A series of regional workshops is being held across Bougainville to present findings on Bougainvilleans’ understanding of the independence-readiness benchmarks.
The workshops, led by the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation with support from UNFPA, make up this initiative called the ‘Bougainville Voices’. They present consolidated findings collected through community dialogue sessions across all regions in Bougainville and are designed to assist planning and decision-making for the Bougainville leadership at both the political and administrative levels.
ABG Secretary for the Department of Bougainville Independence Mission Implementation, Ms Stephanie Elizah, in giving an overview of the workshop held in Buka last week, acknowledged the ABG Members and the Community Government (CG) Chairladies for making time to attend. She added that the presentation by Bougainville Voices is important, and the information is collected based on the current parliamentary motion on ‘The Bougainville Independence Ready Mission Motion’.
“This is the first of three regional meetings that will take place in North, Central, and South Bougainville, and I thank you, our ABG Members and Community Government Chairladies, for being present to receive this important information,” she said.
The six independence-readiness benchmarks set by the ABG for all constituencies are Law and Order, Governance, Social Services, Human Resource Development, Economic Development, and Health and Standard of Living.
Secretary Elizah explained that the motion tasks Bougainvilleans with progressing these benchmarks. In welcoming the Bougainville Voices to present their findings, she acknowledged the independent initiative taken in collecting data on what Bougainvilleans’ perspectives of independence-readiness are.
“For the first time, we have an independent, neutral, fact-finding feedback from our people to tell the independence-ready committees, which are made up of the ward members and the constituency members, on how we are performing. At the same time, it is this feedback from Bougainville Voices that will help to identify where the issues are and how each of us as leaders from each constituency can work around those challenges,” she said.
According to the report, Bougainville Voices conducted a series of 26 participatory community dialogues across 13 districts of AROB, reaching 692 participants, nearly half of whom were women.
Ms Rebecca Kessin, Program Coordinator for UNFPA Community Dialogues, who is also an Advocacy Coordinator for NCFR (Gender Programs), in presenting the report, emphasised that the presence of the leaders was important and stressed the need for the findings to inform practical action.
“Today, we will present the results of what was said in the communities to you, the Community Government Chairladies and ABG Members, so you can be aware of the hopes and aspirations of the people about the six benchmarks towards independence readiness.”
The community dialogues were held from May to July 2025 and provided a platform for communities to reflect on the challenges, strengths, and priority actions for each benchmark.
Generally, communities expressed strong interest in enhancing law and order through initiatives such as community policing, strengthening local economic participation through financial literacy and household budgeting programs, and expanding access to education and technical skills training.
Communities also emphasized opportunities to improve coordination between all levels of government, upgrade water, sanitation, and health services, and invest in higher education and health infrastructure. Overall, the findings reflect communities’ commitment to shaping practical, locally driven solutions that support Bougainville’s long-term development.
Secretary for the ABG Department of Community Government, Mrs. Belinda Maree Lanbong, also welcomed the report, noting that the findings would help inform policy mechanisms or tools to use and coordinate better resources at the Community Government level.
The regional workshop in Buka was attended by Community Government Chairladies, their deputy chairpersons, CG Managers, North Bougainville Youth Executives, and the ABG Constituency Members from Tsitalato, Kunua, Kereaka, Teua, and Peit.
North Bougainville Parliamentary Committee Chairman and Member for Tsitalato Constituency, John Bosco Ragu, acknowledged the UNFPA and Bougainville Voices for the report produced, welcomed the concerns raised, and stressed that the findings would assist them to improve their constituencies to prepare for independence.
