Lack of data a planning obstacle

THE availability of data is important when making government plans, says Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Richard Maru.
Maru told the first Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) meeting in Port Moresby on Tuesday that there was no baseline data available to formulate the medium-term development plan three this year.
“I have been asking for baseline data from all the sectors. National Planning doesn’t have it,” Maru said.
“I’m surprised we are running around trying to collect baseline data.”
Maru said a lot of the data was with members of the committee which could be easily provided for planning.
He urged everyone to work together as a team to formulate the plan “we all need to own and implement over the next five years”.
Maru said the large depository of knowledge of research data on investment funds in the private sector, the knowledge that the churches and non-government organisations had would be very useful.
Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker said there was no ideal data in the country.
“We have sporadic data in PNG on a range of things held at the National Statistics Office, National Research Institute, private sector and departments. But some of it is out of date,” Barker said.
“We need to share the data we already have.
“You have to make do with some of the things that are available and utilise that to help determine your plans. You have to obviously know where the population is, population growth rate, where existing infrastructure is – roads, bridges, what their condition are, all those sort of details.”
The CIMC was set up by the Government to facilitate dialogue between it, civil society and the private sector on issues of policy, development and service delivery.