The Papua New Guinea National Statistical Office (NSO) is updating demographic data for Morobe, a province that has proved difficult to deliver services to.
The NSO hopes to collect data that will give an accurate account of how education and health programs are impacting upon communities in the province.
Millions of kina have been pumped into ambitious government programs and the data will suggest whether or not the desired results have been achieved.
In the last three years, ambitious programs in health and education have compelled all levels of government to spend millions of kina.
It’s relatively difficult to assess whether such programs like the free education policy, HIV and tuberculosis programs have worked for a province like Morobe because of the geographical challenges in reaching the people.
While millions of kina are being spent on such programs every year, statistics will need to be collected by the NSO to show the tangible impact.
Yesterday, Arnold Soni, a National Statistical Office Executive said that they would be collecting the demographic data.
Soni and his team were in Lae to recruit officers to go out into rural Morobe to collect data.
“We are going to do it for the whole Momase region.
“It happens every 10 years, right after the census. The last one was in 2006,” says Soni.
The panel of three has been interviewing applicants throughout this week, and applicants have been tested to ask difficult questions to qualify for the role.
For Morobe, this demographic and health survey is important in light of recent national government budget cuts in the province’s funding allocations affecting health and education programs.
