Agro aid for women stopped

By WANPIS AKO
NEW Zealand government scholarships for women in agriculture were cancelled last year because of misuse of aid funds by the University of Natural Resource and Environment (UNRE), parliament was told this week.
Higher Education Minister David Arore, responding to a question by Nawaeb MP Gisuwat Siniwim, said: “UNRE has not fulfilled the requirements of the aid funds. The funds were not monitored to ensure its purposes
were achieved.
“The women in agriculture scholarship scheme was introduced in 1994 and provides around 200 to 230 study awards annually to Papua New Guinean women to study at PNG tertiary institutions,”
he said.
Arore said in 2009 180 female students from UNRE were sponsored by NZAID, adding it extended its sponsorship to female students who were doing undergraduate studies in fisheries and postgraduate in forestry.
Reports indicated that under its PNG country programme strategy 2008-18, NZAID would expand its support for in-country training, including the women in agriculture programme, and strengthen PNG institutions to provide services and research into key sectors such as health, agriculture and education.
A New Zealand scholarships official had said the scheme was committed to contribute to equitable economic growth and poverty reduction in the country.