Delivering education services in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is both difficult and expensive, due to a rugged geography in the mainland and multiple scattered islands. With a highly diverse population, the current national education plan has a strong focus on equity and inclusion of children that usually are marginalised and excluded from education, such as girls, children with disabilities, out of school children, and children living in rural and remote areas. 

Although a fee-free education policy has improved the access for girls, large differences between boys and girls in accessing education persist. Women and girls generally have less opportunities, also regarding education and in addition, gender-based violence is a major issue across the country. The social inclusion of people with disabilities has always been left to the church or private sectors with oversight from the government, thus marginalising the 100,000+ disabled people. 

PNG Education Advocacy Network (PEAN) will through this project work to contribute to a more gender responsive, inclusive, and equitable education policy in Papua New Guinea. The project is designed around three main objectives, namely: 

1. Strengthening civil society to monitor and engage in education planning, policy development, and advocacy. 

2. Monitoring education policies and programmes, especially on gender and disability inclusion. 

3. Increase focus on education policy and programmes for out of school youths, marginalised groups, and vulnerable populations in rural communities. 

To realise these objectives PEAN will conduct activities comprising national advocacy especially in Local Education Groups (LEG) and Senior Education Officers Conference (SEOC), provide technical support to women and youth groups, as well as civil society in rural communities and conduct capacity building. Further, PEAN will conduct research and spotlight reports, in addition to promote engagement in relevant dialogues and forums, work with the national media and produce media products. 

The project will contribute to:  

• Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets and indicators being better understood and reflected in plans, with stronger CSO networking and recommendations considered in LEG and Compact groups 

• Public schools and community members are better informed of issues related to gender and inclusion 

• Key government officials and decision makers are better informed to prioritise marginalised youths’ needs and mainstream these into the education system. 

The project will constitute a continuation of the pervious project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. The project will thus build on the experiences and lessons learned in the previous phase. 

The project is based on building the capacity of civil society to advocate on their own behalf. Over the course of the implementation period, PEAN will engage various CSOs to work with provincial and district governments. Community women and youth groups will continue to mobilise and push for domestic resources, as well as financing from local members of parliament. Local communities will also be mobilised to prioritise education and hold governments accountable for service delivery and close monitoring. 

A previous phase of the project was implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. The current project is part of the EOL extension phase of 2024-2026. Read more about the previous phase of the project here.