CONSULTATIVE Implementation and Monitoring Council has brought back family sexual violence action committee and in full operation now. Consultative Implementation and

Monitoring Council, executive director Wallis Yakam said FSVAC was transferred to Department for Community Development and Religion following the Gender Based

Violence Parliamentary Committee made the decisions that all agenda and issues of GBV will be administered by the department with the recruitment of sectrateriate in 2023.

However, brining bringing back FSVAC will need more work with partners, civil society groups (CSO) and stakeholders CIMC led Conflict & Resolution in Hela ...on addressing the issue of gender based violence and sorcery violence within communities. Mrs Yakam said CIMC has recruited a staff responsible for FSVAC Sector for its daily activities and meetings with partners.

Family & Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) was established in 2000 as one of the sectorial committees of the Consultative and Implementation Monitoring Committee (CIMC) administered by Institute of National Affairs until last year the office was transferred However, little collaboration and efforts have been done this year on GBV and Sorcery awareness, training programs and related activities to address the issues in the country.

AN international institute is willingly to partner Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) supporting public dialogues this year. National Democratic Institute

(NDI), is a nonprofit American organization promoting good governance by building political and civic organizations, promote citizen participation and safeguarding elections, had their first meeting with CIMC in November, 2024.

National Democratic Institute Senior Director Esther McIntosh and Jimmy Morona discussed few potential areas to support especially fund the CSO roundtable under the CIMC’s sectoral focus on governance and the CSO network.

NDI has been working with government, civil society organizations (CSO) and development partners in strengthening electoral processes.

The Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) recently had the pleasure of briefly hosting a delegation from the United Nations Peace Building Fund (UNPFB).

They were from the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Norway, and Australia, and were ontheir way to the upper Highlands, when they briefly stopped by at CIMC.

Over the years, CIMC through its Law and Order Sectoral Committee has facilitated dialogue and work between government agencies, development partners,

Civil Society Organizations (CSO), and interest groups in the area of law and order, conflict prevention and resolution, and overall peacebuilding efforts.

The UNPBF group was led by New York-based PNG’s permanent representative to the UN Fred Sarufa, and the visit to CIMC was led by UN in PNG’s Peace and Development Advisor Tony Cameron.

The Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council has been acknowledged for its part in the development of the State-Civil Society (CSO) Partnership Policy. Secretary of Department for Community Development and Religion (DfCDR) Jerry Ubase thanked the CIMC, together with his Department and the Department for

National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM), as well as other stakeholders in the development of the draft

Policy.

He said the Government acknowledges it’s limitations in reaching many of the remote places, as it recognises the role CSOs play in service delivery into those areas.

“The new policy framework being discussed seeks to formalise partnerships between the Government and CSOs in service delivery and development initiatives especially in the remote and under-served areas,” he said.

“It is designed to strengthen partnership, improve coordination and mobilise resources to address pressing socio economic issues.

“As Secretary, I have sent my heartfelt thanks to all the stakeholders that have contributed to this policy. Special thanks goes to the

Open Government Partnership Secretariat, DNPM and CIMC.

“Together we are establishing a framework that will simply strengthen the Government partnership with CSOs, thus accelerating progress towards

PNG’s national development goals.” Secretary Ubase also recognised that CIMC will be a key partner in the implementation of the policy under the proposed National

CSO Secretariat within his Department. He was speaking at the National CSO Policy Validation Workshop in Port Moresby on 11th and 12th September, 2024.

THE PNG Defence Force gender desk was praised for low reports on police brutality over the recent years.

This was made known during the Family Sexual Violence Action Committee sectoral meeting last November, a partnership between CIMC and PNGDF had seen a positive change amongst the disciplinary offices in the country.

Defence Force, acting director for gender Major Grace Kitoneka said since the establishment of the office in 2022, aim to address gender issues and challengers at workspace has given a lot them a lot of opportunities to address issues such as domestic violence at home, intermediate partner relationships amongst soldiers and workplace.

“Our officers trained and undergone sensitization program with CIMC and workshops helped many.

“The cases that we usually have of domestic violence cases, gender related issues at homes and workplace had changed recently,” Major Kitoneka said.

She said 4 per cent of women in the force which is about 130 out of 3000 active military officers which is not according to the United Nations guidelines.

There is really nothing stopping women from applying to the Defence Force, although most would think that joining the army is all about going to war.

She said the force has different areas where women can work in such as in health, drivers, clerks, trainers, instructors, medical officers, nurses and dentists.

She encouraged more women to join the force.

There is no law in the country to regulate the level of air pollution in light of emissions rom the growing extractive i ndust r y.

The emissions from the oil and gas sector, the chemical industry including emissions from automobiles such as vehicles, have not been monitored over the years.

The Utility and Conservation Manager for Conservation and Environment Protection

Authority (CEPA), Veari Kula raised the concern during a recent meeting of the multistakeholder

Land Transport Sub-committee, under the Transport and Infrastructure Sectoral Committee of the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC).

“I guess the air pollution quantity we have in the country has allowed government not see the importance of creating laws on regulating gas emission,” Mr Kula said.

He added that the country needed a broader regulatory framework.

While the country is moving forward and evolving with technology PNG needs to have laws that protects the airspace and th environment.

The CIMC Land Transport Sub-committee chaired by President of the Institute of Engineers PNG (IEPNG)

Ms. Edea Bouraga, held its meeting on 18th October 2024, with the Agenda ‘Land Transport System Coordination Updates and Plans – addressing increasing demand for reliable and efficient transport system.’

The sub-committee of the main Transport and Infrastructure Sectoral Committee, works to bring stakeholders together for policy-related dialogue on development issues in the sub-sector.

The Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council early this year held regional workshops on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Budget information, with the support of the Australian Government.

The theme was “Citizens Participation in the Government’s Budget Formulation, Implementation and Reporting Process: Opportunities, Learnings and Challenges.”

The Budget Information workshops were being conducted with the support of Open Government Partnership Secretariat and the Australian Government through the PNGAus Partnership Building Community Engagement Program (BCEP).

The regional events were: (1) to enhance citizens’ knowledge and awareness on how the Government develops and implements its annual budget and plans; and (2) to identify pathways for strengthening citizen participation and engagement at all levels of the budget development and implementation process of the Government.

Overall, a total of 240 representatives attended the two-day workshops, of which 101 were women representatives. They came from the Government departments, provincial, district and local level governments, Civil Society Organizations (CSO), churches, youths and community- based groups, academic institutions, as well as the private sector, among others.

Mt Hagen in Western Highlands Province hosted the Highlands forum from 17th to 18th April 2024. Alotau in Milne Bay was for the Southern Region from 1st to 2nd May. Kimbe in West New Britain hosted the New Guinea Islands (NGI) on 29th and 30th May, while the Momase Region workshop was from 13th to 14th June in Vanimo, West Sepik Province.

The Highlands RegionalWorkshop on Open GovernmentPartnership (OGP) Budget Information was hosted in Mt Hagen,Western Highlands Province from the 17th – 18th of April.

The objective of the Workshop is to engage and empower citizens and CSO representatives with useful information on the national budget formulation, implementation and reporting and potentially identify entry points for citizens participation and monitoring.

The two-day Workshop was well attended by 76 people representing a wide variety of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), churches,provincial administration, district and LLG administrations, educational institutions, media, community voluntary groups and participants from the private sector. Gender representation was fairly distributed with 44 males and 32 females participating.

The Workshop was one of the four conducted around the country as part of implementing OGP in PNG. CIMC is a key partner of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) implementation in the country.

OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

In the spirit of multi-stakeholder collaboration, OGP is overseen by a steering committee including representatives of governments and civil society organizations including the CIMC.

As an OGP implementing country PNG is required to develop and implement 2-year National Action Plans with 7 universal commitments. PNG is currently implementing its National Action Plan 2 (NAP-2 2022-2024).

The PNG NAP-2 has 6 commitments ofthe total of 7. CIMC is the cluster leader of Public Participation (Commitment#2) and one of its milestones under NAP-2 i to ensure active public/citizen participation

Question and Answer session during the Highlands Regional workshop January - June 2024 I Issue No: 001 and engagement in the government’s budgetary process. Both CIMC and the Department of Community Development & Religion are co-chairs and are tasked to implement the

Public Participation Cluster Commitment. On this Occasion, CIMC partnered with the OGP Secretariat to facilitate and host the pioneering Workshops.

Presentations were done by representatives from key government departments that are directly involved in the National Government Budgetary Cycle.

THE lack of support and interestshown by government agencies toparticipate in dialogue with partners on policies and international commitments isbeing an issue over the years.

The 4 regional budget workshopsheld noted the lack of support from the Government. The key focus of the stated workshops was to inform and empower participants to actively engage in the government’s budget and planning process into the future.

Speakers representing government entities did presentations on how their departments formulated budgets and indicated where there were opportunities in the process for civic participation so the participants could understand that they had a role in deciding how budget for service delivery was done and demand for participation as well.

The final intent of these workshops is to seek an NEC Decision through an NEC submission containing the recommendations from participants so that regional and subnational budget information sessions can be included in the National Budget Cycle for continued annual implementation.

The ConsultativeImplementation andMonitoring Council held a meeting in September on conflict prevention and resolution, equitable access to justice and sustainable economic development and opportunities.

The meeting was for stakeholders to share their experiences on the matter and suggest strategies to prevent conflicts and violent situations in families and the communities.

Speakers at the meeting in Port Moresby (POM) on 11th September this year, drew from their varying backgrounds and shared experiences and also provided insights on the topic.

The meeting also heard updates following three visits to the two pilot programs in Hela and Morobe Provinces, where the Consultative

THE civil society groups are now working closely with European Union looking at avenues to help safeguard citizens’ rights and safeguard natural resources in the country.

Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) is one of the leading organization started off meetings in February, working with European

Union on Forestry Climate Change Biodiversity (FCCB) addressing climate change and environmental issues.

PNG Environmental Alliance in which LOCAL growers, suppliers and business CIMC is a member was set up initially with support from Bread for the WORLD (BftW) followed by USAID’s Lukautim Graun Program are giving civil society a voice on critical environmental issues.

PNGEA is a platform that brought together civil groups purposely for collective action to help guide natural resource development in a manner that will safeguard the rights of land and resource owners in the future.

CIMC has been part of all the discussions to guide the undertakings of houses affected during the country’s worst riot in Port Moresby are now hoping the government finds solutions to the supply chain.

The incident occurred on January 10th, 2024 destroyed most of the supply chain that bring foodto many people within their local communities have suffered where most of the fresh produce are brought into Port Moresby.

Consultative Implementation Monitoring Council (CIMC) facilitated a meeting at Lamana Hotel brought together all the business partners and individuals to re-engage with all concerned stakeholders involved in the supply chain and food distribution to find strategic solutions.

The meeting had participants sharing their experiences amongst those who were affected, identified their needs and capacity.

The PNGEA is happy to work with the EU FCCB as it is considered as the flagship program designed to achieve a model that reconciles forestry, biodiversity and environmental protection with sustainable, inclusive and gender-responsive economic development and growth. CIMC expected outcomes under these programs,

1. The establishment of Governance and coordination mechanisms for land use, forest management and climate finance

2. Data and information for FCCB sectors are made available to the public

3. Multipurpose National Forest Inventory (NFI) methodologies updated and NFI implemented in three provinces

4. Forest and biodiversity monitoring systems

5. Access to climate finance and forest conservation finance

6. Policies, strategies and regulations for sustainable land use, protected areas, carbon market regulation, forestry management and renewable energy

7. National and international research and scientific collaboration on FCCB, including provision of scholarships;

8. Civil society, including women and youth and traditional land owners, contribute to FCCB decision-making processes; and

9. Deforestation-free, resilient and inclusive food systems, agriculture and forest value chains and agribusiness options.ion goes here

The Council of the Resource GovernanceCoalition (RGC) Inc, held its second meeting, combining meetings of the first and the second quarter of this year.

The meeting on 2nd October 2024, at the Institute of National Affairs (INA) conference room, Konedobu, was attended by representatives of the council-member organisations.

The RGC Council represents the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in the Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG) that keeps a bird-eye view on the operations of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation in PNG.