В Папуа — Новой Гвинее призвали создать единый национальный реестр данных для устранения разрозненности информации

A LACK of inter-agency cooperation and collaboration has been blamed for poor national data in the last 50 years, a National Research Institute seminar in Lae has heard. The seminar on population data collection, storage, management and application for planning, elections and other purposes, identified the need for a central updated information database. Stakeholders agreed that this would be used nationally by agencies such as the Electoral Commission and the Civil and Identity Registry’s National Identification project, rather than each agency collecting information from the same persons, but for different purposes. Institute director Dr Osborne Sanida highlighted outdated data, data quality and availability, data fragmentation, lack of context, and technical and capability gaps, as key data issues. He said these must be addressed if data and information were to be useful for decision making. Sanida said ward recorders, local level government officers and patrol officers in the 6000-plus wards were crucial to getting accurate ward-level data. He said the National Statistical Office (NSO) would then allow agencies to access this data for planning. Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs Department director (general strategic policy and governance) Greg Roaveneo said wards had never been captured in any development plans. He said getting this data would serve as a baseline to truly developing the nation. Chief national statistician Alfred Mokae said NSO approval must be sought before surveys by any department or partner could be conducted in the country, in order for its results to be considered official data. National Planning and Monitoring Department deputy secretary Michael Kumung said enhanced cooperation and partnership among key stakeholders were necessary to advance programme and reform agendas, including sharing of resources to achieve each respective functions and objectives. Kumung said his department, as the body responsible for monitoring projects and their impacts, required data, but had to access information from multiple agencies, which saw duplicated efforts and inconsistent, incorrect data quality. He said his department was working on the national Development Information Systems (DIS) which would map out the establishment of a management system, its networking and digitisation, for effective access and dissemination of data. The seminar continues today, with discussions also covering the use of the biometric system in the upcoming general election 2027.