Papua New Guinea

Although one of the fastest-growing developing countries in the southwest Pacific, with a total population of 6.25 million and an annual growth rate of 2.7 percent, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the highest infant mortality rates, at 64 percent, due to the poor health of women and an inadequate healthcare system. Approximately 70 percent of the population are children. The vast majority of PNG's population live in rural areas, and 87 percent of the land remains in “customary” land tenure. However, an increasing number of people are migrating to urban areas due to the deterioration of essential services. Migration is causing an expansion of unplanned settlements with inadequate services and a dependency on cash income to meet basic household needs; many young women are driven into informal survivor sex work to obtain cash to survive.

Due to the influx of transnational corporations engaged in resource extraction, and the consequent uneven distribution of the benefits of “development” surrounding mine sites, land disputes often arise in which women are embroiled. Customary exchange patterns are disrupted by the influx of large compensation payments to landowner groups of men. As women are frequently not allowed to speak in public or to be involved in decision making, and men increasingly represent their own interests with little or no reference to women in their communities, women endure hardships including starvation.

Women have strong social roles within church women's groups and there is a growing nongovernment organization movement that is working toward the empowerment of women, but the pace of reform in slow. Violence against women and children is often sanctioned by culture, custom, and religion. Because it is often considered to be the most effective way to correct the behavior of women and children, violent practices are difficult to challenge and change; they have been successful tools of men's power for many centuries.

The role of adoption increases female children's vulnerability to violence. Traditional adoptions and the practice of bride price brought families and communities together, and the well-being of the child was of paramount importance. Unregulated adoptions now extend into casual arrangements outside the [Page 1071]natal family and may not be agreed to by one of the birth parents. Such practices demonstrate the friction that is arising between aspects of modern law, the globalizing economy, and traditional ways of being.

While an independent media exists, it is devoid of critical analysis, particularly of government and public-sector activities. Despite these challenges, women are becoming educated, and in the villages, the rise of “grass-skirt activism” is enabling women to raise their voices to obtain opportunities emerging from the global economy.