Practise what you preach

Letters

I WISH to highlight a practice that is very colonial in nature but still in use today by most non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development agencies and is entrenched in their system.
People have not realised and these organisations are getting away with it.
Most NGOs and development agencies in PNG are involved in behavioural change communication work, however, they do not practise what they preach during their selection process when hiring people.
Like all other organisations, they have very-stringent screening measures that do not allow them to appoint people who have been dismissed by other organisations because of some behavioural issues.
When they make a reference check on a suitable candidate and find that their former employer had dismissed them because of behavioural issues like drinking or gender-based violence (GBV),
they automatically drop this candidate.
They do not consider how many months had lapsed since the dismissal, where in many
cases, people realise their mistakes and make amends in their lives.
I am beginning to question why these organisations become so heavily involved in trying to change people’s behaviour when they themselves do not believe that people can change.
Some organisations have a zero-tolerance to fraud and ensure that their stakeholders know it by heart.
Since many of these organisations are managed by expatriates, I am of the opinion that they believe that it is very difficult for Papua New Guineans to change their behaviour or will repeat their mistakes as was widely believed during the colonial era.
What they fail to realise is that PNG has come a long way in terms of development and is doing its best to adapt to an introduced culture.

P Marox