Community-level leadership and development outcomes in rural Papua New Guinea : evidence from three case study regions

Abstract

Community-level leadership is fundamental to the achievement of natural resource-based development outcomes in rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG), as it plays an important role in bridging modern and traditional economies and modes of leadership. Rural communities and the national government seek development outcomes that maximise community-level prosperity and stability. However, there are frequently disjuncts between the potential for development to benefit local communities and those that they actually receive. Whilst there is some evidence that community leadership, itself a contested concept in PNG, can be a strong factor in determining outcomes for communities impacted by development projects, the role of community leadership in this context in PNG has been little studied. This thesis seeks to address that gap by investigating the research question: Are there forms of community-level leadership that enhance livelihood outcomes in the context of natural resource-based development in PNG rural communities? Subsidiary research questions investigated livelihood assets, strategies, and outcomes; institutional structures and leadership styles; and their relationship to the development outcomes of prosperity and stability. The study is based on a conceptual framework that draws on the established Social Ecological Systems and Sustainable Livelihoods frameworks, and on a hybrid model of leadership appropriate to PNG. A case study approach across three provinces of PNG was used to investigate the research questions. The three case studies represent the three dominant forms of resource based development in PNG - forestry in East Sepik Province, agriculture in East New Britain Province, and mining in the Western Province. Household interviews, community meetings, and participant observation provided the primary data. The intended development outcomes of community prosperity and stability varied across the case study regions, as did the dominant forms of community leadership. The East Sepik Province communities, which had not yet experienced development impacts, were dominated by traditional modes of leadership, and had high levels of stability but low levels of prosperity. Development outcomes in the Western Province communities were the converse, and modern modes of leadership were dominant there. In East New Britain Province, development outcomes were moderate in terms of both stability and prosperity, and community leadership drew strongly from both traditional and modern modes. If community leadership in PNG is to deliver both prosperity and stability, it should draw from both existing traditional and modern structures, while fostering positive synergies between leadership modes and natural resources development outcomes. Strengthening the leadership capacity of communities, including through facilitating effective hybrid forms of leadership, will strengthen the prospects for community leadership that delivers higher levels of both prosperity and stability from natural resource development in PNG.