THE Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) is hosting the deferred National Development Forum (NDF) on law and order today and will end on Friday.
Themed Strengthening the Rule of Law: A Roadmap for Future Generation, the forum anticipates participation of over 150 people bringing together key government agencies, stakeholders from the public and private sectors to present key trending topics and openly discuss the ongoing law and order issues in Papua New Guinea.
The forum is an opportunity for government, business and community including development partners to openly discuss;
●the significance of the Rule of Law,and the various interventions to addressing the escalating law and order problems in the country,
●the need to improve transparencyand accountability by institutions of government and others
●explore avenues to improve skills development and create employment to transfer that negative youth energy to something positive; and
●to showcase sustainable initiatives that show community resilience in addressing law and order issues at the community level
The National Development Forum will make recommendations to government for implementation with a view to changing the narrative in order to achieve improved livelihoods and wellbeing of our people,build community safety and peace for our children and their children.
We highlight the Black Wednesday, an incident occurred on January 10th, 2024, continuous tribal fights, gender based violence, sorcery accusation related violence, kidnapping and ransom on women and girls in parts of the highlands amongst others needs to be addressed.
Corruption at all levels continues to slow development. Smuggling and use of firearms along the borders of land and sea into Papua New Guinea has a growing threat on security.
These are clear indications of breakdown of law and order and the need to strengthen rule of law in the country.
The Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, MP, in his recent statement at the Judicial Opening earlier this year, 2025, stated that “the country exists because of the rule of law, without it, we lose the foundation of our democracy and governance”. This statement reaffirms the government’s unwavering commitment to strengthening the rule of law and advancing critical reforms to improve institutions of government. There is a growing national aspiration to put our country ahead of our own interests and to respect the rule of law by respecting the rights of our fellow citizens. It is therefore our collective interests as Papua New Guineans to rise up and reclaim the identity and sovereignty of our country through respecting the rule of law that has been set in our founding document, the constitution that governs this nation.
The forum is a public event and open to interested members of the general public. However, CIMC encourages attendance by invitations only and strongly discourage interests groups and political movements to take advantage of this important public event.
The forum is funded by the Government of Papua New Guinea through the Departments of Treasury and National Planning and Monitoring, The ExxonMobil, The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the European Union (EU) funded Governance Program -PNG Anti-Corruption Project & the Transparency and Accountability in PNG Project.