Quantitative studies of interhousehold transfers in Papua New Guinea are few and far between. In 1982-83, a study was conducted of interhousehold transfers in urban areas, with a focus on poorer households. While some papers were published at the time, a comprehensive report on this study has just been published, in January 2023. The study covered four urban census units in Port Moresby and Madang, selected because in the 1980 census each had a high proportion of households without wage-earners. The four census units were Nine Mile and Gordons Ridge settlements in Port Moresby, and Wagol settl ..read more

When my late colleague Tom Betitis and I were surveying village agriculture on Bougainville Island, we stopped in Igau Village in the Kieta area. As we walked with villagers to the garden area, I noticed a few chili plants and asked the landowner whether his family grew them for sale. He responded: Bifo mipela i salim sampela sili. Tasol mipela i les long sili. Emi bikpela wok na mipela i kisim liklik mani. Previously we sold some chilies. However, we grew tired of growing chili for sale as this required a lot of work for a small cash return. “Bikpela wok na liklik mani” – “big w ..read more

About the author/s Lydia Papandrea Lydia is the Managing Editor of Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies and Co-editor of the DevPolicy Blog. The post DP100 Suggestions to improve livelihoods in remote lowland communities in Western Province and Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea appeared first on Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre ..read more

Sago is one of the most important carbohydrates in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is refined from the sago palm tree (Metroxylon sagu), which is widespread in lowland areas of the country, especially in Western and Sepik provinces. PNG is the second largest producer of sago starch worldwide. The sago palm is incredibly resilient. It can withstand variations in water availability, salinity, and acidity, and is resistant to most diseases and pests. A fully mature sago palm provides up to 300 kg of starch when the tree is harvested. 100 g of sago provides 86 g of carbohydrate, and it has a low glycae ..read more

The impacts of COVID-19 have added a new layer to the region’s development challenges. The economic costs of the pandemic, and the collapse of international travel, have strained countries’ support systems. For countries like Fiji and Vanuatu, it has inflicted deep economic hardship on a wide range of sectors, but in particular the tourism sector, where many have been left struggling in the aftermath of livelihood losses. Among the many distressing accounts, there are also positive reports though. Drawing on recent economic data from Vanuatu, Howes and Surandiran outline how Vanuatu’s economy ..read more

Food prices are rising across the world. What initially seemed to be a temporary spike as supply chains shut down in the early days of the pandemic now appears to be here to stay. The FAO’s Food Price Index hit its highest point in a decade in May 2021, reflecting surging prices for oils, sugar and cereals, along with high but stable prices for meat and dairy produce. In June and July the index fell, but remains up by over 30% year-on-year. Food prices were rising pre-COVID, but the pandemic has intensified the trend. Supply chain disruption, rising shipping costs, poor growing conditions in e ..read more

World hunger is soaring under the shadow of COVID-19. As many as 161 million more people faced hunger in 2020 compared to the previous year – more than the total increase over the past five years combined. Most worryingly, right now more than 41 million people are suffering emergency levels of food insecurity and/or famine-like conditions in large swathes of Africa and the Middle East. Based on current estimates, more people in the world are now dying from starvation than they are from COVID-19. While the drivers of food insecurity and hunger are inherently local – driven by their own unique c ..read more

Malnutrition is a serious problem in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It can result in irreparable physical and cognitive damage. It is not uncommon to see children in PNG apparently suffering from kwashiorkor, an extreme symptom of undernutrition. The PNG National Nutrition Survey in 2005 found that 43.2% of 6- to 59-month-old children were stunted (impaired growth and development indicated by low height for age), 5.5% were wasted (low weight for height) and 18.1% were underweight (low weight for age). Malnutrition was higher in rural than in urban areas. Relevant data from Western Province are lackin ..read more

In their blog ‘PNG: the hungry country’, Manoj Pandey and Stephen Howes have raised an important topic – food insecurity. But I disagree with their conclusion that in Papua New Guinea (PNG) ‘hunger is widespread’ and that ‘many people are simply not eating enough’. There are, however, a few locations where people are chronically short of food; localised food shortages do happen occasionally; and widespread severe food shortages do occur, typically a decade or more apart. Importantly, both protein and energy intake of many small children is limited because of the bulky nature of traditional ene ..read more

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is often presented as a country with little hunger. The idea of “subsistence affluence” was developed in PNG in the 1970s to elucidate a situation in which people ate what they grew, and grew enough not to be hungry. That idea has persisted. Writing in 2007 on poverty in PNG, Diana Cammack reported the widespread view that in the rural areas of PNG “there is little hunger” (p.21). Some experts support the idea as well. In 2000, leading PNG agricultural expert Mike Bourke wrote that “Food security is generally good in modern PNG. This is because a high proportion of the p ..read more