PNG’s main development challenge is to ensure that its natural resources are exploited responsibly and revenues utilized to stimulate broad-based growth and improved service delivery.

Poverty remains a growing concern with around 40 percent of Papuan New Guineans living on less that US$1 per day. Overwhelmingly, these people live in rural areas, characterized by lack of access to markets, services and income generating opportunities and where returns on subsistence agriculture are often reduced by low soil fertility, difficult terrain and vulnerability to pests and climatic events.

 

Transport networks are in poor condition, with about 85 percent of main roads and nearly all feeder roads impassable or abandoned during some time of the year. It is estimated that 17 percent of the population has no access to any road and 35 percent of the population lives more than 10 km from a national road. Shipping and air transport services to isolated communities are in decline and wharves and airstrips are falling in disrepair.

 

Only seven percent of the population has access to electricity with wide variations across regions. Nearly two-fifths of health/sub-health centers and an even greater proportion of rural health posts have no electricity to power essential medical equipment and among the small minority of schools that have access to electricity, energy costs can account for up to 70 percent of their budget.

 

Less than three in one hundred Papuan New Guineans have access to basic telecommunications.

 

Life expectancy is 56 years, infant mortality rates are 64 per 1,000 births and immunization rates are inadequate. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is generalized and accelerating. Among sexually active adults, HIV prevalence exceeds one percent in many rural areas, two percent in many urban areas and three per cent in the capital, Port Moresby. Without effective inventions, the number of HIV infections could swell to over half a million, or 10 percent of the adult population by 2025.

Gender inequality is significant in PNG. Women have substantially poorer access to health care services and lower levels of educational attainment and literacy pose barriers to their equal participation in economic activity and political life. Most women lack access to credit, banking and markets.

 

Nearly half of PNG’s population is under the age of 20 and the number of young people is expected to double in the next 20 years. Youth unemployment is on the rise with only one in ten school graduates finding jobs in the private sector. With many young people leaving their villages in search of jobs in the towns and cities, few job opportunities has lead to the expansion of urban youth gangs, known as raskol gangs who often turn to crime . 

back to top

Transport. The Second Gazelle Restoration Project is a 10 year project to reconstruct and rebuild the town of Rabaul and surrounding areas following the devastating volcanic eruption in 1994. Working with the East New Britain Provincial Administration, the US$25 million project has assisted in land mobilization; the provision of infrastructure and utility services; the consolidation of Kokopo as the provincial capital and Rabaul’s restoration as a regional port. New schools and health clinics have been built and people successfully resettled.

Transport. The Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Project is a US$40 million loan that has provided technical assistance, maintenance and rehabilitation of key national and provincial roads and bridges in six Papua New Guinea provinces. A recent socio-economic mid term study of the project has found that many households living along project roads now have improved access to markets and suppliers. These works have also had a positive impact on the livelihoods of women, children and low income residents through better access to education and health facilities and lower transport costs. In April 2007, an additional US$37 million credit was approved for ongoing maintenance until the Government’s National Transport Development Plan becomes operational. The number of provinces where the work is being carried out has also been increased from six to eight.

Tingim Yut Kompetisen. In 2006, PNG held its first Development Marketplace, designed to find and fund good ideas that benefit young people and their communities. Known by the Pidgin expression Tingim Yut Kompetisen,  the competition selected 18 winners from 820 project proposals that came from groups all over PNG. The winning projects covered fashion, spice farming, fishing, coconut oil press production and youth against corruption. A second Tingim Yut Kompetisen  is planned for 2007-2008.

Energy. The Teachers' Solar Lighting Project (Renewable Electricity for Rural Communities) was set up to provide low cost, long term financing for 2,500 teachers to purchase solar home lighting kits. The popularity of this project meant that the waiting list for finance swelled to more than 9,000 teachers.

The cost of purchasing the Solar PV kit has also been dramatically reduced, down from 4,200 kina (US$1,235) to 2,100 kina (US$618) as a result of increased competition for the product. The Teachers Solar Lighting Project has now been widened to include other rural households wishing to access low cost renewable energy electricity supplies, at a fraction of the cost they are now paying for diesel. It draws on the county’s good renewable energy endowments, particularly solar PV (Solar Photo Voltaic), Pico-Hydro and Biofuels (coconut oil).

 

For more information about World Bank studies and reports on Papua New Guinea, click here.

For more information on the World Bank’s work in Papua New Guinea, visit: www.worldbank.org/pg

back to top

The World Bank in Port Moresby
Level 13, Deloitte Tower
P.O.Box 1877
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Laura Bailey
Country Manager
Phone: (675) 321-7111
Fax: (675) 321-7730
E-mail: lbailey@worldbank.org 

Washington, D.C.
Jerry A. Lebo
Country Program Coordinator
Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands
Phone: (202) 458-7396
Fax: (202) 552-1671
E-mail: jlebo@worldbank.org 

back to top

November 2009