Aust unveils K250m plan
By ELIZABETH VUVU
 AUSTRALIAN parliamentary secretary for international development assistance, Bob McMullen, yesterday announced a K250 million Australian government initiative to support communities and civil society in PNG.
Mr McMullen announced the initiative during a visit to an innovative water catchment programme at Rainaou village in Kokopo, East New Britain province.
Mr McMullen officially opened the Rainaou water supply catchment project together with Community Services Minister Dame Carol Kidu.
He said the Strogim Pipol Kirapim Nesen (SPKN) was a new programme that would empower PNG’s communities to play a bigger role in their own development.
SPKN would support communities to jointly identify and prioritise their developmental needs and to plan and implement activities that meet those needs.
He said the water catchment project at Rainaou was a great example of how the new programme would work.
He said it was projects like this, small in scale and community-driven, that had great potential to address the day-to-day needs of the people.
By supporting communities to identify their strengths and potential and to jointly prioritise, plan and implement activities that meet their needs, the SPKN had the potential to make a big impact, he said.
Mr McMullun said as well as providing grants and support to communities and civil society groups, SPKN would fund media activities, community programmes and other projects that involve getting information out to local people or finding innovative ways to increase awareness on important developmental issues.
“Australia and PNG will be friends forever and this programme will enhance it,” he said.
Dame Carol said it was a proud day to have the Australian delegation in East New Britain, a province that had led the way in setting good standards for governance at the local level.
She heaped praise on the people of Rainaou for setting an example on the value of teamwork, cooperation and working in partnership.
She thanked senator McMullen for taking her out to the communities where she was supposed to be and said SPKN was not just benefits for the community but also the capacity of our bureaucratic systems which we could build along the way.
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