Public servants challenged to implement Vision 2050

By JOHN SAMAR

Acting Prime Minister Don Polye has challenged senior public servants to implement the Papua New Guinea Vision 2050. 

Mr Polye (centre) flanked by acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc (left)

He was addressing heads of departments and provincial administrators at a two-day meeting held at the Institute of Public Administration in Port Moresby on Wednesday Sept 29, 2010.

The meeting was held to discuss ways in which all departments and provincial governments can work together to align their national and provincial development plans to the PNG Vision 2050 Vision.

The PNG Vision 2050 wants to make PNG become a smart, wise, fair, healthy, and happy society by 2050.

To be able to reach these goals, PNG has to introduce universal basic education, increase its literacy rates, reduce deaths from TB and HIV AIDS, empower small PNG businessmen and women, and improve delivery of basic services such as health, education, banking, transport, communications and other services to the 89 districts throughout the country.

“The Papua New Guineans of tomorrow cannot do the job we have been given to do for them today for a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society by 2050,” Polye said.

 “Our generation’s welfare, my friends, is squarely in our hands, and we must take on the challenge and do what we have to do like we have never done before.”

Polye told the senior public servants that they should critically analyse and translate the meaning of Vision 2050 so that it has an impact on the lives of ordinary people in the rural villages of PNG.

Polye said once the senior public servants understood the needs of the ordinary villager, then they could produce appropriate plans to provide priority projects such as schools, aid posts, and small businesses to provide income for the rural villagers.

The acting Prime Minister said people in the rural areas needed roads and bridges to connect them to market places, and also need protection from criminals and natural disasters.

“However,” Polye said, “when it comes to what needs to be done first, and how , we should partner with them to implement their wishes , all of us need to sit down, and listen to them.

“In that regard, go out and sell Vision 2050, and make them own it as much as you do.”

Polye emphasised that senior public servants should use the proven performance management system put in place by the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government to ensure that implementation was effectively undertaken and monitored.

He called on senior public servants to combine their efforts with other agencies through a public-private partnership to benefit local communities resulting in synergistic benefits for everyone.

Addressing the same conference, acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc called on the departmental heads and provincial administrators to cooperate in aligning their development plans with Vision 2050.

He told the senior officers that without effective collaboration and consultation between all central agencies of government, efforts to co-ordinate and monitor implementation would not be achieved.

Zurenuoc encouraged all senior public servants to work together in unity in “improving the delivery of services to the people of Papua New Guinea, especially to those who live in our rural communities”.

The Central provincial government and the Department of Health briefed the meeting on how their respective organisations had aligned their development plans with PNG Vision 2050.

Central provincial administrator Raphael Yipmaramba told the meeting that his province had adopted the “bottom up” planning approach from the ward level to the provincial level and national level, while the financial resources were planned to flow “from top down”.

 Secretary for Health Dr. Clement Malau told the conference that his department was accountable to the 6.5 million stakeholders of PNG.

He added that his department also brought in experienced people from the provinces to assist in planning its corporate plan.

He said for the health plan to succeed, his department ensured that stakeholders took ownership, consulted widely, and also created a communications strategy to sell the plan to make sure “Health is everybody’s business”.

Dr Malau stressed that the Health Department’s plan also took a “bottom up” approach where all districts and provincial governments worked with the national government in drafting the10-year national health plan that was launched in Port Moresby last month.

The two-day meeting ended on Thursday, Sept 30, 2010.

A draft agreement called the ‘Waigani Conference Accord’ is being prepared by the secretariat of the PNG Vision 2050 development centre and will signed by the departmental heads and provincial administrators once it is completed.