Evaluation of Australia’s electoral assistance to Papua New Guinea 2015-2017

Summary of publication

This independent evaluation focussed on assessing the overall effectiveness of Australia's electoral assistance to Papua New Guinea (PNG) from 2015-17, with a view to informing the scope and nature of Australia's future electoral support. It assessed the effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and gender equality of the Australian Government's electoral support to PNG during the two-year period 2015-17.

The evaluation found that there were significant challenges to the effectiveness of Australia's contribution in supporting well-managed elections in PNG. However, given the scale of Australia's contribution, and the counterfactual argument that the elections in PNG may have been more problematic without this support, the contribution made was assessed as being reasonable under difficult circumstances. The evaluation determined that Australia should continue to invest in electoral support, but that future support should adopt a greater emphasis in ensuring that aid is fit for context, appropriate in its ambitions and able to be upscaled as opportunities for effective support arise.

A range of recommendations were made in relation to Australia's support to the PNG electoral process. All recommendations involved a continuation of some degree of Australian support albeit with a more targeted and strategic orientation. DFAT's management response accepts or partially accepts all of the recommendations.