Envoy: PNG to miss goals

 A DIPLOMAT has warned that Papua New Guinea will not meet any United Nations millennium development goals because living standards in rural areas have not improved.

United States Ambassador Walter North said: “There is still more domestic violence and poverty in PNG.” He was addressing a women’s leadership symposium in Kokopo, East New Britain, yesterday.

North, therefore, urged educated PNG women to take the lead in assisting women in the rural areas.

“Educated women in PNG have the tools to assist their families and communities. I believe that women in PNG have the power to make that commitment and drive the change needed,” he said.

“I know that women in this country will not lose hope. They will keep on learning. They can transform this country from the land of the unexpected to a better place.”

According to the UN, poverty in PNG has been measured in terms of proportion of population under the poverty line, depth of poverty, share of the poorest quintile in national consumption and income inequality.

Similarly, hunger is measured by underweight births as a percentage of total births and underweight children below the age of five years.