Papua Needs Assessment - UNDP

1. Introduction
From a development perspective, Papua has long been one of Indonesia’s most challenging
regions. Its vastness and remoteness has at once helped to preserve some of the richest cultural,
linguistic and ecological diversity in the world, while presenting unique challenges to the
development initiatives of local people, the Indonesian government and civil society actors. In the
past, a lack of understanding of local context has often hindered the effectiveness of development
efforts. Moreover, the unique diversity of cultures has meant that communities often have different
priorities and divergent understandings of development objectives. Although Papua is one of the
richest provinces in terms of GRDP per capita, there are vast segments of the population that do
not yet have access to public education and health services and are in many regards considered
‘poor’ or, as some Papuans prefer, “not yet fortunate”.
In 2004 the Government of Indonesia requested that the UNDP facilitate a needs assessment as
the basis for a strategic framework for a long-term development programme for Papua. Papua’s
local government has also laid out a grand strategy for development, expressing its own view of
Papuan needs and priorities. This strategy places the highest priority on health, education,
livelihoods and basic/community infrastructure and is consistent with the basic human development
objectives articulated by the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). The Papua Needs
Assessment has sought to integrate these differing perspectives of development into a coherent
picture of development needs.
This report presents the results of the assessment examining both the broad, cross-cutting
factors of development (i.e. cultural, environmental, economic, governance factors) as well as the
specific priority areas of development in Papua (i.e. health, education, community livelihoods,
and infrastructure). It portrays a vision of development shared by communities and the government
alike, while highlighting the distinct contextual issues that affect how this vision can be achieved.
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