Country needs more volunteers

PAPUA New Guinea is a developing country in the Pacific with an increasing population and many development issues.
To achieve world-class infrastructure and human development, the Government and development partners should consistently fund partner organisations to foster development activities that can reach the people in the rural and marginalised communities in the country.
It is obvious that the Government and its bureaucrats are just sitting in their Waigani offices writing policy after policy and there is hardly any implementation of these policies, especially in the rural areas.
People are suffering and distorted development in all parts of the country and this is what we are talking about when campaigning for political power?
From my observation, people in the government offices write imaginary policies and just wait to receive their salaries rather than doing the real development activities.
The Government and development partners should focus on and partner organisations such as community based organisations, non-government organisations, faith based organisations and other statutory volunteer organisations to foster social development activities because these are the real organisations that reach out to the marginalised communities to ensure government services reach people.
I believe community volunteerism is significant and efficient to ensuring that development reaches people.
Volunteering will help reduce costs and support public policies and frameworks that assist the Government.
The Governments can nurture an enabling environment for volunteer activities through the creation of public programmes and schemes, the designation of local focal points and the development of enabling policies and legislation for volunteerism, including incentives to engage disadvantaged or marginalised groups in the country.
The Government should ensure that the regulations and budgets of respective ministries and public departments reflect their commitment to support social development activities because it is through this way that services delivery will reach people.
There is a need for a government-backed volunteer seed fund to supplement and encourage contributions from other donors to partner with local volunteer organisations that would offer key support to volunteer-related policies.
Volunteer programmes can provide concrete opportunities for wider participation in development processes, often including the marginalised, which can positively influence the outcomes of service delivery.
Volunteering can promote social transformation through its ability to effect political, attitudinal and behavioural change, which can be a strategic means for overcoming the many barriers that stand in the way of access to basic services for all.
In Australia, New Zealand and other countries, thousands of people volunteer to work and the fruits of their free labour are now enjoyed by their children and descendants.
If it wasn’t for their sacrifices and hard work, people won’t be living the way they are now.
Therefore, to take back PNG, we need to perform our civic roles and duties to contribute to the country’s development which will then impact nation building.

Maccabi Kentipa,
Hides 2,
Hela