The Rural Service Delivery Project (RSDP) is sanctioned and implemented by the Government of PNG through a
credit facility from World Bank and the Australian Government through a Grant for a period of up to five (5)
years 2017 – 2022
The Project is a two cycle funding earmarked for 20 Local Level Government (LLGs) throughout the 19 Districts
of the five provinces, which includes Central, East New Britain, Simbu, Western and West Sepik. It has been
scaled up from the success of two pilot phase provinces namely; Central and Western from 2013 to 2016 and
hosted by the Department of Provincial & Local Government Affairs (DPLGA).
The overall project development objective is to improve communities’ access to basic infrastructure and
services in targeted rural areas using inclusive, participatory planning and implementation. Essential
community ward development services in the form of sub projects such as; community health post, elementary
classroom, water supply and footbridges etc, are prioritized and funded through the Ward Development Grant.
A specific grant (50% of the Australian Government Support for RSDP) targets women’s Group Development
through the Women’s Group Development Grant where community women decides collectively and decisively
as to what sub project(s) benefit their women folk in the same respective LLGs.
The Rural Service Delivery Project (RSDP) is a 5-year project being implemented by the Government of Papua
New Guinea (GOPNG), financed by the World Bank through a US$23 million loan. The project is the scaled-up
version of the Rural Service Delivery and Local Governance Project (RSDLGP) which was pilot-tested by the
GOPNG through the Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs (DPLGA) in two provinces (Western
and Central Provinces) from July 2013 to February 2017.
The project would be financed as a World Bank Investment Project Financing (IPF) to be provided for an
implementation period of five years from 2017 to 2022. Counterpart financing is expected from local
governments and communities, and as additional funds are committed and become available, the project may
be scaled up in additional LLGs, districts, and provinces. RSDP shall support the current directions of GOPNG
with regard to improving service delivery at the local level and strengthening the role of the district authorities,
consistent with priorities expressed in the Vision 2050 document, the Development Strategic Plan, and the
District Development Authority Law. RSDP shall actively seek the participation of other development partners
during implementation.
Project Development Objective
OVERALL OBJECTIVES:
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
The above two objectives under the project development objective are purposely dependent on the success of the RSDLGP pilot phase. By doing so, the pilot project would directly help address the low levels of access and desired development outcomes for a number of basic services (health, education, water, access, etc.) in the target Local Level Governments (LLGs) and wards of the two pilot provinces
Project Components
The current RSDLGP has three main components:
Based on its success’ and the key lessons, it is being scaled up to 5 provinces namely; Central, East New Britain,
Western Province West Sepik and Simbu with two funding cycles per new financing agreement approved by the
National Government from a national perspective. The government is now more committed than ever before.
DPLGA through its mandate is supporting the Government to develop and strengthen processes for
empowering communities to identify their priorities, design projects and to implement projects on their own.
This community-driven development approach is an important model to complement the decentralization of
authority and finances put in place with the DDA Act.
The PNG Government acknowledges the partnership of the Word Bank, the Korean Trust Fund, Australian
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and our own PNG Sustainable Development Program for providing the
resources, technical skills and knowledge to mentor the CDD program in PNG.
I am delighted to mention that given some of the large foreign aid funded infrastructure projects as the
governments priority impact projects, DPLGA on the other hand, hosted the World Bank funded Rural Service
Delivery and Local Governance Project (RSDLGP) introducing a Community Driven-Development (CDD)
demonstration project, which was 80% successfully implemented following that of similar Programs in
neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Solomon Islands as National
Programs.
Both the Central and Western Provincial Administrations are pioneers of the CDD model approach over a period
from 2013 to 2017 with a total of 73 Wards participating. This is about 42 Wards in Central Province and 31
Wards in Western Province. In the last 12 and half months, the Government’s sanction, we have to date opened
cheque accounts and issued cheque books for 73 wards under the RSDLGP project. The great majority of these
sub projects comprise the education and health sectors including Water Supply and Rainwater Catchment,
which are the most essential needed in the rural areas. The joint effort with the World Bank sets the tone for
rural community empowerment. DPLGA is committed to this partnership and RSDLGP is a success story
especially for the rural communities of PNG, who now have an opportunity to realize their development goals.
This is the beginning of great change and impact PNG communities will experience in our development.
