Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world.

Over 800 languages are spoken throughout the islands, and over 1,000 distinct ethnic groups comprise the national population of over 10 million people.

It is also a country undergoing rapid change, as people move away from their villages to seek work and education in the cities. Because of the complexities of land tenure and the lack of employment opportunities, many end up living in settlements on the edges of the towns.

More than 40% of Papua New Guineans live below the country’s extreme poverty line. There is a high level of gender inequality, with PNG ranking 151st on the Gender Inequality Index among the 193 countries surveyed in 2022.

36.6% of people over 15 are illiterate (35% are male and 42% female). Only 26.3% of women and 36.5% of men have received some secondary education. The average number of years a child spends at school is 5.9 years.

Our Partner

ABM and AID have had a long relationship with the Anglican Church of PNG (ACPNG) to address many of the challenges faced by both the Church and the country.

The Anglican Province of Papua New Guinea is made up of five dioceses – Aipo Rongo, Dogura, New Guinea Islands, Popondota, and Port Moresby. Around 3% of Papua New Guineans identify themselves as Anglican, although in some provinces such as Oro, in Diocese of Popondota, this figure is as high as 60%.

Beginning in 1891, ABM missionaries were first sent to support the church to deliver its mandate, before a partnership model was adopted with ACPNG much later to empower local, community-based development.

Today, AID works with the church to support the communities to lift themselves out of poverty and become role models for others and ABM works with the church to improve the quality of ordained leaders.

The Work We Support

1. Strengthening the Church to Build Sustainable Communities

To read about the Sustainable Communities work supported by AID in PNG, please click here.

2. Bishop Newton School of Theology

The Bishop Newton School of Theology in PNG, formerly Newton Theological College, is now a part of the newly formed Modawa Institute of Higher Education. That’s an exciting development, spurred on by the PNG Government’s requirement for tertiary providers to be accredited. Alongside the Theological School, the campus will also soon house the St Barnabas School for Healthcare Workers and a teachers’ college.

Fr Leki Kambari, who graduated in 2024 with an Advanced Diploma says, “I personally think that Newton has prepared me very well for prayer life, pastoral work, and leadership.” Nonetheless, he admits that “The level of studies at Newton was very low at that time … Exegesis is the most important study that would have helped me better for the ministry. Exegeting and interpreting the Bible is a problem for many priests here in PNG.”

Leki is very pleased that the college has morphed into the Bishop Newton School of Theology because the educational standards are now beginning to get much higher there. But it’s not all about that because “the best thing I can think of as being a student at Newton is the ‘Prayer Life’”

When asked for a reason for Australian Anglicans to give to this Program, Fr Leki said that donors could make a real difference to the training of those offering themselves for ordained ministry. Once ordained, they would be able to go out into mainly rural communities and help them to thrive.

Your gift will help train up others like Fr Leki to go out into parishes and other faith communities, to strengthen them not only through proclaiming the Gospel, but also through leading and organising their communities, helping them to develop.