Papua New Guinea's economic growth has outpaced the majority of economies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific since 2007. Its development challenges, however, remain daunting, and it lags behind other countries in the region in terms of per capita income and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This raises the question of how the country can make its economic growth high, sustained, inclusive, and broad-based to more effectively improve its population's welfare. This report identifies the critical constraints to these objectives and discusses policy options to help overcome such constraints.

Part 1: Policy Issues

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is in its seventh consecutive year of economic growth, its longest uninterrupted spell of economic expansion since independence. During this period, the level of extreme poverty in PNG is estimated to have fallen by 8.8 percentage points. Yet this reduction would be insufficient to reel in the spread in poverty which is understood to have occurred over the late 90s and early part of this decade. Increasing the poverty-reducing effects of growth would greatly enhance PNG's ability to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal - to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger - by 2015. Policymakers should consider favoring types of growth in which more income reaches the poor and craft interventions which can better integrate the poor with the remainder of the economy.

There is an emerging consensus in Papua New Guinea (PNG) - both at the governmental level and among civil society more generally - that human development outcomes are far less than provision of basic services in many parts of the country is failing. The book addresses the need to understand the underlying reason behind these sectors' poor performance and innovatively develop approaches for improving service delivery that fits with the country's economic, geographic, social, and cultural contexts. Strategic Directions for Human Development in Papua New Guinea presents the results of a joint ven.

There is an emerging consensus in Papua New Guinea (PNG) - both at the governmental level and among civil society more generally - that human development outcomes are far less than provision of basic services in many parts of the country is failing. The book addresses the need to understand the underlying reason behind these sectors' poor performance and innovatively develop approaches for improving service delivery that fits with the country's economic, geographic, social, and cultural contexts. Strategic Directions for Human Development in Papua New Guinea presents the results of a joint venture among the World Bank, the Australian International Development Agency, the Asian Development Bank, and the Government of Papua New Guinea to conduct a situational assessment in the health, HIV/AIDS, and education sectors and suggest options to jointly move forward to improve human development outcomes. In addition, a series of cross - cutting issues common to all sectors is reviewed. Issus highlighted include the role of the public sector in delivering basic public services, the problems associated with the structure of decentralization and devolution arrangements, and the importance of having feasible financing, expenditure, and implementation plans that accurately reflect sectoral priorities.