The Government has now put in place a framework to help parents provide better care for their children and raise them up in positive environment.
This platform is called the Positive Parenting for Child Development Institutionalization Framework (PPCDIF), which was launched in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands Province recently.
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion Jason Peter said people are the greatest resource of any country so it was the responsibility of their governments to invest in their welfare.
“Our country’s greatest resource is not what lies beneath our soil or our ocean; our greatest resource is our people. And investing in children, is therefore, investing in PNG’s future,” Peter said.
“A child who grows up in a safe, loving and nurturing family is more likely to succeed in school and contribute positively to society and become a productive citizen of our country,” he said.
“Conversely, violence, neglect and poor care during childhood can have lifelong consequences on children,” Minister Peter said.
“For these reasons, the government places strong emphasis on strengthening families as the foundation of our national development,” he said.
“When we invest in positive parenting, we reduce violence, improve child’s development, strengthen families and trigger social and economic development. The government remains committed in strengthening child protection services as part of our national development agenda,” Minister Peter said.
Meanwhile, NOCFS chief executive officer Jerry Wap, said the government has now institutionalized the P4CD programme in the country.
“This event signifies the institutionalising, the embedding and creating a position where there is an officer responsible for coordinating this programme in the long-term,” he said.
“Today, we celebrate the embedding of the practice of positive parenting into the very heart of our child protection system. We celebrate the vision of PNG where every child grows-up in safety, dignity and love,” Wap said.
According to Wap, the P4CD programme began as a response to the urgent need for families to be equipped with practical tools to raise children in a socially challenging environment.
The programme started as a pilot initiative in selected communities in four provinces including Western Highlands and Madang in 2016, where parents adopted positive parenting practices to interact with their children.
The fundamentals of the positive parenting approach include spending quality time with children, listening to children and using non-violent methods to discipline children.
These approaches resulted in parents forming stronger bonds with their children, level of violent discipline on children reduced and children themselves experiencing greater ability to freely communicate and interact with parents and their peers.
Wap said the framework is a five-year roadmap which started in 2025 and will continue through to 2029.
He pointed out that some of the long-term outcomes of the P4CD programme include; healthy families, safer communities, generational change, reduction in law-and-order problems and stronger families and community systems.
The launching means that the Positive Parenting for Child Development (P4CD) programme is now recognised and given prominence by the Government.
Furthermore, this means that the State has provided a national platform for different partners in the child protection space to network, collaborate and advance child development in the country, with specific attention to parental support and training.
