DEVELOPMENT: Papua New Guinea Wants to Prove Sceptics Wrong

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kalinga Seneviratne

NADI, Fiji, Dec 14 2003 (IPS) - While Australia is preparing to send a contingent of policemen to restore law and order in the capital Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) appears determined to prove sceptics wrong by drawing more from homegrown solutions in issues like poverty and land.

One way its officials plan to prevent violence over the difficult issue of land, which critics point to as signs that PNG may go the way of other Pacific island nations where there is foreign intervention, is to provide a better balance between urbanisation and rural development, in order to stem poverty.

After years of trying to develop an urbanisation plan, PNG’s urban planners are now looking at blending international development concepts with local customs – and this was also their message at regional urban governance workshop held here this month.

They also said it is time for them to draw from within in addressing development challenges.

”We have been trained by planning schools in Australia and the UK and some of their teachings such as on subdivisions are not appropriate to our cultures,” Elias Masta, chief physical planner of PNG’s Department of Lands and Physical Planning told IPS.

”We need to incorporate some of our traditional knowledge of using space into our planning models,” he added.

In July, violent protests emerged in Port Moresby when amendments to the Customary Land Act – which would make it a requirement to register these lands – was proposed to Parliament. Many feared their rights to land would be undercut.

The new law, however, still recognises customary land rights and prohibits the sale of these lands to anyone other than the government and that too under customary obligations.

Officials say the new law will merely blend customary law with modern market forces by making this land available for commercial development, while enabling landowners to use the land as collateral to obtain bank loans.

There is no easy formula for reaching this blend – after all, PNG is in unique situation of being one of the least urbanised countries in the world, where only 17 percent of the population lives in urban areas and 97 percent of the land is under customary ownership.

”PNG people are not landless, they are landowners,” argues Max Kep, chairman of the National Urbanisation Committee (NUC).

Part of the problem, he says, is that the history of urban planning in PNG since independence from Australia in 1975 has been a chain of reports, but no action. ”PNG’s problem has been lack of policy to bring everyone together to deal with urbanisation,” he laments.

In December last year, an attempt was finally made to introduce concepts of participatory democracy in urban planning, he says. But, that has not worked out to plan.

”When a meeting was called no one came,” recalls Kep. ”So it (participatory democracy) became a stumbling block”.

The NUC was formed in July and plans are underway to create a Ministry for Urbanisation and a national urbanisation plan next year.

But while adapting to local conditions, PNG’s development planners are also linking up with U.N. organisations to address urban issues that affect the liveability of its cities.

For instance, the PNG government is cooperating with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and U.N.-Habitat under their safer city initiative for Asia and the Pacific to curb spiralling crime in the capital.

After studying the crime or insecurity situation, using international criteria learned from the foreign organisations, ”we will develop strategies on how we can address the situation (diagnosed by the study),” explains Iva Kola, director of corporate services of the National Capital District Commission.

She says the government is drafting a policy that is designed to prevent crime, rather than use the traditional focus on fighting it purely as a law and order instead of social issue.

”We need to provide people with healthier suburbs to live in, so that they get out of the settlements (squatter colonies),” argues Kola. ”This is one of the causes contributing to crime.”

Better managed urbanisation and better links with rural areas should help to get most of PNG’s people ”out of their hideouts”, says Therese Saini, president of Mokosoi Grassroots Women’s Association.

”Those who come and live in settlements in urban areas come from rural areas,” she points out.

Saini believes that the isolation of PNG’s rural population from the urban population has made it easier for outsiders to come and exploit their land and resources. For examples, loggers have come and even diverted streams and rivers to transport their logs for export, affecting their marine resources.

Her association has developed peer to peer links with other rural communities in Africa and Asia, in order to tackle these problems. ”We bring these ideas back and see whether we can implement them at home,” she explains in an interview.

One such idea is the holding of village workshops, where people can process timber from their own forests to sell for use as building material in other parts of PNG.

”When rural people go to the city they are unskilled people and that’s why they become unemployed and end up in settlements,” notes Saini. ”If we can provide them with employment using their own resources in the villages, many problems of urbanisation could be avoided.”

In order to tackle increasing crime and violence in the capital, PNG is also looking at the idea of adopting a social charter, where people’s rights are balanced with people’s responsibilities towards a harmonious society.

”People living in urban areas still have strong rural linkage and are willing to return with the right policies to encourage their return,” argues Kep. ”Those who remain or choose to reside permanently in urban settings must live in social harmony… that’s why a social charter is important”.