Activities in Papua New Guinea

Counterparts with JICA Volunteers & PNG office staff at JOCVs General Meeting, in Kokopo, East New Britain Province, August 2019.

1. Introduction & Background

Since its inception in 1980, JICA Volunteer Program has been in operation in PNG over 40 + years.. Run and managed by the JICA PNG Office, The first batch of Volunteers to PNG were in the fields of 1 Automobile maintenance & 2 AIKIDO (Japanese Martial Arts) volunteers who were assigned to Port Moresby respectively, the Bomana Police College which was the first recipient agency.

JICA dispatched a total of 797 volunteers, over 100 work fields in 19 Provinces of the country upon requests from the PNG Government as part of Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA). Eager Japanese citizens knowledgeable and skilled in various technical fields have lived and worked all across PNG serving their 2 years of respective assignment terms as teachers, health workers, technicians, agriculturalists, including volunteering in a range of other fields.

The Program has three objectives;

1. To cooperate in the economic and social development as well as the reconstruction of developing countries
2. To deepen the mutual understanding and coexistence in cross-cultural societies
3. To give back the Volunteer experience to society

There are two types of volunteers (Long term & Short term):

1. Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer
2. Senior Volunteer (more than 15years experience)

2. Basic Information

• JICA Cooperation Scheme (Ex. Technical Cooperation, Loans, Grand Aid…)
  Volunteer Program (Citizen Participation) is one of Japan's Technical Cooperation Scheme
• Purpose
  In PNG, the standing Motto is "STAP WANTAIMNA WOK WANTAIM"
  Under assigned organizations, JICA volunteers live and work directly with counterparts (C/P) and local people to exchange ideas and convey Japanese skills and knowledge to encourage capacity development for counterpart and volunteer.
• Target Development Sector
  
  1. Economic
  Under Palm 9, to promote Tourism and encourage capacity development of local farmers
  Technical Fields: Tourism, Community Development, Business Administration, Food Crops & Rice Culture, Agricultural Machinery, Vegetable Growing, Fisheries Development, Refrigeration And Air Conditioning, Automotive Maintenance, Karate do, Judo
  
  2-1. Social Service-Education
  In Education, to improve basic academic services
  Technical Fields: Primary School Education, Science Education,Mathematics Education, PC Instructor, ICT(Information Communication Technology), Japanese Language Education, Youth Activities
  
  2-2. Social Service-Health
  In Health, to promote Universal Health Care
  Physical Therapy, Infection and HIV/AIDS Control, Public Health, Pharmacy, Assistive Products, Quality Management, Nurse
  
  3. Environment
  Cooperating with JICA's technical cooperation project, J-PRISM (The Project for Promotion of Regional Initiative Solid Waste Management), to improve awareness of protecting natural resources and 3R activity for local community
  Technical Field: Environmental Education
• Target SDGs
  All SDGs Goals (1-17), especially (3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14) for PNG.
• Counterpart Organization (Web URL)
  National Government Depts as well as Provincial Governments are recipient agencies for JICA Volunteers across all sectors, i.e. Education _ Primary & Secondary schools, Vocational Centers, Universities and other Training Centers. The Health Sector includes Hospitals and other Non-Government run Organizations. Sectors in Agriculture, Tourism, and others fall under the Provincial Government structures whereby JOCVs work under.
• Duration (Ex. Jan/2019-Dec/2021)
  1980 - on going
• Target Provinces, Location
  Current target locations (Before COVID-19 pandemic) : the NGI regions, Alotau, Popondetta, Kuinga, Goroka and the Central Province.
• Gender
  1. Promoting Gender-Responsive Policies, Strategies and Institutions
  2. Promoting Women's Empowerment
  3. Promoting Gender Integration in Programs and Projects
  

3. Outputs

• JICA Volunteer's story - Mr.Yamagata (2019-1) Creativity and Originality (PDF/604KB)
• JICA Volunteer's story - Mr.Saito (2018-2) Physical therapy in PNG (PDF/576KB)
• PNG Medical J 2019 September-December 2019, Volume. 62, Number 3-4,P122-143 (PDF) (external link)
• Activity of JICA Volunteeer_Awareness song "No More Malaria" (Youtube, external link)
• Activity of JICA Volunteeer_Original culture song written and sung by Children (Youtube, external link)
• Activity of JICA Volunteer_Producing rice cakes in Milne Bay Province (Youtube, external link)

More information (Ex. Brochure)

• JICA Volunteer Program
• JICA Volunteers Program (PDF)
• JICA Volunteers Program in PNG (Brochure_2022ver) (PDF/1.25MB)

Donations-7 wheelchairs & 2 leg braces from Japanese citizens to PMGH's Physiotherapy Department through JICA's "Smile for All in the world" Program. April 2022

Awareness on Environment Education by JOCVs & ULLG officers at Kavieng, New Ireland Province. November 2019

JOCV Mr. Yamazaki "Sport 4 tomorrow Project" at Gigo Primary School, Kimbe, West New Britain Province. 2019