a significant improvement for people in Mitiaro, but one of the other major problems the island faces is more complex. Decreasing population is a key issue of concern, compounding and compounded by the lack of employment opportunities. Most of the resident population is made up of school children and elderly people. The majority of adults on the island of working age are employed by the government, for example as teachers and infrastructure workers. Agriculture and fishing provide other informal occupations.

Unlike Rarotonga and Aitutaki, tourism in the conventional sense doesn't exist on Mitiaro, with only a handful of tourists visiting a year. However, the population more than doubles in the summer months as hundreds of relatives return to Mitiaro. Locals indicated that this is a time of economic opportunity for the island. Even though most of the visitors are family, there is still demand for food and accommodation while they are on the island, and for local crafts to take away as souvenirs.

But even within the resident population there are business opportunities, particularly for goods that are inconvenient to import from Rarotonga. In March 2009 Makara Murare opened a bakery with the support of an Outer Islands Development Grant, a Business Trade and Investment Board scheme that AusAID/NZAID has supported. In the scheme the business owner provides 70 percent of the funding and the grant provides 30 percent. In the nine months the bakery has been open Makara has gone from baking three days a week to baking six or seven days and trebled the amount of bread he bakes each day. His bakery is so popular that the store on Mitiaro no longer stocks bread, which was previously imported from Rarotonga and cost $7 loaf. There are possibilities that the business will be able to employ people - and this kind of venture is needed on the island, as so many people leave for employment.

At a Mitiaro Women's Council meeting I asked how many people present had lived on Mitiaro all their lives. Everyone in the room raised their hand. On further questioning, I found out that almost all of them had spent time away: living and working on Rarotonga and other islands, or in New Zealand or Australia. One woman explained that she had spent 14 years in Rarotonga working as a teacher, but saw no incompatibility with this fact and with expressing that she had lived in Mitiaro all her life. It may be semantics, but it does reinforce the deep-seated connectedness, pride, and loyalty that local residents obviously feel for their island.

This is in part because of how close-knit Mitiaro is. There is a tangible sense of community, centred around church activities and the island council. And, inevitably in such a small place, there are multiple connections between people. Even as visitors, after a couple of days most faces on the island were familiar, and we were drawing the links between families.

The connection Mitiaro residents have with their home is not limited to older generations. We visited Mitiaro School, which was refurbished last year by the Ministry of Education with the support of AusAID/NZAID. Speaking to a group of senior students at the high school, their love of Mitiaro was clear. Some had ambitions - to be an accountant, to be a pilot - that would unavoidably take them away from Mitiaro but most of the students wanted to remain on the island if employment allowed. Finding those opportunities will be an ongoing challenge.

Many of the things that I found so unusual about the lives of the residents of Mitiaro - its tiny land area and close-knit population - are, of course, entirely subjective. Julie asked the class of senior students what they liked most about returning to Mitiaro after being away, and one of the students seemed to speak for them all.

"Just coming back here," he said, and smiled and shrugged as if that answer were obvious. "Coming back to normal life."

Two serious storms hit the Philippines

2009-11-17T14:27:00.016+13:00

Andrew Matheson, New Zealand ambassador to the Philippines, writes about the two serious storms that hit the Philippines recently.

The Philippines is no stranger to tropical storms and typhoons. The country sits in a ‘typhoon belt’ and is typically hit by around 20 annually in the typhoon season that occupies the latter half of each year. On average five of those cause fatalities and significant damage.

But what was unusual this year was the country being ravaged by two major storms only a fortnight apart, that caused different types of damage but together resulted in more than 1,000 fatalities.

The events started on Saturday 26 September with tropical storm Ketsana. This storm, known as Ondoy in the unique naming system used by the Philippine weather service, sat stationary over the nation’s capital and dumped a record 455 mm of rain in just 24 hours — more than a month’s average supply.

Though quite a lot of the country was affected, the damage was most serious in and around Manila. And it was a tale of two cities. Much of the city, especially the housing of the middle and upper income portions of society, wasn’t badly affected — just water damage to housing and personal effects. But other areas were devastated — houses washed away, and others filled with stinking, contaminated water and mud. Eight weeks after Ondoy, significant areas of Manila are still flooded and inhabitants are still living in emergency shelters.

Just two weeks after tropical storm Ondoy the country was hit again. Typhoon Parma (known locally as Pepeng) crossed the northern island of Luzon, doubled back, then sat over the central mountain area of the Cordilleras and dropped record amounts of rain. Unlike with Ondoy where most of the fatalities were caused by drowning, with Pepeng the killer was landslides. The affected area is very mountainous with little remaining forest cover. Villages and farm houses cling to the hillsides, and many were simply swept away. In the nearby flat rice growing areas of Pangasinan province vast areas of crops were inundated, with many people’s homes washed away.

I had the opportunity to inspect flood ravaged areas on 10 November, by hitching a ride on a UN World Food Programme helicopter that delivered relief supplies to the remote village of Kibungan in Benguet Province, still cut off from the outside world a month after the typhoon.

The hillsides in the Cordillera region are scarred with fresh landslides, many taking away the terraced vegetable gardens that provide a livelihood for so many of the area’s people, and obliterating houses, roads and bridges. Repairing the infrastructure will be a long and expensive job.

En route to the mountains north of Manila it was easy to see how much rice-growing land had been ruined by being inundated first by Ondoy and then by Pepeng. Perhaps most surprising of all was flying over the shores of the large lake called Laguna de Bay on the eastern edge of Manila. All along the lakeshore houses, schools, shops and factories remain under water. It’s expected that it will take months for the level of the lake to drop sufficiently for these buildings to be able to dry out.

Red R ‘Essentials of Humanitarian Practice’

2009-08-17T13:18:00.010+12:00

Aaron Davy is part of NZAID’s Humanitarian & Peace-Building Team. To help mark World Humanitarian Day (19 August) he has written about his recent experience on the Red R ‘Essentials of Humanitarian Practice’ course at Burnham Army Camp.

Red R Training in the ‘Essentials of Humanitarian Practice’

It all started rather inhumanely for two other NZAID staff and myself; with an extremely early morning flight to Burnham army camp in Christchurch. The objective of our ‘mission’: to take part in the five day training facilitated by Red R (Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief).

NZAID is the main supporter of Red R and provides $50,000 a year towards funding of its two core training courses. The aim of this particular course, ‘Essentials of Humanitarian Practice’, was to impart upon us an understanding of the international humanitarian system, and the requirements to consider when undertaking a humanitarian deployment.

Red R’s intensive training started by covering relevant international legal frameworks, such as Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, and Human Rights Law. We then examined the many contemporary issues that compromise the implementation of these laws, including domestic priorities, responses to the threat of terrorism, and issues of food security.

As the days progressed, we also examined the mandates and inter-agency relationship between the main humanitarian responders; OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), United Nations Military Peacekeepers, and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), etc. Ongoing debate ranged from the legal obligations of national governments towards refugees within their sovereign borders, to the relationship between civilian and military players within a ‘humanitarian space’. The NZAID participants also did a presentation on their agency’s involvement in humanitarian action, linking into many of these themes.

The course also incorporated many practical lessons on needs assessments, dealing with stress in the field, and radio communications, and culminated in a (rather taxing and intensive) all day exercise. This assignment drew together all we had learned to manage a ‘real life’ humanitarian crisis (involving local school children dressed as refugees, and Red R staff role-playing as obstinate journalists and manipulative government officials!).

The real-life ambience of the military base provided further interest to our tasks but by the end of the five days we were all ready for a good night’s sleep, and a life free of 7:00 am radio calls requiring us to utilise the phonetic alphabet (pre-morning coffee!). However, we all left considerably energised by the experience and with plans to complete additional Red R training; in preparation for potential deployment to a real relief assignment sometime in the future.

Supporting new opportunities in Afghanistan

2009-05-12T12:53:00.008+12:00

Suzanne Loughlin is an NZAID Multilateral Development Programme Manager. She is currently in Afghanistan, and writes about the development challenges and achievements there.

On Monday I attended openings for two training courses. The first is provided by the NZAID-funded Programme for Professional Development under leadership of Director, Marissa Espinneli. It is an eight-month course for graduates to help them enter the job market. Limited employment openings mean there are few opportunities to develop and so the course aims to fill this gap. It provides for basic skills in drafting reports, developing and managing budgets, communications training and so on. It also offers short-term placements to build practical experience. Marissa provided an overview of the programme and then invited the Provincial Governor, Dr Habibe Sarabi, to say a few words of inspiration. The NZ PRT Commander, Greg Elliott, and I also wished the students well not only for the course but for where it might take them.

The second event opened a training course for tourist guides and is part of the eco-tourism programme again funded by NZAID and implemented by Aga Khan Foundation. Baba Mouseni, head of the Provincial Council, spoke as did Governor Sarabi and others. The three-month training programme aims to ensure that guides are informed of the World Heritage Status of the Bamyan Valley, have an understanding of the history and archaeology of the region, and a more detailed understanding of nine sites for which brochures have been prepared and signboards under construction. Most of the course is being provided by Afghans.

I went back Tuesday to meet with the eco-tourism programme director, Amir Foladi, to catch up on what else the office had been doing. We looked at photos and he told me about a major event held back in March to celebrate Nowruz (New Year) – it’s the first time this festival has been held for some 30 years. Several thousand people attended the festival, which has both religious and secular components. There were skits that were not only fun but aimed to communicate messages about tourism and the need to care for the environment, musicians played traditional instruments and – another first – two young women sang accompanied by musicians on traditional instruments. I asked if this had caused any waves and if he had had any trouble arranging the programme. His answer provided a good example of what is commonly referred to as ‘ownership’. He involved as many community members and groups in the festival planning on the basis that if everyone is involved then all would ‘own’ the festival – both the accolades and the problems. He would not be left alone to deal with any friction should it arise. And it didn’t.

Another summer festival is currently being planned which will be held at the newly established national park at Bandi-Amir in July. I wish I could be there!

For more information on tourism opportunities in Bamyan - click here to read more.

Note: the photos have been taken from the Nowruz Festival in Bamyan.

On the ground in Afghanistan

2009-05-05T15:47:00.006+12:00

Suzanne Loughlin is an NZAID Multilateral Development Programme Manager. She is currently in Afghanistan, and writes about the development challenges and achievements there.

The first days of this visit were spent getting into Kabul and meeting with partners in their Kabul headquarters. Some discussions focused on progress with implementing projects such as the UNIFEM work on establishing a Women’s Referral Centre in Bamyan, in collaboration with the Government of Afghanistan, to improve protection for women wanting to press charges or who have been accused of crimes and are in need of support. National partner Shuhada Organisation gave a presentation on outcomes of the Winter Teacher Training programme. Support to Shuhada is as much about providing opportunities for organisational development as it is for actual service delivery and the presentation showed significant progress.

One day only was scheduled for me in Kabul as the focus of NZAID’s work is in Bamyan and security is less of an issue there than it is in Kabul. I got to Bamyan mid-afternoon and went to the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to meet with NZ Defence Force personnel and catch up on plans for New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s visit and the dawn ANZAC day ceremony.

After a chilly but beautiful dawn ceremony and breakfast, the party set off to Shahr-e Golgola, or City of Screams, and climbed to the top. The views are fantastic with snow-capped mountains in the distance and women, men and children going about early morning tasks in the villages below. The city gets its name from the time when Genghis Khan came through to avenge the death of his son. A young woman within the city betrayed the local Hazara people by giving away the source of water to the citadel and the siege was soon broken. However, instead of being rewarded by Genghis Khan for her troubles she was killed along with everyone else in the citadel – she was no longer seen as being trustworthy.

We then proceeded to the Bamyan Hospital where NZAID and the NZ PRT have been working in support of the Aga Khan Health Services who manage the hospital. New Zealand funding has been used to build a maternity ward, laundry and a new kitchen, which the Minister opened. A new out-patients building is also under construction and should be finished by the end of the summer. Minister McCully commented on the fact the substantial amount of concrete in the building had all been done by a very small mixer and poured wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow.

The group also visited the children’s ward, where staff were dealing with an outbreak of pneumonia. Despite major progress with facilities the hospital still cannot cater to the needs of those who do manage to access health services and currently there are four to a bed – two mothers and two children – in the children’s ward. Staff also noted that they would not be able to cope without the mothers as they are the ones who do most of the care-giving.

After tea and cake we proceeded to Bamyan University. The most significant change here this year is that 118 young women are enrolled in their first year of tertiary study. This is a significant increase on the two that were here in 2006!

Suzanne Loughlin

25 April 2009

First, build your desk – Skills training in PNG

2009-04-30T12:16:00.020+12:00

Adham Crichton, an NZAID communications advisor, describes a skills-training centre he visited earlier this year in Papua New Guinea.

In January I was part of the delegation that travelled to PNG for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting and then onto the Solomon Islands.

During my time in Port Moresby, NZAID Programme Administrator John Koi took me out to visit the Morata Vocational Centre. The centre runs short term-training programmes on behalf of the Ginigioada Foundation, a not-for-profit community development organisation based in Port Moresby.

Skills training is important Pacific-wide but it has special significance in Port Moresby, where 80 percent of the population is unemployed or underemployed. The training targets unemployed young people and covers welding, plumbing, carpentry, small motor repair and electrical maintenance.

Mr Gabriel Iso from the Ginigioada Foundation and the centre’s manager Mr Hillary Damke took the time to show me around, and it was amazing what they were able to achieve given the basic nature of the facility.

The carpentry students at Morata helped build the electrical workshop at the Centre and also helped build desks for a local school, which highlights just how limited training facilities are in PNG, and also the very practical nature of the centre’s training.

The success of the Morata Vocational Centre and the Ginigioada Foundation is that the training they offer is aligned with identified skill shortages and participants must show they are committed and have the support of their local community.

NZAID provided PGK$77,000 in the 2007/08 financial year to support the Ginigoada Foundation’s Skills Development Training Programme. This funding covered the hire of venues and tools, and allowances for trainers who run the vocational courses.

The accompanying photo show Mr Gabriel Iso and Mr Hillary Damke in the facilities that the centre’s students helped to create.

You can read more about skills training in the Pacific and the Morata Vocational Centre in the latest edition of NZAID's magazine Currents.

Tidal floods in Papua New Guinea

2008-12-18T16:47:00.004+13:00

Pati Gagau, NZAID’s manager in Port Moresby, gives a local perspective to the recent king tides and flooding in Papua New Guinea.

What has been the focus of your work since the tides and flooding?

Pati: Since the tides and flooding, we have been working very closely with the National Disaster Centre (NDC), which is the PNG Government entity responsible for coordinating the relief response. NDC has taken a proactive leadership role in working with donor partners, local and international NGOs, and provincial disaster coordination centres in the affected areas to provide much needed supplies such as water, food, and building materials. The New Zealand Government has contributed NZ$300,000 to help with relief efforts, and we are working with local NGOs to utilise this funding to meet some of the needs identified.

How are people in the flooded areas lives being affected now that the water has subsided?

Pati: Many people have been displaced with the loss of their homes, personal belongings, food gardens, livestock, and water sources because of the floods. The transformation from changes to their normal pattern of lifestyle, as well as having traditional/sacred places destroyed will have a long-lasting effect on people, particularly the older generation. People's diet and way of life will change dramatically, especially when coastal people who have lived most of their lives close to the water are relocated inland.

What is the attitude of people in PNG to the situation?

Pati: NDC have confirmed that almost 60,000 people have been affected by the disaster across six provinces and outer islands in the northern region of PNG. The print media has been running reports every day since the events started a week ago, and there has been a lot of sympathy and support expressed by the general public. GoPNG has been commended by many for the quick response in funding the disaster-stricken areas. The loss of personal effects such as tools for gardening/trades, cooking utensils, clothes, beddings, etc will have an impact on rural people affected, as these are things they will struggle to replace. Bush materials for building houses are not so much of a problem but to purchase nails and other building materials are often difficult. As a result people tend to rely on outside assistance in the first instance.

How often do king tides like this occur?

Pati: Sea surges of this nature do not occur often as far as we know. But PNG has seen its fair share of sea and flooding disasters over time, including tsunamis as well as flooding as the result of heavy storms (Oro Province was heavily affected by floods in 2007, for example). Rising sea levels resulting from climate change are also having an ongoing impact on PNG's low-lying coastal areas, including small offshore islands and atolls that are home to isolated communities, and could expose coastal areas to further risk in future.

Is there anything that could be done differently in the future to minimise the effect of king tides?

Pati: Not really, in our opinion. It is tempting to suggest that coastal communities relocate to higher ground to guard against future sea surges. But many areas lack higher ground nearby, and many communities are likely to strongly resist attempts to change their lives as the result of extraordinary sea conditions. But as sea levels in some areas continue to rise, inevitably some communities will be forced to start reconsidering their options.

Papua New Guinea – quick facts

Papua New Guinea is the largest Pacific Island country but has the lowest living standards
The population of 6.1 million is set to double in 25 years
40 percent of the population live in poverty
85 percent of the population live in rural areas
There are over 800 language and ethnic groups
Most of the population are subsistence farmers
NZAID's total bilateral assistance to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2007/08 was NZ$21.5 million.

For more information about NZAID's programme in Papua New Guinea, see the Papua New Guinea page on the NZAID website, www.nzaid.govt.nz

Read the Minister of Foreign Affair’s media release on New Zealand's contribution to the flood relief efforts in Papua New Guinea.

Disability and Development Consortium Conference

2008-10-06T09:30:00.005+13:00

Megan McCoy, Development Programme Officer, recently attended this Consortium listening to and representing the lessons learned from NZAID.

Disability is unfortunately, an often-forgotten issue in international development. It should receive more focus given that at least 10 percent of the worlds population have a disability, at least 80 percent of those people live in developing countries and people with disabilities are often poorer that citizens without disabilities. This reality was highlighted when over 200 people from around the Pacific and Asia met in Canberra for a two-day conference on Disablity, Disadvantage and Development in the Pacific and Asia (29 – 30 September). The conference was organised by the Australian Disability and Development Consortium.

While the majority of participants have been campaigning for the rights of people with disabilities for a long time, there was a real sense that disability is finally on the agenda. This reflects the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (to which New Zealand ratified on 25 September 2008) coming into force early this year. It reflects also and the recent commitment to disability from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), who join NZAID in supporting the mainstreaming of disability throughout all development policies and programmes, and specific initiatives to support the empowerment of people with disabilities.

The conference was a great learning opportunity. Presentations focused on some of the most pertinent issues for people with disabilities, including women with disabilities; using the CRPD as an advocacy tool with governments; the importance of Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs); economic empowerment; access to information; and capacity building. As NZAID has been a long supporter of disability in the Pacific, I was able to present on the role of official development assistance for disability and some of the lessons NZAID learned in this process.

The conference finished with several key messages: ‘nothing about us without us’ (emphasizing that people with disabilities should be included in the design, implementation and evaluation of all relevant policy, programmes and processes), and that it was time to ‘just get on with it’.

On 30 October a smaller session will be held for regional stakeholders to workshop the major issues coming from the conference and how best they can be taken forward.

Pacific Strategy Launch

2008-06-24T16:18:00.006+12:00

Foreign Minister Winston Peters today launched the New Zealand’s Pacific development strategy – a strategy to guide New Zealand’s aid and development assistance in the Pacific.

New Zealand is a Pacific nation and our links with our neighbours are long-standing and far reaching. It’s a vibrant relationship that traverses every aspect of our society – from sport and religion to family, culture and environment.

After sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific region will need to work the hardest to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the internationals agreed poverty reduction and development targets.

The challenges are great. In Papua New Guinea, there are few roads, housing is poor, many children die from preventable diseases, economic growth has struggled to keep pace with population increases. Compare this with Tuvalu, a small island state of dispersed atolls, vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather.

The Pacific Strategy sets out the direction and of New Zealand’s aid effort until 2015 and will support Pacific people to make lasting and positive change in their own communities.

New Zealand will shape it’s assistance around four pillars; improving health and education, promoting economic growth, reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening governance and leadership.

Over the next 8 years the New Zealand government will spend more than $2 billion in the region, assuming aid levels remain the same.

The strategy will ensure a focussed and effective approach to aid work said Winston Peters at the launch, noting that aid is only part of the answer.

“The strategy sets out New Zealand’s expectation that the Pacific region, and individual Pacific countries will take up the challenge and do the work necessary to lift their own citizens out of poverty.”

For more details about the Pacific strategy, visit www.nzaid.govt.nz

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/paddling+both+sides+canoe

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/launch+new+zealand039s+pacific+development+strategy

Field Visit to Zambia and Zimbabwe

2008-06-19T14:19:00.007+12:00

With high rates of HIV/AIDS, child malnutrition, and maternal mortality, Africa faces great challenges in its task to free people from poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest level of poverty of all the regions in the world. As a small donor, New Zealand is committed to making a difference to those in need. NZAID has developed a partnership programme with NGOs in Zambia and Zimbabwe focussed on maternal and child health, nutrition and related livelihoods. NZAID’s Education Advisor, Myra Harrison has recently returned from a field visit to Zambia and Zimbabwe and writes about her experience.

Zambia has recently recorded good progress in its macro-economy, due in part to the rising copper price, and has significant development partners assisting it. But the government acknowledges the difficulties they still encounter in providing services to very rural communities. NZAID was welcomed by government officials at provincial and district level in Luapula Province who were very knowledgeable about the maternal health challenges they face there, and glad that a neglected rural district would now receive some support.

I have worked in Zambia, and visited it many times, but had never been to Luapula which is in north-east Zambia. One of the surprises of this visit was the sheer wetness of Luapula: it contains about 80 percent of Zambia’s surface water. Lake Bengweulu is immense, and there are substantial wetlands and swamps that make logistics very hard.

Part of the new programme in Zambia focuses on reducing maternal mortality and child mortality. One way to achieve this is to support the district health services to provide antenatal care and the safe delivery of babies. My colleagues and I realised that there was provision for bicycle ambulances in the programme – but not for boats! This has been rectified since our visit to Luapula, and we have also suggested solar-powered lanterns for night-time deliveries, in response to a suggestion from traditional birth attendants who have to navigate to villages in the swamps and assist mothers whose babies arrive at night in pitch darkness.

The soil is very sandy and poor in Luapula, where the staple food is cassava. There was little evidence of vegetables or fruit growing, and neither is available to buy, which may be a contributing factor in the under-nutrition of children in the area. However, the main protein source is fish, which is found in abundance in the lake and swamps.

The challenges in Zimbabwe are immense and very different. We weren’t able to take photos in Harare for security reasons. However, the sights we saw in the Harare Children’s Hospital will remain with us. Small children and babies suffering severe malnutrition to the point of starvation, in a country that used to feed itself and have food to export, is very saddening. The devotion and professionalism of the matron and the few remaining nurses gives reassurance that the system could be reinvigorated.

Reconstruction to Development: Nias, Indonesia

2008-05-12T17:32:00.010+12:00

Right now the world’s attention is on the devastating cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Reports show that over 1.5 million people have been impacted and nations from around the world, including New Zealand have all responded with immediate pledges of aid but what happens after that immediate aid effort? What happens when the hype dies down? How do communities rebuild and move forward? What can we learn from other disasters?

Nias is a remote rural island cluster, made up of 130 islands in the northwest of Indonesia. While we often hear about the 2004 Asian tsunami damage in nearby Aceh, the unprecedented damage also had a long term impact on the people of Nias, who were struck by a major earthquake only three months after the tsunami. The earthquake destroyed nearly all the infrastructure - 50 percent of the houses were damaged and 90 percent of schools were destroyed.

William Sabandar, a former NZAID scholarship student, was appointed by the Indonesian government to lead the reconstruction efforts in this island community of 700,000. He recently spoke to a group of NZAID staff and other stakeholders about the reconstruction process as they transition towards a development phase.

Poverty indicators before the earthquake showed that 31.6 percent of people lived in poverty. Afterwards this number rose to 50 percent. While the disaster itself was devastating, a more complex issue of development is also in play.

“It’s easy to forget that Nias was chronically poor before the disasters struck and with those two events, many years of development were lost. We’ve seen that it’s hard enough co-ordinating a timely and effective response in rich countries like the US (post Katrina) let alone in an isolated island in the Indian Ocean with poor infrastructure, scattered settlements and high levels of poverty,” says NZAID’s Mike Hartfield.

According to William Sabandar, you can’t look at reconstruction in isolation. “You can’t simply build houses, when you need to build settlements, you can’t simply build a hospital, we need to build a health care system.”

Disaster risk reduction and poverty elimination are at the heart of the reconstruction work and much progress has been made. 730 schools have been built, with plans for another 32 schools remaining. 22,606 houses have been built and the remaining houses should be finished by the end of the year. The houses have been built by the community rather than getting external construction workers and the results have been positive - the money is going to the community, social capital is strengthened and quality is assured.

One of the challenges remains that while schools and hospitals have now been built, the systems need to be maintained and managed in a sustainable way. The focus will move back to development in 2009 and the transition process itself must be carefully designed and planned. In Nias management will pass back to the local government who have played an active role in the process so far.

Equipping local government in areas of governance, financial management, budgeting and in particular disaster risk reduction will be critical for future development. “The people of Nias need to be prepared and all agencies must be working in the same direction,” concludes William.

NZAID supports the ongoing reconstruction of Nias through the Indonesia bilateral programme.

Women with Disabilities Forum in Samoa

2008-04-24T10:34:00.007+12:00

Women with disabilities often face double discrimination, because they are women and because they have disabilities. The first ever Women with Disabilities Forum took place in Apia, Samoa on 21 and 22 April 2008. As NZAID’s Megan McCoy reports, the forum provided an opportunity for women from across the Pacific to share their experiences and work together to bring about change.

Women at the forum shared what human rights mean to them - the right to go to school and participate just like any other child in school events, joining the youth group of their local church, making decisions about how they want to live their lives without their parents, being able to support themselves through employment, having a boyfriend, getting married and providing for a family.

They shared powerful stories about the discrimination they face, including how this can impact on their families. For some women, attending the meeting was the first time they had ever been out on their own without their families.

Discussions about human rights are even more pertinent today as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will finally come into force in the next week or two. This Convention draws on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants and spells out exactly what the rights within these instruments mean for persons with disabilities.

The meeting had a special focus on Women with Disabilities in Samoa. One of the goals of the meeting was to determine whether the local Disabled Persons Organisation, Nuanua O Le Alofa (NOLA) should form a Women with Disabilities Committee. On the afternoon of the final day, this goal was reached with the Samoan women voting in a committee of seven representatives and a special committee to represent the island of Savai'i.

Overall, the meeting was extremely inspiring. For an NZAID staff member based in Wellington, reading about the issues of disability for women can provide only some insight. It is hearing from the women themselves, being witness to their dedication and passion, that has provided motivation to continue the work that NZAID is doing in the Pacific.

The learning experience continues with the Annual General Meeting of the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) for the next two and a half days. NZAID, through the Pacific Regional Health Programme provides core funding to the PDF and this meeting will offer a valuable opportunity to see the PDF in action with their members.

Links:
http://pacificdisability.org
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
www.un.org/disabilities
www.nzaid.nz/programmes/r-pac-health.html

Cambodian Silk

2008-04-16T16:43:00.004+12:00

For centuries people in Cambodia have been creating and using exquisite silk. Incredibly beautiful, Cambodian silk is known for its quality, vibrancy and delicate feel – and the scarves, handbags, cushion covers, ties and table runners that are proudly displayed in the markets are just a small sample of what is available.

Despite a tumultuous history in Cambodia where the art of silk making almost died, we are now starting to see a revival of the traditional art and evidence of burgeoning industry - an industry which could bring big gains to people of Cambodia.

There are over 25,000 people involved in the silk sector, including weavers, producers, retailers and others. And that’s why silk has been identified as a key sector in Cambodia to generate income for poor and rural producers and contribute to poverty reduction.

Artisan’s Angkor, the silk farm and store I visited in Siem Reap, is a real success story for the industry. If others within the sector can emulate this sort of success, the future will certainly be looking brighter.

NZAID, UNDP and Swiss Secretariat of Economic Affairs, SECO have joined forces with the International Trade Centre to support the Cambodian Sector Wide Silk Project. Bringing together all elements of silk making in a bottom-up approach that includes farmers, weavers, designers, traders and the Cambodian government, this project will encourage the industry to work together improve performance and achieve better, more profitable outcomes for all.

The first step of the project has been setting up a strong foundation with the creation of a strategy. The focus of the strategy is three-fold and covers all aspects of producing silk.

Firstly, the project will increase the production of silk farming and yarn supply, including growing mulberry trees and rearing silk worms to produce the high quality golden silk yarn that is unique to Cambodia.

Secondly, the silk weavers themselves will be supported so they can supply quality silk in a timely manner. This means providing training in new weaving and dyeing techniques, improving working conditions and linking buyers with weavers.

And thirdly, developing markets and unique products will ensure the beautiful silk is sold for a fair price, both nationally and internationally, so everyone that’s involved can receive more profit.

So the strategy is in place. There is much to be done to realise the vision and work is underway. The enthusiasm of those involved in the sector is inspiring and evidence that a traditional art form can hold the key to alleviating poverty.

Responsible Tourism in Phnom Penh

2008-04-14T12:47:00.004+12:00

Cambodia

’s capital city Phnom Penh is much bigger than the tourist mecca of Siem Reap and offers its own unique charm. Colonial architecture, lively street side cafes, vibrant markets and colourful traffic jams make up this charming riverside city that sits at the meeting point of three rivers - the mighty Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers.

In between the tourist attractions like the Grand Palace, the incredible National Museum and the famous Russian markets, there are a number of things you can do to ensure your tourist dollar is making a difference. Once again I turn to the Stay Another Day guidebook to see what else Phnom Penh offers.

My first stop is Friends International – a bright cheerful non-profit café staffed by ex-street kids who have been trained in hospitality. Sun-dried tomato hummus, mango salad, tuna and avocado salad, chicken in pita bread and other Asian and Western style tapa snacks make up the menu. On the walls, the names of the students cooking in the kitchen and serving customers are proudly displayed. The brightly coloured décor, fantastic service and divine foods makes this an experience to savour.

And while I’m enjoying my lunch, students are learning the tools of the trade and gaining hands-on experience. One day, these same students will be working in other restaurants or even running their own restaurants.

There are 20,000 children living and working on the streets of Phnom Penh. Friends International works with street children and their families to provide a range of support services including the provision of vocational training in hairdressing, welding, electronics, cooking and mechanics among others. They even support home based production so mothers can work at home and earn a fair income.

Next door to the café there is Friends ‘n’ Stuff – a store that sells goods repaired by the mechanics and electronics students along with handcrafts and clothing made by the students. You can even get a manicure.

On the day I visit Friends, they were closing early to celebrate the Khmer New Year with a concert performed by the children. I was invited to see the concert and it was an absolute privilege to see the joyous energy of the children performing and break dancing and the smiling faces of their families in their audience.

And there are other things to discover in the Stay Another Day. Purchase bold, beautiful silk products at NYEMO, an NGO where vulnerable women learn new skills such as sewing, embroidery and silk weaving and then sells their items in the NYEMO boutique and the Russian market. They also have a restaurant set in a lush, leafy garden so you can relax in tranquillity after your shopping. Profits help assist women who have been affected by HIV/AIDS, trafficking or abuse get the support they need to reintegrate into society.

Other options include a visit Sovanna Phum, a theatre group that is reviving, preserving and promoting traditional arts like puppet theatre. A little bit further out of town, on the way to the Killing Fields, is Lotus Blanc, a training restaurant and spa.

Useful links

www.stay-another-day.org

www.friends-international.org

www.sovannaphum.org

www.business.nyemo.com

One Year Since Major Natural Disaster in Solomon Islands

2008-04-04T13:52:00.006+13:00

One year has past since a series of earthquakes, the largest registering 8.1 on the Richter Scale, struck the Western Provinces of the Solomon Islands on 2 April 2007. The earthquakes were followed by large tsunami waves.

NZAID immediately allocated $500,000 from the Pacific Regional Environment and Vulnerability Programme (PREVP) for the immediate response. We checked in with Mike Hartfield, EMDR programme manager to find out what New Zealand contributed to the response over the last year.
"Three C130 Hercules flights were sent over the following weeks carrying relief supplies provided by NZAID - tarpaulins, tents, water containers, generators - along with supplies provided by the Red Cross, World Vision NZ and Rotary International."

"NZ also sent two NZDF Air Loading Teams to provide logistical support."

"The balance of the $500k allocation (some $368k) supported an Oxfam International water and sanitation project that has been working in 38 temporary camps.

"The programme is based on three basic areas: installing water tanks, improving access to water and sanitation. Specifically the NZ funding assisted with promoting public health, distributing hygiene kits and resources promoting good public health and hygiene and developing and implementing a series of joint work programmes with the Ministry of Health and other agencies."

"This programme has, and continues, to make a significant difference" said Mike.
NZAID also made a contribution of $450,000 to the International Red Cross Appeal to assist with water and sanitation recovery activities.

This funding was all sourced from the PREVP and doesn’t include substantial funding from the SI bilateral programme which has been provided to focus on longer term recovery and rehabilitation.
Oxfam and the Red Cross have reported on the emergency response activities. A recent visit to the affected area by NZAID staff also reported on the Oxfam project as well as projects funded from the bilateral programme.

ADAF – Supporting New Zealand organizations to make a difference in Asia

2008-04-03T23:20:00.004+13:00

ADAF is a contestable fund that gives New Zealand companies the opportunity to use their technical expertise to help developing countries. It’s an initiative that sows the seed for a better future.

Compared with roads in New Zealand, the roads in Cambodia are chaotic – cars, motobikes, trucks, tuk-tuks, cyclists and pedestrians weave all over the road as people get from A to B. Road safety is a major issue. The number of accidents and fatalities from road accidents is on the rise in and can have dire consequences as it is often it the main bread winner who is the victim of road accidents which can in turn leave families without income. Every day three people die and many more are injured – a startling number and one that has increased by 50 percent over the last five years.

Things are about to change and the Cambodian government is making some big changes. Soon all drivers will be required to have a license and helmets will become mandatory. Improving road safety statistics is a big job – and one New Zealand organization is working to raise awareness from the ground up.

Funded through NZAID’s ADAF scheme, Educating New Zealand has been promoting road safety in four provinces in Cambodia. Working with Handicap International, Educating New Zealand has developed an innovative school curriculum that teaches awareness and the road code to Cambodian children. The learning modules are interactive and encourage participation to create an engaging learning experience – a change from the rote learning model often taught in schools. The police and the ministry of education are on board and teachers are taught new methods to introduce the concepts to their students. The project is starting to see some real results and through the support of the EU will soon be rolled out throughout the entire country.

Another innovative project funded by ADAF is an experimental rural road development in the north of the Cambodia. The roads here are bumpy and under-developed. New roads are expensive and time-consuming to build. More importantly, new roads only have a limited lifespan - often lasting no longer than three years before pot holes become the norm. It’s the dry season at the moment but in the wet season, these roads become muddy clay ponds that are often impassable.

Fraser Thomas has built 10 kilometres of road using stabilization technology that is the norm in New Zealand, Australia and other countries. This new technique is a cost effective sustainable solution that will see the roads last much longer than the existing roads.

Roads are critical to development. They allow farmers to get to market, children to get to school, and sick people to get to hospital. Community leaders from the villages near the demonstration road tell me that they are happy with their new roads – children can get to school with ease and it’s much easier to get to the market. The contractors who have learnt new skills through ongoing training workshops and hands-on training are equally positive. They are now able to create stabilized roads and are looking forward to starting work on new contracts to build more roads that link communities. The Asian Development Bank and the Cambodian National Roading Board are about to start building a further 50 kilometres of road using this technology and there is another 30 kilometres in the pipeline - proof that good ideas and new technology from New Zealand can make a positive difference.

For more information on NZAID’s ADAF fund, go to http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/adaf/
You can also read more about Educating New Zealand here http://www.educating.co.nz/services/cambodia/

Growing a better future – Agriculture in Cambodia

2008-04-02T21:54:00.004+13:00

Agriculture is the backbone of the Cambodian economy. Most people here are subsistence farmers who grow rice and vegetables to feed their own households and supply the local market. Very little is left over.

The United Nations says that the average income in Cambodia is just $1 US dollar a day and over half the countries GDP comes from aid. Inflation is a major problem. The price of rice, a staple in the Cambodian diet, has almost doubled in recent times yet income remains at the same level.

So how do farmers use their skills to improve the income opportunities for themselves and their families?

Supported by NZAID, Cambodia Agribusiness Development Facility (CADF) is playing a valuable role improving the supply chain for entrepreneurial farmers. This involves providing technical assistance and business advice to strengthen links between farmers and markets and alleviate constraints.

Today we visited two initiatives supported by CADF to see how farmers are embracing new ideas to improve their own livelihoods.

Twenty minutes out of the tourist oasis of Siem Reap, we travel along a bumpy red track, past water buffalo, crops and traditional style small homes to visit an entrepreneurial farmer, Mr Lorn Saruth, who is using plastic to grow crops like cucumber, beans and lettuce all year round – an innovative new way to make his farm more profitable.

After he joined CADF he took part in a trip to Viet Nam to see how plastic could improve his farming techniques and the production of his small farm. This innovative new way of farming has generated a lot of interest from the village and now other farmers are coming to his place to learn about the new techniques so they in turn can emulate his success. Right now it’s the dry season and there are rows of broad beans popping up through the reflective silver plastic.

The plastic is relatively expensive but Mr Saruth believes the savings in production make it worthwhile. The plastic keeps the moisture in the ground and controls the weeds and grass around the crops. Before he started using the plastic, he used to water the crops everyday. Now he only needs to water every other day. And he saves money on fertiliser. With the money he earns, his children will be able to go to university.

The second farm we visit is FFF farming association - an organic growing vegetable farm that is using New Zealand seeds to produce European style vegetables like mesculan and fancy lettuce, bok choy and herbs for the lucrative hotel and tourist market.

The seeds are sourced from Kings Seeds in New Zealand and are germinated on site before selling the seedlings to local farmers to produce. Once the plants are fully grown, the association buys back the plants and prepares the plants for market.

Workers are busy sifting cow dung that will be used for fertilizer. Trays of seedlings are flourishing under shade cloth. 14 workers from remote parts of Cambodia are employed all year round to take care of the farm. This is a model farm that produces seedlings all year round. Farmers are provided technical assistance to learn to grow the unique plants and expand their expertise and tap into the opportunities offered by a burgeoning tourist industry.

Both the farmers I meet today are optimistic about the future and are confident that their farms will continue to flourish. In turn this can make a big difference to Cambodia.

For more information, including a recent National Radio feature by Dean Williams, click on the links below.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/cl/growing_new_zealand_seeds%20http:/www.cadf-angkor.info/about-us.htm
http://www.cadf-angkor.info/pdfs/2008-01-04%20Trip%20to%20Vietnam%20Pays%20Off.zip
http://www.ide-cambodia.org/

Tourism that makes a difference - Cambodia

2008-03-31T04:31:00.007+13:00

Over two million tourists a year visit the Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia, one of the great wonders of the world. The numbers are dramatically increasing yet most people only stay in the region for two days and few venture beyond the glory of the temples to discover the wonders of this diverse and amazing country. And by neglecting to do so, many people miss out on the opportunity to inject money into Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in Asia.

So how can you ensure your tourist dollar is making a difference?

Stay Another Day is an initiative that promotes sustainable tourism. In other words, tourism which is commercially viable and more importantly, creates broader benefits for the community. By encouraging people to stay a little longer and buy local products, Stay Another Day encourages tourists to get to know Cambodia and have a richer and more rewarding experience. In turn, this makes sure that the tourist dollar makes a difference and improves the welfare of local people.

Every hotel room in Siem Reap (and Phnom Penh) holds the key to the Stay Another Day experience with a booklet outlining the options. And within the booklet, the options are endless – silk products, arts and craft, divine cuisine, entertainment, ecotourism, agriculture initiatives and much more. You can even get involved in projects that help families facing severe illness with much-needed housing repairs.

Today, I visited a silk farm that is part of Artisans Angkor, an organization that trains young people in the traditional art of silk weaving. This organization offers students from rural areas the opportunity to learn how to weave high quality silk, in a supportive and empowering environment – and the results are definitely positive.

On arrival, we were greeted by a tour guide who cheerfully and enthusiastically guided us through the process of making silk – from growing mulberry trees and breeding silk worms to carefully weaving the fabric.

Weaving silk is not an easy task and involves a high level of expertise. It’s no surprise then that the applicants must pass skill and motivation tests before being selected. The successful participants are taught the art of silk making and the end result is exquisite silk that is beautiful and soft to touch. The shop at the end of the tour displays a range of fantastic products and I purchase a delicate scarf with relative ease!

Initially supported by the European Union, Artisans Angkor is now self-sustaining with extra stores in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Hong Kong Airports. The artisans have set up an association so employees (students and graduates) have a voice in the decision making process and receive a fair share of the profits.

Over the next week I will be visiting other initiatives where tourism can make a difference.

NZAID supports the work of Stay Another Day through ongoing support to Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (IFC-MPDF), a multi-donor funded initiative set up by the International Finance Corporation to reduce poverty. It operates in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam.

For more information visit
http://www.stay-another-day.org/
http://www.artisansdangkor.com/

The Mekong Institute

2008-03-30T19:56:00.002+13:00

Khon Kaen is the commercial and political centre of northeastern Thailand. With a population of over 3 million people, the city is home to the Mekong Institute, an innovative intergovernmental organization that promotes learning and regional cooperation between Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. The institute is funded by NZAID to deliver practical training and research opportunities to leaders and policy makers so they in turn can teach others and build the skills within their own organizations and/or countries.

Building capacity is a phrase often used in aid and development. It may sound like jargon to many of us but the work of the Mekong Institute is an illustration of what it means to upgrade the skills and expertise of others.

Right now, the institute is providing practical training and hands-on experience to young professionals in rural development, trade and investment, public sector reform and effective regional cooperation in the areas of tourism, conflict management and human migration. The six-month course includes field trips and a range of projects that will in turn help the region alleviate poverty. With the skills learnt here, these young professionals will be able to pass on their experience and knowledge to others in their home country and the flow-on impact has the potential to be huge.

The students that I met are enthusiastic about the course and potential it offers them. They are learning how to train others, write proposals, monitor projects and achieve results – putting them in good stead to make a difference to the future of the region. It’s a positive step towards building a more prosperous future.

For more information, visit
www.mekonginstitute.org
http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/programmes/r-asia-regional.html
http://www.nzaid.govt.nz/library/docs/factsheet-asia-regional-1277050-oct07.pdf

2007-12-20T11:36:00.000+13:00

The Heights of Papua New Guinea

Written by Caroline Newson: PNG Programme Officer

As a newly appointed NZAID Development Programme Officer, I recently went on a familiarisation trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG). This was my first time in PNG, and in fact my first visit to a Pacific country.

I travelled to PNG with Sandra Hamilton, my Team Leader, to attend a Health Summit, which brought together government officials and development partners involved with the Health Sector Improvement Programme, such as AusAID and the World Health Organisation (WHO). While in Port Moresby, I also met with a number of other funded NZAID-funded partners. We then left the muggy air of Port Moresby for the pleasantly temperate climate of the Highlands.

Oxfam's Highlands Programme

Our purpose in travelling to the Highlands was to meet the Oxfam Programme Co-ordinator and learn about Oxfam's work in the region. In this financial year, NZAID will contribute approximately $600,000 towards Oxfam's Highlands Programme. We visited two parnter organisations of Oxfam, one of which is directly funded by NZAID.

Our contingent for the Highlands visit consisted of Sarndra and I, along with Tauaasa Taafaki, NZAID Manager and Freddy Hombuhanje, recently appointed NZAID Development Programme Co-ordinator. Tauaasa and Freddy are both based at the High Comission in Port Moresby.

Kup Women for Peace
From Port Moresby we flew for an hour before landing 1,600 metres above sea level, in Gorka. Yanny Guman, Oxfam's Highlands Office Programme Co-ordinator, picked us up on our arrival at Goroka and we headed to Oxfam's office to begin our road trip. The Highlands highway is sealed in some places, and in others there are large potholes to avoid - or not - and in a couple of places there was substantial subsidence or huge holes in the middle of the road. The roads of PNG are much diffferent to suburban NZ!

It took about three hours for us to reach the Kup District, home to Kup Women for Peace (KWP). This movement was established by a group of women from rival tribes in 1999 with a hope to 'downim heavy belong all mama' - reduce the sorrow of Mothers. Their bravery in confronting violence in the early years has borne fruit as the wider community has joined their cause, and the region is more peaceful now that it has been in decades. This financial year NZAID will contribute $80, 000 through Oxfam's Highland Programme towards the work of KWP.

We were greeted by Mary Kini and Agnes Sil, founding members of KWP and then welcomed through a guard of honour. As I walked down the long line and greeted people from all stages of life, I felt humbled and privledged to be welcomed into a community so far from my own, and to be given the opportunity to learn about their lives.

We took our seats on a grass stage, and heard different community members talking about KWP and the impact the movement has had on their lives. A young man, Simon, spoke about how KWP had helped him to develop a livelihood and improve himself. But the successes are still accompanied by the sorrows – Mary Kini tearfully told us that a Community Police officer had been killed the day before, after intervening in a domestic violence incident.

We each introduced ourselves and gave a few words of encouragement to the community, speaking what little Tok Pisin we could (apart from Freddy, who is from PNG). “Apinun, nem bilong mi Caroline” was all I could manage (Good afternoon, my name is Caroline).

Over a delicious meal of freshly harvested vegetables and fruit, we talked with Agnes, Mary, and Gerry (the group’s administrator) about their recent success in facilitating a violence-free election in the Kup region. They achieved this through inviting candidates to publicly commit to a non-violent campaign, engaging young people in livelihood activities to reduce the chance of them being drawn into violence, and being closely involved with voting on election day.

In asking about how they worked with Oxfam, they viewed the most important aspect of their relationship as the support Oxfam provides in terms of linking with other organisations for training, like Peace Foundation Melanesia, and strengthening the organisation’s internal processes as their work expands. They also noted the positive impact of Oxfam’s water and sanitation project as a visible and practical symbol of the benefits of peace.

When I asked what their vision was for the future, Mary said simply “to live in peace”.

Community Based Health Care
On Thursday morning, we loaded up the Hilux again to head through spectacular landscape towards Kudjip, to visit Nazarene Health Ministries, who implement Community Based Health Care projects.

Nazarene Health Ministries (NHM) has a variety of activities, and NZAID provides funding for Community Based Health Care (CBHC), the branch of Nazarene that establishes preventive health care projects in villages. NZAID will provide $150,000 directly to CBHC this financial year.

We met with Dr Bill McCoy - NHM’s Medical Director, Joseph Warai – Director of CBHC, and Dr Becky Morsch. Dr Bill and Dr Becky are both American missionary doctors. After working in Swaziland for twenty years, Dr Bill accepted the request to work in PNG. Dr Becky has been in PNG for four years, and has a passion for preventive health care – “she won’t go back to the hospital” joked Joseph. CBHC helps communities to build their self-reliance and address their health needs. Community Health Volunteers and Village Birth Attendants are trained, and life skills training is offered. Initiatives to address particular needs are facilitated by CBHC staff. It is a very innovative approach to health care, much needed in PNG which has a rural population of 87% yet 80% of the rural aid posts, which are meant to provide health care, are closed.

Joseph Warai has recently been appointed Director, after working as the Co-ordinator of CBHC’s programme in Tari, Southern Highlands. It is in Tari where Oxfam works with CBHC to provide livelihood and capacity building support (funded through KOHA-PICD) and also to carry out the Community Health and Agricultural Support Programme (CHASP), which will receive about $180,000 from NZAID this financial year, through Oxfam. The CHASP’s function is to provide support to rural women and men in the areas of health and sustainable agriculture.

We departed Kudjip and drove on to Mt Hagen airport. After waiting over an hour for our plane, I was treated to a window seat on the flight back to Port Moresby. As I looked out over the vast lands of Papua New Guinea, and reflected on how our visit had covered a broad spectrum of NZAID’s involvement in the country – from the high level Health Sector Improvement Programme, to health services set up by a Christian organisation, right through to a grassroots peace movement. While PNG has lots of development challenges and obstacles to progress, this trip has shown me that New Zealanders, through NZAID’s support, are making a difference.

Links:

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/
http://www.kudjipnazarenehospital.org/

Experience in the field - Sri Lanka

2007-09-19T09:03:00.000+12:00

My name is Megan McCoy and I am a Programme Officer in the Pacific Group of NZAID. As I write this blog entry, I am sitting in the Moratuwa (just south of the capital Colombo) office of a local non-government organisation (NGO) called Sarvodaya. I am currently two weeks into a six-week volunteering stint. The Communications Team and I thought that it would be good for me to write a blog about my experience to help illustrate what development work is really like on the ground. While this trip is unconnected with my official work, it was through a previous job at NZAID that I heard about Sarvodaya.

Sarvodaya is one of the oldest and largest local NGOs in Sri Lanka. It has a real grass-roots approach to development work. In practice this means they have people working directly with the villages in the districts. It also means that they work with the people in those villages, not for them. This isn't charity work, it's about empowering communities to make decisions for themselves about their lives (including incomes, children's education and reproductive health).

I saw this approach for myself first hand on the weekend when I went with Sarvodaya to a small village in Tangalla on the south coast. The whole area was completely devastated by the tsunami. While there are many shops and homes that still lie in ruins, there were lots of new houses built by some of the many international donors that flooded into the area after the tsunami. We were going to visit a Safe Centre that Sarvodaya had helped to establish itself in the village. It is run by a very capable woman called Shanti. Shanti knows her community very well and has gained the trust of the families in the area.

Prior to the Safe Centre being established, alcohol abuse and domestic violence were big problems for the village. However with the support of the programmes run by the Safe Centre, and Shanti's support and advice, the incidence of domestic violence has decreased. Changing the behaviour of many years takes time though, and the Safe Centre still has a lot of work to do. Some of the men are still drinking and indeed one man we visited was drunk at lunchtime on a Sunday. However his wife still said that it was a big improvement on his previous behaviour.

NZAID is providing some funding to Sarvodaya for a mobile medical clinic which should be up and running early next year. The clinic will provide primary health care, focusing on prevention to rural areas in the south. It was through this support that I first learned of Sarvodaya.

As a large NGO, Sarvodaya has recently established a Partner Coordination Unit (PCU) and it is here that I am working. This unit is trying to set up some systems and processes which will help the people who are actually doing projects (like the Safe Centres) manage their relationships with donors better. I hope that my work here will have some long-term impact in helping the organisation to spend more time doing what they do best, working with people, rather than deciphering donor relationships.

Well, there's lots more work to do, so I'd better get cracking.

Megan

Tsunami Assistance Package

2007-07-18T09:56:00.000+12:00

During our short time in Honiara, Rt Hon Winston Peters announced New Zealand would provide a $7.5 million assistance package to help the Western Province region recover from April’s earthquake and tsunami.

Fifty-two people died, 9000 were affected, and around 6000 homes and other buildings were damaged or destroyed. Three months later, 4000 families are still living in makeshift camps, and there is a widespread need to rebuild basic infrastructure, especially health clinics, water, sanitation, housing, roads, bridges and wharves.

New Zealand’s assistance will focus on helping to restore education, rebuild lost livelihoods – especially in fisheries – and repair homes and transport infrastructure.

Education is a natural focus for NZ assistance - NZAID is the lead donor to the primary education sector in Solomon Islands and has the strong relationships and understanding of the sector necessary to successfully support this work.

An important component of the fisheries assistance will be supporting and awareness programme to spread the message that fishing is safe and that after a terrifying event such as a tsunami people do not need to be afraid of the sea.

This is something I saw in Sri Lanka after the Asian Tsunami – many fishing villages had been provided with new fishing equipment and facilities, but no one was using them because of the fear of the sea.

As Minister Peters said when announcing the package, recovery in the tsunami zone will be a monumental task and New Zealand is happy to support the Solomon Islands Governments efforts to return people's lives to normal as soon as possible.

RAMSI

2007-07-18T09:54:00.000+12:00

Between 1999-2003, Solomon Island experienced violent conflict followed by a long period of lawlessness. In 2003, the Government requested assistance from Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific Island countries, which arrived in the form of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

Military and police from Australia, New Zealand and across the Pacific were able to quickly restore security. A large number of ex-patriate personnel were also seconded to key government departments to stabilise the budget and strengthen the accountability environment within government.

Since 2003, RAMSI has focussed its efforts on restoring law and order, re-establishing the machinery of government and improving economic governance. On the security side, New Zealand's contribution consists of both military and police personnel. A small number of New Zealand public servants are also seconded to the Treasury and tax departments funded by NZAID.

Today we visited the New Zealand police and soldiers stationed at RAMSI headquarters at GBR in Honiara. It was interesting to hear the police staff talk about the very hands-on approach they are able to take in working with their Solomon Islands colleagues to improve and develop community policing.

It was also great to see the real regional nature of the mission by meeting officiers serving in RAMSI from NZ, Samoa, PNG and Australia in the morning we spent at GBR.

There are ongoing questions about its future and at times the RAMSI road is bumpy – but from all accounts RAMSI has made a very positive difference in the lives of Solomon Islanders.

First stop Honiara

2007-07-18T09:50:00.000+12:00

Every year it is tradition for the New Zealand Foreign Minister to lead a delegation to the Pacific. This year’s group is made up of Members of Parliament, business people, NGO reps, officials, academics and media and is visiting Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands and Samoa.

This annual visit reinforces the strong relationship New Zealand has with the region and presents many opportunities for the sharing of ideas and knowledge.

Honiara, in Solomon Islands, is the delegations first stop. Solomon Islands is an archipelago of 922 islands located some 2000km north-east of Brisbane between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. Most of the 550,000 people (CIA) live on six larger islands, the most populous being Malaita and Guadalcanal, where the capital, Honiara, is located. At 2.7% per annum, population growth is high, contributing to an increasing "youth bulge".

Solomon Islands is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific region. In 1999, when the last census was carried out, 21% of children under five years were underweight. Infant mortality was 66 per 1,000 live births, the worst amongst the Pacific Island countries, while under-five mortality was 73 per 1,000 live births, second only to Papua New Guinea. Primary school enrolment was 56%, the lowest in the region, while the literacy rate was 77%.

These indicators set the scene for the fact that New Zealand’s largest bilateral aid programme is focused on Solomons, particularly in education.

The afternoon we arrive, I tagged a long with the media contingent to get a sense of the city. We end up at a large concert in celebration of Independence Day – here the youthfulness of the population is very obvious, the large park is crowded with over a thousand young people enjoying music and a market – all in heavy rain!

The Foreign Minister's 2007 Pacific Visit

2007-06-29T15:14:00.000+12:00

Keep an eye on NZAID's blog next week - we'll be blogging on NZAID issues from Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands and Samoa as part of the annual visit to the Pacific by the Foreign Minister.

Schools, hospitals & clean water

2007-03-19T17:25:00.000+12:00

To get a feel for the issues facing Tonga, visiting local people is the perfect place to start. Visiting schools, the local hospital and nearby village water projects has allowed me to see first hand what life is like here in Tonga - and understand what a difference NZAID projects can and do make, given time and careful planning.

Here is a run down of my observations.

Schools
As part of the week long education review, we had the opportunity to visit two schools. The first was a government primary school and the second, a non-government secondary school for girls.

The primary school has just over 300 students, 10 teachers and 12 classes. It's a school sports day so the children are outside having sack races. Smiling and laughing, it definitely looks like a lot of fun. The class rooms appear very basic and students are taught in both Tongan and English.

Children attend primary school until year six when they complete the national examination to enter high school. It's a hard exam and students cannot continue their education unless they pass. The top students in the country will go to Tonga College while others might go to a non-government school or leave school altogether, depending on their results. In this school there are 15 students (out of 72 in year six) that are repeating year six.

The principal of the school shows us the key issue facing the school at the moment - the toilets. There is only one toilet working at the moment and they do not have the funds to repair them. For a school of this size, it really does cause major problems for the health and well-being of the children.

Queen Salote College is a Wesleyan girls' college. This means that students are taught the core curriculum plus the extra religious curriculum. The school has approximately 900 students including year seven and eight and 30 teachers with an average of 35 students per class. Girls are dressed nicely in blue and white and there are some classes being taught outside under trees.

There is an immediate contrast between this school and the last school, however non-government schools also face difficulties. The school is funded by fees paid by students and funding is tight. The school has a strong alumni association which does what it can to assist. One of the key issues here is that teachers at non-government schools do not get paid as much as the teachers at government schools. Teachers here talk about the difficulties of the English curriculum, a lack of resources and variance in quality of education across all the schools.

Vaiola Hospital
In Tonga all healthcare including dentalcare is provided free of charge. I met Dr Kyan, an Australian doctor who has been funded by NZAID to work at the main hospital in Tonga, Vaiola Hospital, on a 15 month project improving the service, systems and capacity of the outpatient and casualty unit. The project will finish in July.

Dr Kyan shows me around the hospital and we discuss some of the issues facing the people of Tonga. Diabetes is a major problem here and people are often reluctant to seek help - preferring to try local medicine first, meaning that foot amputations and the like are a common sight. This can also be a factor in many of the other cases presented in the casualty unit where patients are brought in at the last possible miniature, giving doctors and nurses a very small window of opportunity to save the patient.

There are clear differences between what we might expect to see in a hospital in New Zealand or Australia and what I can see here. There are massive queues of people waiting for prescriptions. The windows in the wards are open to the outside, exposing patients to mosquitoes, dust and dirt. It's hot and there is definitely no sign of strong-smelling disinfectant hat you might find elsewhere. But Dr Kyan is quick to point out that these observations are not what makes a good hospital. It's about having the knowledgeable, helpful staff who can treat patients.

Changes are on the way. The World Bank and the Government of Japan have supported a major renovation of the hospital and the results are obvious. The new wing is modern and clean and houses brand-new operating theatres, an ICU unit, the maternity wards and obstetrics. Further developments are also planned.

Clean water for all
It's hard to imagine life without running water to wash and clean but for many villages in Tonga, this is a reality. It's a way to measure development, the town officer in Tatakamotonga, a village that received NZ government support for a water reticulation project told me. The project saw the replacement of leaking piping that was over seventy years old. Before the project was completed people would have to carry water in a bucket from the cement tank to their homes to wash. Now they can have a shower 24 hours a day. People can now install flush toilets, showers and washing machines - reducing risks of typhoid and other diseases. He called the fresh clean water a gift from the NZ government. Everywhere the gratitude of the people was obvious.

I visited Lapaha, where a 200,000 litre wooden tank has been installed to provide the community with clean water. The next stage of the project is to install rainwater tanks for each household to supplement the main tank. The water committee has collected $300 Tongan Paanga from each household to contribute towards the costs and we are now waiting on the Tongan Ministry of Health who have the mandate to release the funds so the construction can get underway.

The third village a much smaller village called Makapaeo where most people are unemployed or live off the land. Here, AusAID funded a water project and NZAID funded a road project - two simultaneous projects that have made a big difference. Now in the rainy season, people no longer have to walk through mud with buckets of water. Not only has the road provided better access it will ensure that the water piping has an extra long life. And the smiles on the faces of those who live here and their heartfelt gratitude is a great way to end my trip to Tonga.

Watch this space for further postings from the field.

A load of rubbish

2007-03-16T10:40:00.000+13:00

First stop today was the Popua dump – a dump that I have heard much about on my trip so far. The dump has been here for a approximately 55-60 years. Located next to a squatter village between the sea and the lagoon, this dump is a weed between the roses. This is unlike any landfill that you might see in a country like New Zealand. It is filled with families of pigs foraging in the muck, people scavenging in the rubbish, not to mention an overflowing assortment of car wreaks, steel, plastic bottles, household waste, chemical waste and who knows what else. And all this flows into the lagoon and the nearby village. When the wind picks up the rubbish blows across the road and into the sea. It's a grim picture and is a major health hazard. But things are looking up.

A world class landfill facility called Tapuhia opened in December with the ability to manage waste in a sustainable manner. This AusAID funded project has made a great difference to Nuku'alofa. Recycling stations have also been established around town and a managed by the community, with a great deal of success. There will soon be a kerbside waste collection which will require a major awareness campaign to change the way people think about waste.

With the assistance of NZAID, the Popua dump will soon be closed and rehabilitated – creating a public reserve. A great deal of planning has gone into the design and construction of this project and the first visible stage of the project is a temporary fence which was completed a couple of weeks ago. Immediately one can see that the fence will stop the rubbish blowing out to see and will encourage people not to use the dump. The dump will close at the end of the month and people will need to use the Tapuhia Landfill for household waste.

Once closed, the contents of the Popua dump will be investigated fully. Ground water will be tested and the site will be surveyed to gage how thick the waste is. The rubbish will be sorted Steel will be recycled and the rubbish will be compacted and covered with clay. Careful planning will ensure that gas emission will be minimized. It's not going to be a quick task; the project will take approximately two years, but it's definitely not a load of rubbish!

The central business district - three months on

2007-03-14T11:36:00.000+13:00

It's my first visit to Tonga and it's hard to imagine that just over three months ago, pro-democracy riots destroyed most of the central business district of Nuku'alofa. As I wander around people are going about their business, cars are driving around the streets and buildings house government ministries, cafes and shops. One could easily suppose that it looks the same as it ever did. But I am not familiar with what was once there - an air conditioned cinema, a large hotel, buildings that housed businesses, the Chinese embassy, shops, restaurants, large supermarkets and bustling markets. 154 businesses were affected but today very little evidence remains of the destruction; destruction that is almost too hard to comprehend.

Within two months the destroyed buildings were cleared and all that remains are empty lots cordoned off with barriers and the occasional presence of the military and guards (mostly around the government buildings). The military still hold emergency powers but life is starting to get back to normal. The handcraft markets have returned although the vegetable markets are still empty. Produce stalls have started to pop up outside of town and some businesses have set up shops outside the damaged area.

It's hard to know exactly what happened on November 16. Some people say that it started as a pro-democracy movement that escalated into something else. And they say that it wasn't supported by all of Tonga and the villages have removed themselves from what happened.

Today it's business as usual and something that just happened (although the investigations are still going on). Crops are still growing, children are back at school, celebrations go on and people are getting on with their lives. The NZ Police are still here - but most of their work tends to focus on the community; building relationships and skills and creating customised education programmes for schools and participating in community events - quite a change from the state of siege mentality when they arrived for a last minute deployment in December. They will return home to New Zealand in April.

A commitment to education

2007-03-13T16:15:00.000+13:00

Yesterday morning started early when we arrived from Auckland at 1.30am. And when I finally tucked myself in bed at 3am it was with reluctance that I set my alarm for 7am to face a full day of meetings.

It is the first day of a week long mission to complete the annual review of the Tonga Education Support Programme (TESP) - a project designed to build a framework that will provide consistent and equitable and quality basic education for all. NZAID has committed NZD$14 million to be spent over three - five years. Over the course of the week, NZAID, the World Bank and the Tongan government will work out a work plan for the next 12 months. It's not going to be an easy task.

While Tonga has one of the highest literacy rates in the Pacific region there are still pockets of the community, like special needs education that are missed out. There are also issues of access and quality which need to be addressed.

The last eighteen months have been particularly difficult - a public strike, voluntary public service redundancies, the passing of the late king, and the riots of November 16 have highlighted unexpected challenges. We need to look at what has gone before and then move forward to make sure changes take place that will bring a better outcome for schooling. Open and honest dialogue need to take place and issues around capacity, communications and policy need to be addressed.

Meetings with the Minister of Education, the Education Ministry, the TESP team, Prime Minister Suvele, the Minister of Finance set out the agenda for the week and are generally filled with optimism of what the programme could achieve - once some hard decisions have been made It is clear that it will take a whole of government approach.

Sometimes it is hard to believe the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes in a programme of this nature - the importance of getting it right and building an initiative that will build capacity and be sustainable is something that can never be overlooked.

The night concluded with a cocktail function hosted by the Ministry of Education - a mixture of dignitaries like the Ambassador of China, the New Zealand High Commissioner, the project donors and education specialists reflect the importance Tonga places on this education programme. It's a positive start to the week.

A visit to Tonga

2007-03-07T13:29:00.000+13:00

Tonga is an archipelago of 129 islands with a population of just over 100,000 people. It's one of the more developed countries in the Pacific, boasting one of the best literacy and life expectancy rates in the region. That said, limited resources and opportunities, and a vulnerability to natural disasters means that hardship still exists. This year NZAID has an allocation of NZD $10 million to spend on the region. So what are the priorities? What impact is this funding having?

On Sunday I'm heading over to Tonga to find out.

Here's a run down of what I expect to see....

In November 2006, pro democracy riots destroyed the entire central business district of Nuku'alofa's ... leaving thousands of people without jobs and much needed income. Earlier this year the New Zealand government announced a $2 million business recovery package. While it will be too early to see any results, I'm hoping to make some useful contacts that will allow me to get a feel for the current situation and find out whether people are hopeful for the future.

And while I am there, I'll also have the opportunity to visit a number of NZAID funded projects including a solar electrification project, a water quality improvement project and even the Popua dump as well as schools and the local hospital - hopefully giving me a good understanding of the issues facing the people of Tonga today.

It's going to be a busy week so watch this space.

Lae Hospital

2006-04-28T16:35:00.000+12:00

Angau Hospital is the main hospital in Lae – PNG’s second city – and services the surrounding region. The visit began with a briefing from the hospital’s newly appointed Director (second week in the job) who spoke frankly about the challenges the hospital was facing.

These challenges became rather more apparent when we were split into group to tour the wards. Whilst others went to view the neo-natal and psychiatric wards, our small group went to the Soroptimist funded Women and Children’s Clinic. From the accounts I heard on the other wards, this seems to be the bright spot in a hospital that is, literally, falling down around the patients.

The Clinic treats and counsels women and children who are the victims of domestic violence. The hospital provides that space and supplies for its operation while the rest of the funding – for staff and other overheads – come from the Soroptimist NGO. As well as treating the injuries and trauma that are the result of the violence, the clinic is actively engaged in prevention. They have trained and supported 40 volunteers (half of which are men) to go out to communities to provide information and workshops about alternative ways of dealing with anger/frustration etc and demonstrating to women that violence and rape are not acceptable and they can get help.

The clinic is also working closely with the local police in Lae to make sure that complaints are followed through on and perpetrators are punished.

About 1000 women have visited the clinic in the last two and a half years.

The other groups in the delegation found the rest of the hospital in serious decline. The buildings have been severely affected by termites causing crumbling walls and floors. Much of the equipment is broken and languishing in corridors, and supplies are sporadic.

Its hard to imagine how all this seems to the people – some of whom walk for days – when they bring their sick loved-ones for treatment. But, in many cases, this run-down hospital is the best available and the only option.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID
hospital

More to come

2006-04-28T16:08:00.000+12:00

It was hard to capture everything we saw in PNG in the few short entries I managed while we were in country.

Retrospectively I will try and cover what else we covered during the week.

The field blog also seems to have generated a good following, so rather than go into hiatus whilst we find our next field writer, we will continue to update it with NZAID related news and information.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
NZAID
blog

School Visit

2006-04-13T09:07:00.000+12:00

After a few hours rest to recover from a 4 am start, our programme in Lae began with a visit to the local secondary school. It was quite uplifting spending time with so many bright and hopeful young students, although the teachers were very frank about the problems with budget the school faces. The school was built in the 60s and seems to have little maintenance since – there are now almost 400 students and just 9 teachers. The teachers, like all the people we meet working in the health and education sectors, are tremendously pragmatic and dedicated in the face of difficulties that must be quite overwhelming.

The parent of the children pay fees - 1200 kina (about $750 NZ) for boarders – a cost which would be prohibitive for many living in PNG, but the children do seem to be getting a good quality education. Many of the students we talked to had already decided on what they would study at University – law, medicine and journalism were the most popular. All of the students were articulate, confident and spoke easily about their experiences with the delegation.

One aspect of the visit that was concerning was the absence of education around HIV/AIDS and safe sex issues. PNG is a very conservative country and these are not topics that are easily discussed, especially in a school setting. The head teacher mentioned his desire to introduce teaching around these areas, but felt it was unlikely that this would be supported by the parents. There is also not coordinated sexual and reproductive health modules in the national curriculum which the school teach.

This definitely brought home to me, and the other members of the delegation, how great the need for comprehensive and integrated planning is needed in terms of the HIV/AIDS issues. Our meeting with the various UN agencies on Monday emphasized this and outlined where and how this was happening – and how NZ can continue to support this work. The big question remains – will the results happen in time for the generation of kids we met today?

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID
education

Arriving in Lae

2006-04-12T09:45:00.000+12:00

This morning we arrived in the province of Morobe and are staying in PNG’s second city Lae. Like Port Moresby, Lae is struggling under the effects of a growing population, crime, HIV/AIDS and struggling public services.

On the schedule are visits to the local secondary school, the main hospital and the Markham Valley.

What everyone in the delegation is taking on board is the complexity of the issues facing PNG. There is layer upon layer of problems and possible solutions. What worked in Africa in terms of HIV/AIDS cannot be facsimiled to PNG – the diversity of culture, language, religion, custom seem to doom off-the-shelf solutions to failure.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID

Hospital Visit

2006-04-12T09:35:00.000+12:00

I’m a bit hospital phobic at the best of times, so I have to confess that the two hospital visits we have done over the last two days have been difficult, upsetting and inspiring all at once.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with Dame Carol Kidu, PNG’s first woman Cabinet Minister and a staunch campaigner on HIV/AIDS issues.

Dame Carol took us to Port Moresby General the main, and only, hospital in the city. We were briefed by staff running the hospitals Sexually Transmitted Infection clinic which is where most people come to be tested and treated for HIV. The clinic has funding for the Global Aids Fund to provide anti retro viral drug treatment for those who fulfil the WHO criteria for treatment – supply of drugs is often raised as an issue here, but at this clinic the problem was finding the people to treat, there is so much shame and stigma attached to the disease that only one-third of the drugs available are being used.

The difficulties in the health sector and the burden HIV/AIDS is placing on an already dysfunctional system was more than obvious when we visited our next stop, a general ward at Port Moresby General. Feeling very much like voyeurs rather the helpful foreigners we were led into a ward of 63 beds, all full, and many occupied by patients with illnesses contributed to by HIV/AIDS.

For 63 very ill patients there were two junior doctors and two nurses. The nurses generally work 24 hours shifts and many just run-away when they cannot cope with the hours and conditions. On a stifling day the ceiling fans were not operating because the hospital cannot afford to pay the power bill.

It is through these situations that the need for leadership and reform in the health sector is so important – and why donor funding and support is much needed. New Zealand’s funding to the Sector Wide Approach in health seems a small drip in very large ocean when you see the results of the broken systems; but the goals of the programme seem to be exactly what is needed and it seems the results cannot come quickly enough.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID
hospital

Poro Support

2006-04-11T09:26:00.000+12:00

The programme for this trip is fairly action-packed so finding time to write the blogs is an exercise in logistics itself and I am behind already!

Day one (yesterday) was spent visiting projects with NZ connections.

The second stop was the Save The Children Poro Support Project which provides a refuge and training place for Port Moresby’s sex-workers. The project focuses on providing information and training to new and established sex-workers and covers a range of topics including HIV/AIDS, safe-sex and self-defence.

The workers are often the victims of violence and have also faced discrimination from the Police and other groups – the project is helping build the raltionship between sex-workers and the police and volunteers from the project conduct ‘patrol’ of the areas known to be ‘hot-spots’ to keep an eye on the workers and monitor the numbers in each area.

The visit was a really positive introduction of how small NGO/community run project can make a difference to people who face significant challenges.

All the group spent a lot of time talking with the workers who were using the facilities and many had stories about violence, living on the streets and friends who had died as a result of HIV/AIDS.

Approximately 800 people are using the centre each month and the staff show such commitment and compassion for their project, it is easy to see why its considered such a success story.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID

Starting Point

2006-04-10T00:08:00.000+12:00

Via Wellington, Auckland and then Brisbane the FPAID/NZAID study tour arrived in Port Moresby, capital city of Papau New Guinea.

Through briefings by the New Zealand Aids Council, NZAID, FPAID, WHO and the NZ High Commission in PNG the 17 of us now have a good level of background to begin our visit with.

The statistics we have been given show just what a serious and complex issue health in PNG is:

PNG is 1.7 times bigger than New Zealand

Population is 6 million – of which 82% live in rural areas

A high fertility rate of 4.3 births per woman

In many ways we have to take all the statistics we receive with a grain of salt and realize that they are probably on the conservative side. In a country as vast as PNG, with no roading network and 800 different dialect – gathering accurate information is a major challenge.

When it comes to HIV/AIDS the statistics are even more difficult to gather as there is much social stigma attached to the disease. The statistics that are available paint a pretty grim picture: 60,000 infections or a prevalence of 1.8% HIV deaths per year – 3,300.

The newly arrived World Health Organisation representative in Port Moresby told us that the HIV/AIDS situation in PNG is now akin to the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa – where prevelance rates are up to 30% - this is in comparision to Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Thailand where infection rates rose steeply but have now peaked and are on the decline.

As with Africa the disease is being spread mainly through heterosexual sex and women have over-represented in statistics – this is thought to be because of three factors:

Common for men to have many sexual partners

Prevalence of other sexually transmitted infections which make, women especially more vulnerable to contracting HIV

Lack of treatment available

Over the last 10 years the health system in PNG has basically collapsed. A lot of money has remained unspent in the central department whilst rural hospitals/community health centres have run-out of money, medicine and people.

Its hard to take-in all of this and wonder what can a country like New Zealand do to help – the problems seem so big. Our programme of $13 million could easily seem like a small drop in an enourmous bucket. The bright spot in all the information we have received is that it does seem New Zealand's funding to PNG is going exactly where it needs to go.

As lead donor in the Health sector New Zealand has taken the initiative and led a Sector Wide Approach (SWap) to strengthen the ability of the National Department of Health to meet the health needs of PNG. It is clear that there is some momentum for change now and the NDOH is seen as reform model for other PNG public departments to follow – but its going to take a long time and there are many bridges to cross.

Today all this background will be put in context when we start our field visits – which include a range of HIV/AIDS and other health project.

Papua New Guinea
PNG
HIV/AIDS
NZAID