This was suggested in a World Bank report on Rural Development and Agriculture in PNG 2008, which stressed on the need for change and further insight into rural development around the country.
According to the bank, development partners such as Economic Commission, AusAID and International Fund for Agricultural Development had expressed interest in reviewing opportunities for developments in the rural areas.
The report said there should be a shared understanding of the priority issues in the sector, both at the national and local level, which would be responsible towards responding to government initiatives in improving the running of agricultural institutions.
It said these were areas in which the bank could add value to the work of other donors and in which the Asian Development Bank was providing similar assistance in other countries in the region like the Solomon Islands.
The report focused on the management of natural resources and community- driven developments which would help build more empowered rural communities.
With needed resources, rural communities could play a stronger role in providing services and in holding the government more accountable for its performance in helping communities take up their priority needs.
Over the years, the bank’s approach to rural development in PNG had focused on approaches that proved successful in the past such as the smallholder oil palm sector.
