Papua New Guinea: Lessons Learned from Working in Asia-Pacific’s toughest country

Check your budget plans before doing projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Did you know it costs about US$8 for 3-minute phone call to PNG? So use Skype: Yet even that costs US$1 per minute. It was quite a problem for us implementing a survey of 240 PNG-based enterprises, doing the appointment calls from overseas. We became a skype “frequent flyer”, spending over US$2,000. That was just one of many cost surprises (thanks, it would seem, to Australian cartels dominating the economy).

Nevertheless, we pushed through and did a sterling job for our client, the American consulting firm, DAI (we started a similar survey for them in Thailand a few months later). We knew it was a tough place, so had one of our staff, Callum Furness, was based there for two months; with Chief Economist, Adam McCarty, joining for the inception period. Normally we avoid such intensive in-country staff inputs for enterprise surveys – but we knew that PNG needed a more hands-on approach – and it worked. Yet everything was more expensive than we planned: Taxis, accommodation, car hire, photocopying – even sending local SMS messages!

A pleasant surprise was the availability of very capable locals willing and able to join our survey team. We advertised electronically some weeks before arriving, and then did interviews of several days. The time and effort for enumerator selection was necessary (only 1-in-5 interviewed were chosen). The result: An impressive team of enumerators.

A final lesson learnt: Be sympathetic to “Melanesian time” and enjoy some local beers with your team and all problems get solved!