Establishment of Papua New Guinea Parliamentary Group on Population and Development
 Update - the PNG PGPD met on November 28-29 for a media and advocacy training workshop.
PNG Parliamentarians and Senator Moore
The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, secretariat to the PGPD, has funding from UNFPA to establish Parliamentary Groups on Population and Development in Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.
The meeting to formalize the PNG Parliamentary Group on Population and Development was held on 16 May at Loloata Island, just outside of Port Moresby. 14 parliamentarians attended.The Group adopted a constitution and work plan to take it to the end of 2009.
The Hon. Malakai Tabar MP was elected inaugural President and Hon. Dame Carol Kidu MP, Senior Vice President. Vice Presidents elected were: Hon. Posi Menai MP, Hon. Theo Zurenouc MP, Hon. Martin Aini MP, Hon. Boka Kondra MP. Vice Presidents were elected to represent regional and party diversity. The Group also elected a Secretary and Treasurer, Hon. Benjamin Mul MP, and Hon. Ken Fairweather MP as Patron.
The President, the Hon Malakai Tabar MP, Member for Gazelle said that teenage pregnancies, maternal death in childbirth and related complications and poverty were serious issues in his electorate and across the nation.
The Group has been the brain child of Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development.
Senator Claire Moore, Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development attended the meeting and explained the role and work of the Australian Group and the interface with other Groups in the region.
Parliamentarians also heard from Professor Glen Mola, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UPNG about population and development issues facing the country and were briefed on the ICPD Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals by UNFPA experts.
The meeting was funded by UNFPA and supported by ARHA, which is acting as the interim secretariat for the Group. In a follow up to the May 16 meeting, the Group organized for Professor Mola to brief over 40 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff on population and development issues facing PNG at a lunch on May 20 at Parliament House.
It is possible that the PNG PGPD may arrange a study tour to visit another parliamentary group, but the details are yet to be confirmed.
Power point presentations - ICPD and MDGs and Population and Development in PNG
Senator Moore at a Marie Stopes clinic while in PNG
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