CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL POPULATION POLICY 2015-2024

  By Kaylyn KIWAR @ DWU, Madang

Introduction:

The National Population Policy 2015-2024 was officially initiated by the Department of National Planning and Monitoring in February 2015, as PNG’s third policy on Population basically to address population fluctuation thoroughly. It also aimed at putting together all static tendency with the sustainable development goals going back all the way from 1991 and 2004. This policy highlights development via responsible sustainability, purposely concentrating on the well-being of PNG’s citizen and impartial approach to basic government services such as healthcare and off course family planning. The National Population Policy (NPP) also points out a total of 16 objectives that aids by more than 200 approaches aiming to oversee the growth of population and its influence on the environment, social systems as well as the economy (EMTV Online, 2015). Being said this review will strictly be addressing the negative impact of the growing population on economy, environment and off course social systems as mention earlier above.

Summary:

As made mention on introduction the National Population Policy (NPP) is a plan or rather policy that focuses on the population management growth in PNG in the sense that it concentrates solely on making sure development continues to operate for a deliberate period of time, the improvement of reproduction health care, and a fair treatment on both male and female. The policy does not only operates on internal plans but rather external as well meaning it operates on plans both within and around the globe as well. Moreover, in order for the policy to achieve its objectives there are numerous ways or rather goals to go about in achieving them such as:

o   Ensure there’s equal developments in towns and cities

o   Ensure data collection is accessible

However unfortunately, these goals has not been out into action due to lack of funds and coordination, making it difficult for the policy to work well (Policy Toktok, 2024).

Critique:

Unfortunately,  the policy just as the previous policies did not achieve its objectives due to lack of proper planning and action, financial instability,  and lack of co-operation and collaboration at the provincial level. Additionally, the policy was only concentrating on family planning issues and abandoned other issues like the management of population growth and reproductive health resulting in a total population of 10,576,500 last year (2024). The figure has shown most people still lack basic knowledge on family planning and its impacts even though the policy has said be only concentrating on family planning issues. Thus, lest we forget, the increased population has contributed greatly to increased social issues like:

o   Rape

o   Murder

o   Theft

o   Poverty

o   Unemployment

o   Homelessness

o   Exploitation, etc. (The National Research Institute, 2013).

   Moreover, poor health service delivery of aid posts in rural areas has also resulted in high number of maternity deaths yearly (Child Fund, 2018). This has clearly shown lack of basic service delivery and unfair distribution of developments which has contributed greatly to the policy’s failure in achieving its objectives (Dev policy Blog, 2012).  In terms of economy, PNG is a rich black nation however, poor utilization of natural resources has resulted in fluctuation of the prizes of goods and services resulting in poverty (Baker, 2023).

  The table serves as a proof of the increased population from when the policy was introduced to last year.

PNG’s population from 2015-2024

Year:	Figure:
2015	8,807,000
2016	9,245,000
2017	8,254,000
2018	8, 426,000
2019	9,609,000
2020	9,746,640
2021	9,949,437
2022	10,142,619
2023	10,389,634
2024	10,576,500

 

Recommendations:  

Relating back to the critique, in order to make sure the National Population Policy (NPP) function effectively and efficiently there are a few things that should be done. Firstly, there needs to be collaboration between the government body, NGO’s and the people including those at the rural settings because teamwork is paramount. Also, there must be adequate funds in order to train people for the job needed to be done. Secondly, the policy must also focuses on health in a more extensive way rather than just focusing on family planning. Why? Because aside from that there are also other major concerns that has major impact on the growing population such as; health and safety of everyone, violence against women, and gender equity. These must be done to ensure all humans are protected from harsh treatments and are having equal access to basic services. Thirdly, communities must also be involved and be informed of the objectives and goals of the policy so they don’t feel left out. And finally, there must be regular updating of the policy in order to keep up with the ongoing changes in order to address problems that arises on a day to day basis. Because it is believed that efficient and effective policy execution would need good supervisory in order to fill in gaps (Ajulor, 2018).

Conclusion:

To conclude, the National Population Policy, is a major effort put in place to help address population issues and help tackle development issues. However, there are certain problems that mitigate the success of the policy. Hence, in order to make room for improvements we must follow the suggested recommendations made mention above in order to create a safe and stable environment for everyone in PNG.  

 

 

References:

EMTV ONLINE. (2015, February 18). Abel Launches National Population Policy. https://emtv.com.pg/abel-launches-population-policy

The Policy Toktok. (2024, April 26). Review of the National Population Policy 2015-2024. https://policytoktok.wordpress.com/2024/04/26/review-of-the-national-population-policy-2015-2024/

Hatcher, V. D., Williams, M., Dorin, P., & Switzer, K. F. (2023). Catalyzing Sustainable Development: Assessing the impact of family plan-ning programs on population control, reproductive health, and gender empowerment. Law And Economics, 17(2), 111–130. https://doi.org/10.35335/laweco.v17i2.4

The National Research Institute. (2013). Population and Demographic Trends in Papua New Guinea). https://pngnri.org.

Dev policy blog. (2012). Bad governance and politics and PNG’s lost decade. https://devpolicy.org

Ajulor, O.V. (2018). The challenges of Policy Implementation in Africa and Sustainable Development Goals.  https://www.scirp.org

Baker, P. (2023). PNG’s economy 2023- past, present and future prospects: Institute of National Affairs. https://inapng.com