Author: Misiel Jonah

A parliamentary delegation from Australia has visited the Papua New Guinea Institute of Public Administration (PNGIPA) to learn more about the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct.

The event was a unique opportunity to for the staff and students promote the activities of the Precinct, an important bilateral initiative of the Governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia, to stakeholders outside PNG.

The visitors included Members of the House of Representatives from Australia, Ms Ann Sudmalis MP, Mr Damien Drum MP and Ms Madeleine King MP, and delegates from Save the Children, Australia’s largest aid and development agency dedicated to helping children.

After being welcomed by representatives from PNGIPA and the University Of Papua New Guinea School Of Business and Public Policy and the Australian High Commission, delegates joined students and staff in a Diploma of Government classroom, a course which is being delivered through the Precinct to develop and encourage emerging leaders in country.

This proved to be the highlight of the event, as the delegates and Diploma participants were engrossed in discussion on the importance of ethics and leadership to an effective public service and the unique challenges faced in PNG.

Member for Gilmore, Ms Ann Sudmalis, praised Precinct partners for the ethics and governance training being delivered to public servants in PNG.

“The training is something that probably should be happening all over the world and something that is missing in leadership,” Ms Sudmalis said.

“You establishing the course, and probably one of the first, is extra specials and to have a 50-50 gender split, my goodness, you deserve gold medals for that.”

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is supporting Papua New Guinean public servants to apply key national public service policies in ethical conduct and gender equity.

More than 80 public servants, private sector and civil society from mainly provincial and district levels of government attended the Precinct’s Diversity in Leadership for Basic Service Delivery course from 22-25 August.

Department of Personnel Management Deputy Secretary Taies Sansan urged course participants to lead inclusively and cater for all citizens when delivering basic services.

“As leaders we need to work together to ensure the needs of all our people are considered. Your purpose here is to learn about what it takes to be a leader, how to implement the policies in your work areas and how to handle service delivery” Ms Sansan said.

The short course examined the practical application of the two policies that underpin the Government of Papua New Guinea’s public service reform agenda; the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Policy, and the Ethics and Value-Based Executive Leadership & Management Capability Framework.

Australian High Commission Counsellor, Jodie McAlister, reiterated the strong partnership between the two governments to support ethical leadership and governance across the Papua New Guinean public service. Ms McAlister said leadership was about leading by example, and urged participants to make a stand against marginalisation of women and the disabled.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is a joint initiative of the Governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia to promote ethical leadership within the public sector at the national, provincial and district levels.

Eighteen Papua New Guinea senior public servants have gained Certificates in Governance and Public Policy from the University of Queensland through the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct.

Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davis congratulated the public servants and encouraged them to apply their skills to improving governance, policy development and ethical behaviour.

“It is very good to know that your course was tailored around the government of Papua New Guinea’s Ethics and Values-Based Executive Leadership and Management Capability Framework,” he said at their graduation ceremony.

The public servants were exposed to leading thinkers in the public, private and community sectors, and attended leadership forums with senior Queensland public servants and judicial system representatives.

The students expressed a determination to implement their executive leadership plans and transform their workplaces.

“We came back with so much knowledge from this course and each one of us has objectives that we will implement when we go back to our offices and we will be discussing with our supervisors to make sure we are not restricted in implementing these objectives,” Theresa Siaguru said.

She added: “Governance is the process of making correct decisions. And when making decisions we have to take into considerations certain characteristics such as ethics, protocols, inclusiveness, transparency and effectiveness.”

The Governance and Public Policy course was delivered by the University of Queensland. Students undertook six weeks intensive coursework in Brisbane and four weeks in PNG. The course included group work, mentoring sessions and individual assessment.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is a joint initiative of the PNG and Australian Governments to strengthen ethical and accountable leadership across the region.

Precinct courses bring together talented and motivated individuals, giving them the practical and ethical framework to advance in key national agencies.

The Precinct also offers degree and diploma courses through its partner institutions, the School of Business and Public Policy at the University of Papua New Guinea, and the PNG Institute of Public Administration.

The Papua New Guinea Institute of Public Administration (PNGIPA) will now have a stable power supply after a new power transformer and switchboard were installed at the campus.

The upgrade is part of infrastructure renewal work being undertaken through the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct initiative.

The new 500kVA transformer unit replaced an old 300kVA transformer installed in the mid-1960s.

PNGIPA’s role as a core Precinct training institution had placed strain on the smaller unit, raising the probability of unplanned outages and future failure.

PNGIPA Project Coordinator Anthony Tuainembe said “to cater for these new developments on the campus, the first thing to do is to upgrade the power systems to cater for the additional buildings and electricity loads”.

PNGIPA is receiving a new administration block and library under the Precinct partnership between the Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

PNGIPA Librarian Eric Nandoma said the works at the campus would enable it to fulfil its role as a core Precinct delivery partner.

“The new library will be a modern and state of the art library, and maintaining constant power supply is of paramount importance to this facility,” Mr Namdona said.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is supporting efforts to transform Papua New Guinea’s agricultural sector into a market-focused industry that will drive economic development.

Department of Agriculture and Livestock Secretary Dr Vele Ila’ava launched the three-day Precinct course, Leadership and Innovation in Agriculture, on 19 July saying there was huge potential to increase the efficiency of agricultural production.

“We must transform the agriculture sector in our country by providing accessibility for our people to established markets, recognised systems and increase the opportunities for them to convert it to wealth,” he said.

Dr Ila’ava said the sector remained the most heavily relied upon for rural development, benefiting more than 80 per cent of the population.

Course participants included mid to senior level officials from government departments, provincial administrations, research institutes, universities, industry boards and other organisations engaged in the agricultural sector.

Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davis said there were many opportunities for closer cooperation in agriculture between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

“Agriculture is extraordinarily important and its opportunities are long term,” he said.

“Australia is keen to work with Papua New Guinea through the Australian Centre for International and Agricultural Research, creating farming innovations, conducting joint activities with the private sector and providing agricultural education scholarships for Papua New Guineans,” High Commissioner Davis said.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is an Australia-Papua New Guinea education and training initiative to strengthen leadership, management, and core public service skills in Papua New Guinea.

Public servants have been urged to set aside the wantok system at work and support a new culture of integrity that will strengthen governance and economic development.

Department of Personnel Management Secretary John Kali issued the challenge to forty emerging public service leaders nominated by government departments, agencies and provincial administrations to undergo studies with the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct.

The six month Diploma of Government is delivered by the Papua New Guinea Institute of Public Administration with support from the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Secretary Kali said participants had been identified as future leaders capable of contributing positively to the development of the nation.

“We need to change the working environment so we provide a service that is ethical and also empower our women colleagues,” Mr Kali said.

“When we have good and value based leaders from the top level down … they’ll know and perform their duties ethically over a period of time which will then become their culture and conduct, said Secretary Kali.

Josephine Kama, a Monitoring and Evaluations Officer with the Western Highlands Provincial Administration was among the course participants.

“Western Highlands Province is a male dominated society and it’s very challenging as a woman performing a leadership role,” she said.

“Attending this course will empower me, and I’ll get more knowledge and go back to my province and contribute positively to its development and address these challenges.”

The Australian Public Service Commission’s Jason Preece encouraged the public servants to make the absolute most of the opportunity.

“After you leave the PNG Public Service, you will reflect on your time as a public servant who successfully led, made a difference and did the best for the family, for the people of this country, and helped to build this great nation.”

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is a joint initiative of the Governments of PNG and Australia to promote ethical leadership within the public service  at the national, provincial and district level.

More PNG women will have the skills and confidence to serve on boards of management after new training being rolled out by the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct.

Digicel Foundation CEO Beatrice Mahuru (left) and PNG Women Doctors Association President Lydia Sirigoi (right) are among those undertaking the course, delivered by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

It focuses on directors’ responsibilities, risk assessment and decision-making frameworks for directors on public and private boards.

Participants included senior and emerging leaders from the public and private sectors.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is a partnership between Papua New Guinea and Australia to develop a new generation of ethical leaders who can implement Government of PNG priorities for improved service delivery for the people.

Removing barriers to the establishment of new businesses and creating a greater entrepreneurial mindset will be important factors in meeting PNG’s 2030 target of 500,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), according to an expert panel.

The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct recently hosted a discussion on the role of leadership and good governance in growing indigenous businesses in PNG.

The panel comprised Australian businessman and indigenous advocate Warren Mundine, PNG Indigenous Business Council Chairman Sir Nagora Bogan, and Gideon Karali, a representative from successful landowner business, Trans Wonderland Limited.

The audience included a select group of senior officials of leading government departments, agencies and the private sector.

SMEs are particularly important in developing countries such as PNG because of the role they play in poverty reduction.

“I believe that everything rises and falls with leadership,” Sir Bogan said. “As I look across the spectrum of PNG, I think we need to put a lot more effort into ethical leadership.

Mr Mundine said Australia and PNG could learn from each other on several topics, including how to create an entrepreneurial mindset among communities who have traditionally had limited involvement with business.

“Twenty-five years ago when I was a young bloke, you used to sit there and say, ‘business and commercial activity is a white man’s game’,” he said. “Well, (in Australia) we had to change that mindset.”

The Precinct is a partnership between the Governments of PNG and Australia to produce a new generation of capable and effective leaders.

Dr Manoj Pandey, visiting lecturer in Economics at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) under the ANU-UPNG partnership, has completed the first two sessions of a program of weekly training that will run for the next five semesters to improve qualitative and quantitative skills and report writing for a core group of 17 UPNG faculty staff.

The introductory sessions provided a background on how best to present data, and covered both classic and more modern visual representations of data. Subsequent workshops will include training in basic statistical methods, with the training culminating in 2018 with staff members working on their own research papers. Read more