Papua New Guinea's health sector - A review of capacity, change and performance issues

A case study prepared for the project ‘Capacity, Change and Performance’ organised by ECDPM.

Drawing on the framework adopted for the broader ECDPM study, this report examines the current reform process in PNG’s health sector from a capacity development perspective. It addresses a number of factors influencing capacity development, change and performance in the sector, including issues internal to the National Department of Health (NDoH), capacity issues at sub-national levels, the institutional ‘rules of the game’ that guide attitudes, behaviour and relationships in the PNG context and in the emerging health sector SWAp, and broader contextual factors. The study takes the health sector as the main unit of analysis, but with significant regard to NDoH given its central role in planning, standards and setting overall policy direction. The report highlights how the different levels of PNG’s broader ‘capacity system’ are interdependent, with constraints and opportunities at one level influencing possibilities at the other levels.