Guest blog by Barbara Thomas, Maliwai Sasingian, & Kirk Gibson
In January 2024, the Black Wednesday riots shook Papua New Guinea (PNG). Local thinkers highlight these as acts of desperation, driven by underlying causes including unemployment and the increasing cost of living. But governments alone cannot solve the complex problems that drive these events. Citizens, civil society, and the private sector must also lead on reform or support good government policy aimed at addressing these issues. This is, and has been, happening, with groups of reformers finding uniquely Papua New Guinean ways to use collective action to solve social and economic problems.
This blog summarises our learning about some recent reformers, groups being supported by The Voice Inc’s (TVI) local leadership and collective action program (LLCAP) which aims to support local leaders to reform or improve implementation of PNG public policy. TVI is itself is a local leadership organisation, supporting young leaders since it began 17 years ago at the University of PNG and now through a network of more than 3,000 members in 19 provinces.
Since LLCAP started in 2022, nine reform issues have emerged. Some, such as the 2022 national elections, have arisen from TVI’s existing network, while others have emerged from new groups formed through LLCAP. TVI facilitates collaboration among these groups using a hands-on approach known as problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA), which is currently implemented with the Harvard Kennedy School’s building state capability program.
To date, 14 teams of leaders and active citizens from nine provinces have completed the PDIA course. Each team presented a complex problem from their respective areas of work, encompassing both policy and implementation challenges. These included ‘improving decentralisation of resources to local level government’ and ‘implementing early childhood education policy’. Ongoing conversations have begun to reveal common themes regarding the factors that support these issue-focussed groups.
So what helps these reform groups progress? Firstly, PNG is a ‘trust’ economy. Trusted relationships are the currency for collective action.
As reform groups develop, they try to draw together organisations and people with the right influence, resources, and ability to progress a change agenda. This means creating and maintaining new relationships able to collectively withstand the professional, personal, and context pressures of life in PNG.
In Kundiawa, Simbu Province, a coalition of four network leaders working on sorcery accusation related violence (SARV) forged and reforged trust to continue working on improved access to justice for SARV victims.
“It is more about being there for each other, acknowledging the challenges and maintaining understanding and respect for each other. In doing that, we found strength in each other to push through as a team regardless of the countless challenges we face…”
SARV team reflections November 2023
Across reform groups, the ability to negotiate and build trust was underscored as essential for bridging gaps between diverse stakeholders. Emphasis was placed on empathy, mutual understanding, and being together in building and sustaining trust within issue groups. This theme is reinforced by thinking from the developmental leadership program, and in other Pacific countries.
Importantly, trust among coalition partners is not constant; it is shaped through the process of collective action, as observed by others. One key finding is that the interests of coalition members, which are clear at the initial broad reform level, can become more nuanced as a specific reform objective emerges— especially if these objectives challenge their traditional roles or resources. If these evolving interests are not understood, even with trust, coalition stakeholders falter. Therefore, maintaining the health of a coalition requires ongoing efforts to understand these interests and maintain relationships. We refer to this ongoing effort as ‘horizontal trust building’.
Another finding is that, across most reform issues, the work began through pre-existing trusted relationships. These initial stakeholders convene space and support access to progressively more influential and interested actors, growing the issue group. With SARV this is the Catholic Diocese in Kundiawa, with literacy and education, and upscaling labour mobility the connection was TVI alumni in provincial government and civil society leadership. This ‘just start with who you know and what you have’ principle from developmental entrepreneurship thinking reflects the LLCAP approach of starting with motivated actors and supporting them to move deeper into a reform.
A final emerging theme is that trust and relationships that support collective action take time to build. While we historically understand this, LLCAP evidence backs it up. Of the nine issues that have emerged so far, it is the two the TVI network has the longest history in which are closest to policy reform or improved implementation. In these areas of sorcery accusation related violence (SARV) and youth opportunities, the TVI network have been active for 5 and 10 years respectively, building trust at multiple stakeholder levels inside and outside government, with grants, communication products, dialogue spaces and reliable partnering.
So, how can programs (or organisations) support increased trust for collective action?
So far we’ve found three practical ideas that can help.
First, visibility and presence are important. This means face to face meetings with and between coalition partners, listening and being present in the reform context. In Kundiawa for example, where a coalition is working toward improved access to justice for SARV victims, the TVI team and coalition partners have convened or attended more than 32 face to face stakeholder meetings over an eight month period with different levels of government, church and civil society. Building relationships of trust is labour intensive, a theme backed up by other regional work which in practice has meant allocating more staff time and resources to reform issues than initially planned.
Second, actions count. This means doing what we say as an issue partner but also providing practical resources that reform partners need in the now to build relationship capital. This has been important in Wau Waria district, supporting the government with youth training, in the southern highlands linking a key stakeholder to a community grant, and in East Sepik, supporting the labour mobility issue group with pre mobilisation training for workers. In Kundiawa, in response to a clear call from stakeholders, TVI supported the launch a SARV legal desk, a resource that supports increased coordination and SARV referrals but also acts as a tangible sign of TVI’s commitment to the coalition.
Third, because relationships of trust in PNG take time to build and maintain, investing in reform issues where a program already has a network of trusted relationships can be effective. While we are at the beginning of LLCAP, when we combine this learning, our historical experience, and thinking by others, it appears the length and depth of relationships will be a factor in reform progress.
A final reflection is that the trust between a support program and issue groups, like that among coalition partners, can be lost and won back again. As an organisation supporting others, TVI has stumbled and made mistakes. However, being embedded in the context and having relationship capital built over many years has helped navigate these stumbles and regain the trust necessary for reform groups to continue accepting our support.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Joseph Sumanop to this blog.
Disclosure: LLCAP is supported by the Australian Government through the ‘building community engagement in PNG’ program.
