Papua New Guinea

MDG status check

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What are the MDGs?

Key development facts

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Population: 6.468 m (2008)

Population growth rate: 2.7% (2000)

Gross national income per person: USD 1040

Real GDP annual growth rate: 4.5% estimated (2009) or 8.5% projected (2010)

Population below poverty line: 39.6% (2002)

Net enrolment in primary education:
63.6% (2009)

Gender parity in primary education:
91 girls for every 100 boys (2009)

Mortality rate of children under 5:
69 per 1000 births(2008)

Maternal Mortality: 733/100,000 live births
(MDG tracking report)

Aid in action

Improving the quality of teaching

Investments in teacher training are increasing the standards of education PNG children recieve.

Visiting surgical teams train locals

Through its Health Education and Clinical Services program, AusAID is training local medical staff in specialist surgery.

Our funding (2011-12)

AusAID: $436.5 million
Other Australian government aid: $45.8 million
Total: $482.3 million

Why we give aid

Papua New Guinea faces critical constraints to development. It has some of the worst health and education outcomes in the Asia-Pacific region driven by high levels of poverty and a largely rural population, often living in remote locations. As Australia’s closest neighbor and one of our oldest friends it is in our interest to help Papua New Guinea improve the lives of its people.

Our strategy

Through the Australia PNG Partnership for Development, we are supporting PNG’s own priorities by focusing in four key areas: health (including HIV), education, transport infrastructure and law and justice.

The repositioned program will also focus more on working with provincial and district levels of government, in recognition of the important role local levels of government play in direct service delivery.

Working with the Government of PNG our aid program will deliver more trained teachers, more textbooks and more new classrooms. This is backed by a school fee subsidy program that has seen the numbers of children enrolling in primary school rise by 200,000 this year, already meeting our 2015 target. We will also apply this support across high schools and higher education, including vocational education.

In health more women will have supervised births, many more children will be immunised, and more people will have access to better health care and essential medicines, particularly those living with HIV.

And to ensure access to these services we will continue to work with PNG on maintaining and upgrading transport infrastructure including responsibility for over 2,000km of priority roads around the country.

These programs will be supported by our continued focus on improved law and order outcomes such as more village courts and more female magistrates in these courts targeting family and sexual violence.

Impact of our support

In 2010, Australia funded 539,000 new textbooks for over 3,400 primary schools and eight teacher training colleges in PNG, and our support allowed for the abolition of school fees for the first three grades of basic education, supporting the Government of PNG’s aim to abolish all school fees by 2015.
Measles vaccination coverage declined from 67 to 58 per cent in 2009 and 59 per cent in 2010. The proportion of children under one fully vaccinated against Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilis influenza type B increased from 66 per cent in 2009 to 70 per cent in 2010.
The proportion of children under one fully vaccinated against Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilis influenza type B increased from 66 per cent in 2009 to 70 per cent in 2010.
Australian support has meant that thousands of people in PNG were able to access treatment for HIV. In 2010, the number of HIV testing sites increased to 266 with 134,798 people tested compared to only 32,645 people accessing testing services in 2006.
In Bougainville, Australian support for training of rural health workers to improve antenatal and postnatal checks and manage obstetric emergencies has seen a 33 per cent increase in supervised deliveries across Bougainville since 2005. This has led to an estimated reduction in maternal deaths from 235 per 100,000 in 2005 to 123 per 100,000 in 2009.
New female village court magistrates have increased from 10 in 2004 to 500 in 2010. An additional 200 female village court magistrates are currently being trained, which will lead to better access to justice, especially for women, at the village level.
Australia has also helped establish community-based crime prevention initiatives in Port Moresby, such as Yumi Lukautim Mosbi (“Let’s look after Port Moresby”) which includes job training and job placements for ‘at-risk’ youth.
2,153 kilometres of national roads maintained, including a key section of the Highlands Highway from the industrial centre of Lae to Goroka (365 kms), and 16 airports safety certified with Australian assistance.