PNG Study Tour

Unified government leadership is critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Papua New Guinea (PNG), including open, multi-party leadership on stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. This is one of the key themes that emerged during the New Zealand Parliamentarians' Group on Population and Development (NZPPD) study tour to PNG from 8-15 April 2006.

PGPD member Duncan Kerr MP accompanied NZPPD members Steve Chadwick, Paul Hutchison and Tim Barnett on a week-long visit that focused on the MDGs, and the importance of good sexual and reproductive health if they are to be achieved in the Pacific.

The group met with Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development and PNG's only woman MP. The delegates also met with Dr Puka Temu, the Minister assisting the Prime Minister on HIV/AIDS, who has called for 100 per cent condom use to help halt the epidemic. As well as official meetings, delegates went to the heart of the matter as they met and talked with sex workers, visited hospitals, schools, villages and non-government organisations.

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