The National Pandemic Control Centre has confirmed 25 new cases last night bringing the total COVID-19 cases in Papua New Guinea to 188 to date.
Saturday 8 August 2020
Papua New Guinea reports 25 new Covid-19 cases as its record nears 200
Thursday 6 August 2020
West Sepik provincial assembly members inducted on their roles and responsibilities
Local Level Government presidents and Commissioners in West
Sepik last week were inducted about their roles and responsibilities at the sub
national level.
A team of officials from the Department of Provincial and Local
Level Government Affairs, the Department of Implementation and Rural
Development, Finance and Parliamentary Services were in Vanimo.
West Sepik has four districts of Vanimo Green River,
Aitape-Lumi, Nuku and Telefomin.
It has 18 LLG’s and 236 wards.
Director of District Development Authority at DPLGA Frank
Akrakri said the presidents should work closely with the district
administrators and the public servants in the district to assist them plan for
projects and development in their wards.
This is the first time such a workshop was conducted in West
Sepik and many had applauded as an eye opener.
They were now ready to plan and run their local level
governments in their respective districts.
They have realized that in the past few members and the
chairman control assembly meetings and passed agenda on projects that are not
viable and beneficial to everyone in the community.
The aim of the workshop was to help presidents know and
understand their roles and responsibilities so that they can deliver services
to people.
Brian Bell Gordon's Plaza exhilarates me
Wednesday 5 August 2020
Let's stop this cat and mouse game with Port Moresby police
Saturday 18 July 2020
Kavieng International Airport to be complete in two years
Over
25 years after New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan raised the need for
New
Ireland to have an International Airport and finally the Ground breaking
took
place on Wednesday the 15th of July 2020.
Witnessed
by Prime Minister James Marape and 7 state Minister’s including
Minister
for Civil Aviation Captain Lekwa Gure, National Planning and
Monitoring
Sam Basil, Treasurer Ian Ling Stuckey, Transport and Infrastructure
William
Sam, Forestry Solan Mirisim, Fisheries Dr. Lino Tom, Finance
Minister
Rainbo Paita and Samarai Murua MP Isi Henry Leonard. It was also a
very
rare occasion where the three local members of parliament Governor Sir J,
Kavieng
Open Ian Ling Stuckey and Namatanai Open MP Walter Schnaubelt
attended
a public gathering together for the greater good of the people of New
Ireland.
Other
Dignataries included China’s Ambassador to PNG HE Xue Bing,
stakeholders
from the Business community, Airport Landowners and 100
participants
of the NIPG Community Awareness program from the Matalai and
Namatanai
LLG’s.
Minister
Captain Lekwa Gure relayed the Kavieng Airport upgrade project will
involve
the upgrade of the existing runway pavement and apron, extension of
the
existing runway by 500 metres, design and construction of the new type B
terminal
which will have a floor space of 2640 square metres, car park and
access
road, construction of perimeter fence around runway extension area,
construction
of NAC staff house, office building, workshop plus power house,
rehabilitation
of NAC facility roads and associated works .Once the runway
extension
and strengthening are completed the runway dimensions itself will be
2.2
kilometres by 30 metres wide and have a pavement classification of 50
which
will be long and strong enough to accommodate Boeing 737- 800 series
type
of aircraft or its equivalent,” said Minister Capt. Lekwa Gure.
The
contract was awarded in March this year to China Railway Construction
Engineering
Group PNG at a value of 98.5 million. “Now that the ground
breaking
is taking place today we expect the contractor to start work tomorrow
and
the clock will start ticking for the next 24 months.”
Prime
Minister James Marape noting the New Ireland Government’s and the
people’s
desire for the Airport Terminal to have a uniquely New Ireland flavor
inspired
by the Provincial bird “Drongo” agreed the terminal building should
possess
the “Bilas” flavor. “We can still relook at the design of the terminal to
incorporate
New Ireland flavor but we will have to put in extra funds from both
the
National Government and the Provincial government to make it happen. It’s
important
that New Ireland must have its own distinct design,” said PM
Marape.
Governor
Sir J’s vision for the International Airport was first raised back in the
1990s,
when he was the Open Member for Namatanai. “I realised that New
Ireland
– if it was to reach its full potential – needed a direct link to the rest of
the
world.
“I
thought then – and I think now – that we need an International Airport
because
of what New Ireland has to offer to the world. And I think everyone
here
today can recognise what New Ireland has to offer.
“As
a tourist destination, New Ireland is at the very top of the list in Papua New
Guinea,
in the entire Pacific. Where else can you get the beauty of mountains?
with
rainforests, pristine beaches with white sand and palm trees, crystal clear
waters
for swimming and world class diving, surfing sites that are the envy of
the
world, and – our greatest attraction of all – people who say hello when you
pass
them on the street. People who shake your hand - instead of picking your
pocket.
“We
want our tourists to visit the people in the village, to stay at community
guesthouses.
Because a person in a village in New Ireland is a member of the
village,
a member of the community. And, in New Ireland, the village takes care
of
its own.
“THAT
is what New Ireland is all about. THAT is what makes New Ireland
unique.
THAT is what we want to market to the world,” said Sir J.
A
cheque of K3 million was handed over to the landowners as partial payment
for
the use of their land, the outstanding will be paid in due course after further
consultations
with the landowners. This includes further compensation for the
delay
in payments.
The
multimillion kina airport project is one of 27 impact projects promised by
the
State in 1995 under the Lihir MOA that will add significant value and match
the
already newly constructed four-lane Kavavu Avenue from the airport to the
waterfront
built by the Government of New Ireland. It is expected to be
complete
in July 2022, two years from now.
It
has taken 25 years to start just 1 of the four major projects under the Lihir
MOA,
this is an obligation of the State since 1995. It is time to restore the
peoples
trust in the Government to meet its promises
Tuesday 14 July 2020
Seizing the moment: Tackling entrenched inequalities to end epidemics
By Winnie Byanyima
Like the HIV epidemic before it, COVID-19 is exploiting the extreme inequalities between countries and within them to take root among disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. I am proud that decades of experience in responding to HIV are being used in the fight against the coronavirus and that activists all over the world are working hard to make sure that the disruption to HIV services is minimized.
But I am also deeply concerned.
Even before the onset of COVID-19, the world was failing in its commitment to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. The UNAIDS new Global Report, Seizing The Moment: tackling entrenched inequalities to tackle epidemics, shows that there were 690,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2019 and 1.7 million new infections—far from the global targets of fewer than 500,000 deaths and 500,000 new infections a year that were set for 2020.
The collective failure to implement and sufficiently invest in comprehensive, rights-based HIV responses has come at a dreadful price. There were 3.5 million more HIV infections and 820,000 more AIDS-related deaths from 2015 to 2020 than the world had aimed to achieve.
This is unacceptable when we have medicines to keep people living with HIV alive and well and an array of prevention tools to stop new infections. We are being held back by entrenched inequalities that put vulnerable and marginalized groups of people at higher risk of becoming infected with HIV and dying of AIDS-related illnesses.
More people are on treatment than ever before. Globally around 25.4 million of the 38 million people living with HIV are accessing life-saving antiretroviral therapy, but 12.6 million people are not.
As ever, it is the most vulnerable who pay the price. Every day, marginalized groups such as gay men, sex workers, transgender people, people who use drugs, prisoners and migrants are prevented from receiving proper health care and are criminalized and marginalized. Denied their right to health, these groups and their sexual partners comprised 62 percent of all new adult infections in 2019.
Meanwhile, women and girls are too often denied their sexual and reproductive health and rights, while gender-based violence and gender inequalities continue to drive the epidemic forward among young women and girls.
It is estimated that globally 243 million women and girls aged 15-49 years have been subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the past 12 months. months. Meanwhile, we know that women who experience such violence are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV than women who have not experienced violence.
All this must change, and we have to act on multiple fronts. In Papua New Guinea for instance, the acute emergency of COVID-19 brought out the many cracks in the system that must be targeted and fundamentally overhauled to create a more user-friendly and survivor-centred GBV response.
Just like HIV, COVID-19 holds up a mirror to the stark inequalities and injustices that run through our societies. The COVID-19 pandemic will also be exacerbated unless we address the human rights impact on vulnerable people and their lack of access to health services, education, protection from violence and social, economic and psychological support.
Successful pandemic responses are grounded in human rights, implement evidence-based programming, and should be fully funded to achieve their targets.
HIV has been slipping down the international agenda for some years. Now, I am calling on leaders to convene a new United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS next year to address with urgency the outstanding issues that are holding us back from ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
We cannot drop the ball on HIV. The futures of millions of people are at stake.
The UNAIDS 2020 global report is a call to action. It highlights the terrible scale of the HIV epidemic and how it runs along the fault lines of inequalities.
We can and must close the gaps.
Monday 6 July 2020
Training for Village Record Book Kicks Off in New Ireland
New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan launched the new Village Book database
system for the 142 LLG wards in New Ireland on
Wednesday, becoming the
first Governor in the country to roll out the
project that will be introduced
nationwide in the coming weeks.
Sir J immediately urged all the Ward Recorders in
the Province to make it their
business to ensure all relevant data is recorded and
updated. “You must fight for
New Ireland and do a complete audit of the people
and provide an accurate data
bank the like the whole of New Ireland depends on
you alone.”
He cut the ribbon as he launched the Village Record
Book database system and
training workshop for Ward Recorders and LLG
officials and Councilors on
Tuesday 30 th June kicking off the national drive to
establish the data system
established under an MOU signed with the Department
of Provincial and Local
Level Government Affairs on the 7 th of February
this year.
Among witnesses to the occasion were representatives
of the Department of
Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, the
Deputy Governor and
President of Tikana LLG, Hon. Sammy Missen and
colleague Presidents from
the Murat and Kavieng Urban Councils, the acting
Provincial Administrator and
Director for District and LLG Affairs, Mr. Ricky
Fugonto, who spearheaded
and coordinated preparation and New Ireland
Government involvement and
funding of the project.
Mr. Fugonto said the Village Record Book is a key
Government initiative to
ensure New Ireland Government has a locally
developed and managed database
collection system that will generate accurate,
reliable and up to date data for
evidence-based development planning, policy
formulation, budgeting, resource
allocation and service distribution.
“It is paramount that all Government agencies at all
levels of government work
together in ensuring this important government
intervention is strengthened and
sustained over a long period of time by sharing
resources, expertise and skills,”
said Fugonto.
Governor Sir J’s keynote address stemmed from the
heart of ‘Autonomy.’ He
said the Village Record Books would not only help
New Ireland but also the
Electoral Commission, which had an appalling track
record in updating the
names of all electors during the National and LLG
Elections.
Sir J said, “Ward members the future of New Ireland
will depend on you. The
vision for tomorrow is that we’ve got to
decentralize power to the provinces.
We have to make every province autonomous because
power is responsibility.
A united Papua New Guinea can only be strong if we
recognize individual
rights of our people .The National Government can
just concentrate on policy
matters and coordination,” said Sir J.
Sir J thanked the officials from the DPLGA for
availing their time for the
training but advised them to tell Waigani that New
Ireland is capable of looking
after itself. “ I hope you can bring the message
back to Port Moresby and say
why are we not playing around, just let these people
govern themselves, and we
just stay back, make good policies for good
governance and just coordinate their
projects in the districts.”
In a delightful closing gesture drawing popular
applause Sir Julius announced
that the New Ireland Government would Top-Up the
Ward Recorders
allowances by another K100 per month bring their
monthly total to K200.
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