Download the scorecard from the 2011 Papua-New Guinea Local Integrity Initiative for East Sepik-Wewak
Provincial Level Access to Information
This project and the data it produced are a tool for understanding the existence and effectiveness of access to information mechanisms at the provincial level in Papua New Guinea’s healthcare system. It seeks to address, if not fully answer, a simple question: does increased access to information empower patients in PNG to demand greater healthcare service delivery in the provinces? The question is important for accountability and transparency reform because information has been theorized to be one of the key pillars of good governance in health care service delivery.
To unpack this claim, Global Integrity collaborated with the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) to identify and carry out fieldwork on four key dimensions of information access in the health sector that are theorized to have a significant impact on citizen empowerment and participation in lower-income countries: 1) Basic Issues around the Existence and Usability of Information in Health Care; 2) Redress Mechanisms that Enforce Accountability in the Health Contexts; 3) Availability of Fiscal/Budget Information with which to Conduct Citizen Audits of Local Clinics; and 4) Citizen Participation in Local Decision-Making as Influenced by Availability of Information.
How We Did It
Working in close partnership with CIMC in PNG, this research was generated by teams of local analysts who traveled to each of the five provinces covered. They gathered original information through document research and interviews with key informants and local stakeholders from the public, private, and civic sectors. This bottom-up approach yields a trusted assessment of each province’s situation as told by local citizens themselves – not external or foreign experts.
The scorecards then underwent a two-step review process: after being examined by Global Integrity staff for the quality of references, comments and scoring consistency, the data were evaluated by an independent peer reviewer with expertise in PNG health care. After adjustments were made in light of the reviewer’s comments, the final scorecards were then published.