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El Nino And Hunger In Papua New Guinea

El Nino And The Hunger In Papua New Guinea
Since the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon in mid-2015, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been struggling through frost, drought and widespread food and water shortages. The ENSO — a period of unpredictable fluctuations in temperatures and currents of the wind and sea — disrupted food production and ruined the livelihoods of the many who live there. Food prices had already sharply increased by the end of 2015. The limited availability of food supplies in the markets makes for an even higher risk of starvation and suffering, in addition to the regular problem of hunger in Papua New Guinea.

As one of the poorest countries in Asia, PNG has 37 percent of its population living below the poverty line. Diseases like malaria are taking an increased toll. People are already weakened by the hunger in PNG, making it difficult to fight off sickness. The weather phenomenon also devastated the crops last year due to frost and drought, leaving farmers with nothing to eat.

According to the World Food Programme, as many as 700,000 people in PNG are in need of food assistance. Hunger in Papua New Guinea has also been overlooked, as the government has not issued any requests for assistance or declarations of emergency, even though staples like sweet potatoes were destroyed by low rainfall throughout 2015. Frosts from July through October continued to damage crops the following year. In October, there were several local villagers who said they walked through red dust– something that is unseen in the area.

Although the government began investigating reports of deaths, especially due to hunger, many badly affected communities have yet to receive aid. The slow response is due to the fact that PNG has a rugged terrain. Many villages and communities are only accessible by a multi-day trek from the next town over, or by aircraft that is flown by a pilot trained to land on small strips in the middle of the jungle.

Several World Food Programme groups have been offering food aid since the ENSO hit in 2015. With the world working together as a whole, charity organizations have raised enough money and helped grow enough food to feed more than one million people in PNG. At this rate, PNG is expected to be out of its ENSO drought by 2020 and back to standard living rates, although those are well under the national poverty lines as well.

PNG’s villagers are starting to witness more green fields, running children, happy families and liveliness being restored into the country. They will soon be back to where they were, fighting the usual hunger in Papua New Guinea, and pushing for better lifestyles.

– Rilee Pickle

Photo: Flickr

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Seven Facts About Papua New Guinea Refugees

 

Papua New Guinea Refugees
The untouched wilderness and island paradise of Papua New Guinea often enchants first-time visitors. However, Australia’s harsh immigration policies and practices have recently come to light. Current news reports reveal a tale of cruelty and endless waiting for those hoping to leave the country. Here are seven facts about Papua New Guinea refugees:

  1. In 2005, a partnership between UNICEF, the Catholic Church, and the government of Papua New Guinea issued some 1700 birth certificates to unregistered refugee children. In a country where only three percent of births are registered, the project offered hope for many children. Although birth certificates are often taken for granted in first world countries, they are very important tools. They can ensure a child’s social, legal and economic rights in the country they live in.
  2. Australia’s strict refugee policy orders all intercepted refugees to be taken to a detention center on Manus Island. After countless scandals dealing with the horrible living and working conditions at the detention facility, the Australian government made the decision to begin winding down operations at Manus Island. As a result, the facility will be closed by 2018.
  3. New Zealand Prime Minister, Bill English, recently reached out to the Prime Minister of Australia and offered to resettle 150 refugees at Manus Island in New Zealand. The offer has been in place since 2013. Regardless, the Australian Prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has hardly acknowledged the possible benefits of the offer.
  4. Papua New Guinea refugees detained at Manus Island have endured horrible living conditions and physical strife. Nonetheless, Matt Siegel of Reuters says that of the terrible things these people must go through, the psychological effects are the most dangerous. “Some of these people have been in these camps for three, four, five years, and that leads to an enormous level of self-harm, suicide attempts.”
  1. Refugees who are resettled in Papua New Guinea are often resettled in cities like Lae, where the crime rate is high and the wages are low. One witness claims that some refugees work low wage jobs like construction but are paid as little as $12 a day.
  2. Refugees detained at Manus Island and Nauru have staged hunger strikes and peaceful protests to demand freedom. One reporter even described instances where some men sewed their mouths shut for a hunger strike.
  3. In 2016, Australia announced a one-time partnership with the U.S. and the U.N. The U.S. pledged to resettle a number of refugees from Manus Island. Priority would be given to women and children, with single men bringing up the rear of the priority list.

While steps are now being taken to close down island prisons like Manus Island and Nauru, there are still millions of refugees around the world looking for a new place to call home. One hopes that Australia and Papua New Guinea will do better to help those who dream of a new life on their shores.

– Mary Grace Costa

Photo: Flickr

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Challenges Plague Education in Papua New Guinea

Education in Papua New Guinea
Endemic problems facing education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) continue nearly unabated despite the passing of the 15-year-long time frame established by the U.N. for securing its ambitious Millennium Development Goals. Included among its eight commitments was dramatic education reform to address systemic gender-based discrimination, a goal that has hardly been realized in the Oceanic nation.

In a 2012 report, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) tallied total enrollment in primary education to be a meager 29.3 percent of all PNG children. The research found that the male-to-female ratio is nearly equal during those early education years, with 16,821 males and 16,120 females enrolled in some level of schooling in the relatively wealthier Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

That seeming equality morphs as children age, however, especially when comparing different regions of the country. Female enrollment rates decline significantly in poorer regions that are also marked by a horrific record of abuse toward women. That state of affairs is attributed by many to the historic degradation toward women found worldwide, and in particular regions of the country like the Eastern Highlands.

Indeed, the literacy rate between men and women in that region was 51 percent and 36.5 percent, respectively. In 2009, grade 12 enrollees were made up of just 180 females to their 494 male colleagues. Much of the blame has been leveled at a lack of will and ability to actually fund initiatives aimed at attaining universal gender equality in spite of such officially professed goals.

Similar to the reality throughout the world, PNG girls and women face an exorbitantly high likelihood of experiencing rape or assault at some point in their lifetime. Human Rights Watch pegs that figure at a staggering 70 percent for PNG, well above the one in three average for much of the majority world.

The World Health Organization notes that this problem is exacerbated in low-income regions with poor social attitudes toward women, like rural PNG, and often increases the risk for physical and mental health problems. As those problems increase, the amount of professional and personal self-improvement women and girls can achieve diminishes, thus perpetuating the problem of gender inequality for education in PNG and elsewhere.

Some progress toward reforming education in Papua New Guinea has been made. AusAID found that total enrollment rates have increased from 52 to 63 percent between 2007 and 2009 among primary-aged students. At that same time, completion rates for students enrolled up to grade eight rose from 45 to 56 percent.

In 2012 the government rolled out a new round of subsidizations for tuition fees, building on the apparent success of similar policies enacted in the early 1990s. The new policies have positively affected enrollment among female children and have promoted retention rates among children who seek to continue on with their education at various levels.

In fact, a unique problem has arisen over the last several years involving a lack of resources to accommodate so many current and prospective students, with the numbers expected to continue climbing. For example, nearly 14,000 high school-aged students are expected to continue their education in Papua New Guinean colleges and universities despite glaring inadequacies in terms of quality of educational infrastructure and low numbers of qualified educators.

Ravinder Rena, who published research in 2011 which studied the causes and challenges facing primary education in Papua New Guinea, laments that the quality of most things associated with the PNG education system is derelict and in need of reforms on nearly every level.

“But, if the government can maintain its financial commitment to education, then Papua New Guinea’s educational system most likely will continue to progress,” writes Rena.

– James Collins
Photo: Flickr

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Overcoming the Water Crisis in Papua New Guinea

Water Crisis in Papua New Guinea
According to a 2016 report from WaterAid, an international organization that works to improve water quality, sanitation and hygiene to the most vulnerable populations, Papua New Guinea is the worst country in the world in terms of household water access. There are 4.5 million individuals, 60% of the population in Papua New Guinea who lack access to clean water. As a result of the water crisis in Papua New Guinea, 800 children die every year from diarrhea.

In the capital city, Port Moresby, about half of the population live in communities located on precipitous inclines prone to flooding. Many of these areas are outside the perimeter of utility services and far from water mains or sewage pipelines.

WaterAid suggests the vital water source connections will not be constructed for many years. The organization also notes that extreme weather along with rising sea levels contributes to an already precarious water crisis in Papua New Guinea.

Prohibitive costs, The Rakyat Post reports, are a major source of concern with respect to water quality. Poor residents in Port Moresby pay 54% of their daily wages to buy water (about 50 liters) from delivery services. By comparison, an individual living in the U.K. can expect to pay 0.1% of their daily earnings for the same amount of water from an official piped supply.

Henry Northover, head of policy for WaterAid told The Guardian that the global water difficulty was not always an issue of limited supply but in many instances a distributional problem. He added that with “clear and coherent” government policies and international intervention the crisis will be remedied.

Overcoming the crisis of water quality worldwide has been and continues to be challenging. Since 1990 advancements have been achieved, as 2.6 billion people now have access to clean water. With major improvements seen in Cambodia, followed by Mali, Laos and Ethiopia.

According to Northover ending the water crisis in Papua New Guinea and worldwide in general and thus availing all individuals worldwide access to clean water is an achievable goal, but he underscored the importance of a “clear, coherent strategy” by governments and an emphasis on water access to take global precedence.

– Heidi Grossman

Photo: Flickr