Papua New Guinea

Doing Our Fair Share: New Zealand’s Responsibility to Provide

August 27, 2024

Humanitarian agencies World Vision New Zealand and Oxfam Aotearoa, have released an important climate finance report today – Doing Our Fair Share: New Zealand’s Responsibility to Provide Climate.

This report is published during the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga and ahead of the United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the New Zealand government will be participating in negotiations on climate finance to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.

Read the report here.

Note to Editors:

New Zealand’s fair share of climate finance has been calculated by looking at the country’s share of responsibility for climate change (based on the country’s cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases since 1992 and since 1850) and its ability to pay (according to its Gross National Income) relative to other higher-income (“Annex II”) countries.

A new climate finance goal that delivers for the Pacific

August 27, 2024

This report brings together the voices, experiences and demands of civil society from across the Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. It has been endorsed by the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network and 55 organisations and networks across seven countries, including Australia and New Zealand. The report presents a comprehensive vision for a new climate finance goal that delivers for the most vulnerable communities, and that sets the world on track to scale up climate action, phase out fossil fuels and transition to a cleaner, greener and more just future for all.

Read report here.

Doing Our Fairshare: New Zealand’s Responsibility to Provide Climate Finance Report

August 27, 2024

Two new reports reveal how New Zealand can meet its climate finance obligations ahead of COP29.

Auckland, New Zealand –Humanitarian agencies World Vision New Zealand and Oxfam Aotearoa, alongside the New Zealand Climate Action Network (NZCAN), have released two important climate finance reports today.

These reports are published during the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga and ahead of the United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the New Zealand government will be participating in negotiations on climate finance to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation measures

Doing Our Fair Share: New Zealand’s Responsibility to Provide Climate Finance, is published today by World Vision New Zealand and Oxfam Aotearoa.

“Our report highlights New Zealand’s responsibility to bolster its climate finance support for communities on the frontlines of climate change in the Pacific” says co-author, World Vision’s Advocacy Policy and Research Advisor, Dr Olivia Yates.

“As climate change intensifies, those communities least responsible are paying the highest price. Children and their families who are facing the most severe impacts often live in poverty, unable to afford the necessary tools to switch to greener, more climate-resilient livelihoods and prepare for future unprecedented extreme weather,” she says.

Co-Author, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Dr Nick Henry says “New Zealand’s climate finance is helping to build resilience for Pacific communities on the frontlines of climate change. The need for support will only increase in the coming years and New Zealand should continue to stand with the Pacific and be ready to contribute our fair share.”

The report reveals that to meet its fair share of climate finance, New Zealand should be contributing between 0.38% and 0.66% of the global climate goal, which currently equates to between NZ$558 million and NZ$953 million each year, based on our gross national income (GNI) and historic greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, New Zealand is only fulfilling 34% to 58% of this target.

The report shows that, although New Zealand’s climate finance falls short by over NZ$200 million, its funding has been steadily increasing. In the next funding round (2026-2030), New Zealand has a fresh opportunity to show global leadership by committing to provide a fair share of climate finance.

Dr Olivia Yates hopes the report will encourage the government to take seriously the need for ambitious climate finance in its upcoming climate finance decisions.

“While all countries must act on climate change, higher-income countries like New Zealand should pay their ‘fair share’ of the bill for climate action, based on their higher historical emissions and financial capability.”

Climate finance involves funding to support lower-income countries to cover the costs of shifting to greener systems, adapting to our warming world, and dealing with losses and damages from extreme weather – all vital for a response to climate change that leaves no one behind.

‘Seizing the Moment: A New Climate Finance Goal That Delivers for the Pacific’, by Climate Action Networks (CAN) in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, calls on the New Zealand Government to stand with the Pacific and commit to new funding aligned with a stronger global goal on climate finance, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), to be set at COP29 this November.

The NCQG is set to replace the prior US$100 billion (NZ$146 billion) annual global goal, a promise made by higher-income nations in 2010 to provide at least US$100 billion annually for climate change adaptation and mitigation each year.

Dr Nick Henry, Climate Justice Lead at Oxfam Aotearoa and co-author on the CAN report, says that funding to-date has been far from fair.

“The previous $100 billion goal was largely met in 2022 through loans and redirected development assistance, exacerbating debt burdens in lower-income countries. Countries on the frontlines of climate change now spend more paying debts than they receive in aid.”

The CAN report calls for a global target of at least US$1 trillion per year (NZ$1.46 trillion), prioritising grants over loans, to adequately support those hit hardest by climate change.

“At COP29, New Zealand has an opportunity to stand with the Pacific and advocate for a stronger, fairer climate finance target,” he says.

“New Zealand should commit to its fair share of the refreshed global goal, retaining its emphasis on grants instead of loans, and in addition to current aid efforts, to show enduring support, leadership, and a commitment to equity.”

As COP29 approaches, New Zealand has the opportunity—and the responsibility—to increase its fair share of climate finance and stand with the Pacific to ensure a fairer and more sustainable future for people most affected by climate change. Countries on the frontlines are urging global action, and New Zealand must rise to the challenge.

Note to Editors:

Media Contact:

For a copy of the report, or to arrange interviews, please contact: Rachel Schaevitz – [email protected] or 027 959 5555 Ashley Miln – [email protected] or 020-4051-3769 Kirsty Jones – [email protected] or (09) 580 7753

Amitabh Behar named Oxfam International’s Executive Director

August 9, 2024

Oxfam International is pleased to announce the appointment of Amitabh Behar as its new Executive Director. Behar is a respected global civil society leader, with three decades of experience and extensive work on human rights, economic inequalities, governance accountability, philanthropy, democracy and social justice. He was selected following a competitive recruitment process.

Behar joined Oxfam in April 2018 as the Chief Executive of Oxfam India. More recently, he served as Oxfam International’s Interim Executive Director.

“Behar is a thoughtful and creative feminist leader, with an in-depth understanding of the causes and complexities of poverty, inequality, discrimination and suffering. We are confident in his ability to convene our confederation, alongside our partners, to deliver our vision for a just and equal world,” said Dr. Aruna Rao, the Chair of the Oxfam International Board of Directors.

Behar said: “I embark on this new chapter acutely aware of the global and interconnected challenges we face in our world today. We require urgent action built on new solidarities, new imaginations, and new dreams to deliver a more equal and sustainable future for all.

“Oxfam carries a rich legacy rooted in working with communities while advocating for systemic change. I am eager to channel our collective energies, boldness, resources, and partnerships in support of peoples’ power for the good of majority of the global population.”

Behar has made valuable contributions to Oxfam’s transformation of its own confederation, decolonizing its decision-making and strengthening its collective structure and policies. He has been widely recognized for his work on people-centric advocacy, governance accountability, social and economic equality, and citizen participation.

Prior to Oxfam, Behar was Executive Director of the National Foundation for India and Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. He has also served as the Vice-Chair of the Board of CIVICUS and the Chair of Navsarjan (Ahmedabad) and President of Yuva in Mumbai. He currently serves on the boards of several other organizations, including the Global Fund for Community Foundation and the Norwegian Human Rights Fund.

Contact: Rachel Schaevitz, [email protected]

FLOW: Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

FLOW is our four-year project based in the rural Henganofi district in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). FLOW stands for Fostering Lasting Opportunities in WaSH and WaSH stands for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.

Our goal is to improve health, resilience, and quality of life for remote and vulnerable communities, particularly women and children, in rural PNG.

In addition to constructing water and sanitation systems, like gravity-fed water tanks and private latrines, FLOW also focuses on education. Training initiatives include improving understanding around menstruation and hygiene, improving behaviours around open defecation and hand-washing, and making sure people know how to get existing government funding to improve and maintain their community’s water and sanitation systems.

KŌTUI

FLOW is part of our larger five-year, multi-country programme, Kōtui. Learn more about Kōtui here!

This te reo Māori word means binding together, or interlacing, during weaving. The woven mat represents dialogue and joint problem-solving in Pacific countries and in Timor-Leste. It is an appropriate symbol for a programme focused on inclusive and equitable governance.

CHANGING BEHAVIOURS

Schools and communities are actively engaged, and more are becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF).

We have seen a huge change in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours as a result of training conducted! When we started the FLOW project two years ago, 85% of people in our 12 target communities in Henganofi were not using toilets. Following many conversations on the importance and benefits of hygiene and sanitation, this has reduced to 48%.

Eight of our target communities have now been certified as “Open Defecation Free” (ODF) – meaning residents have installed toilets and handwashing stations and are using them. Another five communities are ready for ODF certification, just awaiting formal assessment.
Once a community has received its certification, Oxfam can begin to install toilets and water points in the confidence that they will be valued and used.
Site inspections for 13 new WaSH infrastructure projects have now been completed, and designs have been developed according to PNG’s WASH standards.

BUILDING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

Oxfam has partnered with New Zealand-based engineering company Lautrec Technology Group Ltd to help plan the water infrastructure.

The Oxfam in PNG team prepared the engineering plans to suit the specific needs and requests of the various community sites where they will be installed, and Lautrec was able to make changes and improvements to the designs remotely. We are excited to have begun construction in these rural communities.

We have completed work in Sosauto community to install a gravity-fed water system, the catchment dam and the taps for water. Sosauto community is comprised of 5 hamlets and the taps have been installed in Moikepa Primary and Moikepa Elementary schools which cater to over 280 students and teachers and supplying a community of over 700 people.

For years, the Komperi Health Care Centre struggled with limited access to clean water. Hospital staff had to rely on rainwater collection and sporadic deliveries from distant sources. Oxfam’s new water system including taps has meant that the health care centre now has a consistent supply of water.

FLOW aims to improve schools’ hygiene facilities like the ones we see on the right. In December 2019, we visited schools where Oxfam has never worked before (left) and returned to ones where we have built hygiene facilities in the past (right). The goal is to build facilities that allow more privacy, especially for girls!

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT (MHM)

Many girls in PNG miss school each month because they cannot manage their periods at school without private toilets and running water. They fall further and further behind their classmates when they consistently miss their lessons.

Alongside our partner organisation, QueenPads, we are:

Shifting unhelpful stigmas about menstruation
Providing sanitation and menstrual hygiene education for teachers and students
Building private toilets and handwashing stations.

With our partner, we have developed attendance monitoring forms, and teachers have explained to the girls the purpose of monitoring their attendance. Teacher’s and principals have seen great improvement in menstrual hygiene management attitudes and practices. Girls are now attending classes on days they have their periods, and boys are engaging in open discussions about menstruation with their families. Female students have approached male teachers for support, and schools have started allocating budgets for menstrual and hygiene materials such as pads and tissues. Both boys and girls are now participating in sessions on menstruation, with teaching staff sharing positive testimonials on how this work has led to sustained improvements in hygiene practices. If sustained, these attitudinal and behavioural changes may have a long-lasting impact on girls’ education and life options.

“Now that we have a water supply, our lifestyle has changed, and the water can support us – for example, buying clothes for our children or soap, or at least supporting them with school supplies like pens and books when the teachers send them to buy something. We can buy and support them. So we can see that since the water came, our lives have changed.”

Somano – Farmer in Henganofi, Papua New Guinea

SYSTEMS CHANGE

We are making progress on transforming the underlying systems that have resulted in PNG’s poor health and water access.

One goal of FLOW is to increase women’s participation in community decision-making. More women are now participating in and leading community WaSH committees and have thus been able to drive the decisions that affect them, overcoming longstanding gender biases to prove the value of women in community decision-making. In fact, three women from the Jugusa WaSH committee spearheaded the necessary behaviour changes that led to their community earning its Open Defecation Free certification!

Our local partners report that in community meetings about what kind of water systems or toilets to build, diverse voices are being heard. People living with disabilities, women, and older people are all contributing. Community leaders are seeing that when women participate and give their views, it helps men to learn that women have important agendas to discuss.

“Many times, people misunderstand the concept of gender equality, however, it is not about creating competition or differences between the husband and wife. It’s about accepting each other’s roles and assisting each other or share responsibilities when necessary,” says Rubbie Mone Oxfam WASH Gender Officer during a gender awareness training (far left, in the lower image).

This systemic change has seen women taking leadership roles and driving the change necessary for their village to improve and get the toilets and water points they want. Another goal of FLOW is to increase understanding of the government’s responsibility to deliver and maintain water and sanitation, and help communities learn how best to access existing funding.

Members of PNG’s government are moving in the right direction, with one Member of Parliament allocating an additional budget of 200,000 kina, nearly $80,000 NZD, to address community requests for additional publicly accessible water points that were beyond the scope and budget of Oxfam’s FLOW project.

Oxfam PNG team members have also reported that their most important lesson learned has been how to interact with different levels of stakeholders, from provincial level to partners to community members – a key element to the success of collaborative working.

This systems change is a vote of confidence that helps illustrate that Oxfam and PNG’s government can work in partnership to build sustainable WaSH infrastructure for people in rural PNG.

Andrew, an Oxfam in the Pacific staff member, washes his hands at one of the newly built taps in Nogorunte.

SUSTAINABILITY

One of the most important aspects of this project is to ensure that it sustains itself long after the project is complete. To make sure that communities have ownership of these initiatives and maintain the toilets, latrines, and water points, we have established community WaSH committees. The main function of the committee is to advocate for WaSH needs at the district level, with a particular focus on pushing for increased funding for WaSH service delivery in the district. Oxfam has established 8 committees (with a plan for 12 total) and signed several MoUs with communities and provincial health boards. This helps clarify who is responsible for the sustainability and maintenance of the water systems once they’re installed.

THE CONTINUING CHALLENGE OF COVID-19

Covid-19 is widespread throughout the Highlands of Papua New Guinea which has had intense impacts on our colleagues and partners. Every staff member has been fully vaccinated and returned to work. Oxfam Aotearoa is staying in close contact with our colleagues in PNG to see how we can continue to support them and the communities they work with, as they navigate their response to Covid-19. However, FLOW’s ongoing work to provide water, hygiene training and handwashing stations remains vital to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases into the long term.

Oxfam: New Zealand must do more for PNG – urgently

November 16, 2021

Papua New Guinea faces a deadly pandemic of misinformation

In response to the New Zealand government sending a medical and logistics support team to Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the weekend, Oxfam Aotearoa says that while essential supplies and support is a good contribution, the government can, and must, do more.

Oxfam Aotearoa Communications and Advocacy Director Dr Jo Spratt said:

“Recently, we heard Hon. Minister Mahuta outline how Aotearoa would partner with Pacific countries to achieve resilience. Referring to our Pacific neighbours as family, the Minister recognised our deep and enduring whakapapa connections – Tātai Hono, and reiterated the importance of Tātou Tātou – all of us together. If there is any time to put these values into action, it is when one of our family members is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis. This support from the government is a good start, but more needs to be done and urgently.”

Oxfam Papua New Guinea Country Director Eunice Wotene says that as the third coronavirus wave escalates out of control in the country, people are experiencing a lot of challenges. There are multiple issues over Covid-19 vaccinations, lockdowns, and an overwhelmed health system further perpetuating an already stressful situation.

In an effort to control the outbreak, the PNG government has put in place control measures banning gatherings of more than 20 people and encouraging the general public to follow the “Niupela Pasin” (new normal). Provincial Controllers like that of the Eastern Highland Province have implemented travel restrictions across the borders between districts. Wotene says that control measures implemented at the provincial level have helped reduce the spread of infection and has resulted in a reduction in the number of cases presenting at the hospital. However, this has also caused challenges and restricted people from getting to vaccination centres. It has also created economic challenges for people because they can’t get to markets, sell their produce, and earn an income to sustain themselves. This has, in turn, led to an increase in other social issues like petty crimes.

Thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been coming into PNG from neighbouring countries, but despite the large number of vaccines, PNG is struggling to get its vaccination rates above 9 per cent. Wotene says that while vaccines are welcome and needed, people are either misinformed about the risks, or unable to get vaccines:

“The situation is complicated. Many of our people live in remote rural villages. Information and vaccines aren’t reaching them, and travel restrictions between district borders make things difficult. For some people, even if they could make it to a clinic, they aren’t going because of the misinformation out there about the vaccines’ side-effects. There is a real sense of urgency now that we must do all we can to reach these people.

“In some villages, two or more family members have died from Covid-19, just days or weeks apart. We have a health system overcome with sick people and our people are dying.”

Local and international media recently reported that due to Port Moresby morgues being overwhelmed with the dead, PNG authorities had no choice but to approve mass burial.

New World Bank research, titled Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Papua New Guinea, examined the motivation behind vaccine hesitancy in Papua New Guinea and tested various means of increasing people’s willingness to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The report found that one of the main hurdles for Papua New Guineans was the fear of the vaccine itself. However, people’s replies also indicated they were open to learning more, particularly if information came from health workers. The research showed that when people were given basic information on the safety of the vaccine and the dangers of Covid-19 that increased the percentage of people who said they were willing to be vaccinated.

Wotene said: “We need health workers to go to the people to provide useful and factual information and help ease their fears. There is also need for mobile clinics where people from the rural communities can be reached for vaccination.”

Dr Spratt said: “In addition to the recent support and supplies, the NZ government should send new emergency funding to support the PNG government and other development partners to rapidly roll-out vaccine information campaigns across the country. This could be done through village health workers, local radio stations and other locally-appropriate communication methods.

“New Zealand still has millions of spare AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines that we are not using here. We can and should donate these to PNG.”

Ends

Notes:

See the full report Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Papua New Guinea