PNG PS students at the Crawford School of Public Policy, (l-r) Sanja, Pius and Susan
The Papua New Guinea Government is encouraging its Public Servants to study in Australia to learn best practices they can then bring back to their workplaces.
The campaign aims to improve the knowledge, performance and service delivery of PNG Departments and Agencies.
Three PNG Public Servants – Pius, Sanja and Susan – are able to study at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University in Canberra after successfully applying under the Australia Awards Scholarship scheme.
Pius, who works with the Western Highlands Provincial Administration (WHPA) as Manager of Planning and Information, said his specific focus in Australia and when he returns, is to improve WHPA’s database system.
“At the moment we do not have a centrally coordinated database where each Department can find the information they need to make policies,” he said.
“Most policies fail during implementation because of the lack of basic data.”
Sanja comes from Enga Province in the Highlands and before coming to study in Australia was Assistant Secretary of Economic Policy at the Department of National Planning and Monitoring.
He will return to his Department at the end of his degree and is “looking forward to integrate and use the policy tools and techniques I learned at Crawford”.
Susan comes from the Southern Highland Province and works with the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority in Port Moresby.
She says that “studying at the ANU was a dream come true and to graduate with a Masters Degree on Environment Management and Development is a plus in my educational achievement”.
“The most important thing to me is how I use my education to contribute towards my country’s development,” Susan said.
