Successful Community Support Activities – Lessons from Post-Conflict Melanesia

Hegarty D¹*, Sullivan M²* and Kwitko L²*

1. Resource Management in Asia Pacific program, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
2. State Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Australia has provided support to many community-based resource management activities in near-neighbouring countries in Melanesia, previously mainly through AusAID and more recently through wider government agency involvement. In recent years Australia’s leading role in the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has gained wide publicity, as has the new similar engagement in Papua New Guinea through the Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP). Both had a key focus on security and law enforcement support.

Commencing in November 2000, well before the RAMSI intervention, as the transition from conflict occurred, and focusing on communities in every Province and district in the Solomon Islands, has been the less publicised Australian Community Peace and Restoration Fund (CPRF). Activities addressed immediate needs for mediation, facilitation of peace-building meetings, provision of small-scale infrastructure, rehabilitation of educational and health facilities, and community training in service skills. Key objectives were responsiveness and equitable distribution, to women and youth as well as to men.

At the same time there have been numerous small-scale and community-focused development activities that have achieved remarkable and sustainable outcomes in Papua New Guinea and East Timor, but which receive no publicity. Melanesia is not all failures of governance, and there are valuable lessons to be learned on adaptive management for interventions that engage with and provide lasting benefits to communities.

This paper takes as case studies CPRF and project examples from PNG and East Timor to emphasise the lessons learned in community engagement in dynamic situations including post-conflict settings.

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