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Urban Poverty, Crime and Ethnic Violence in Papua New Guinea Essay

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In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the growing trend of urban migration is leading to a rapid increase in the urban population. As a result, the country has the greatest numbers of people living in squatter and informal settlements in the Pacific Region (Jones 2012, p. 8). This is most evident in the capital of PNG, Port Moresby (population 400,000), where about 45% of the city’s total population lives in settlements (Jones 2012, p. 9). As in other parts of the world, these settlements are characterized by a deficiency in planning, poor infrastructure and a lack of urban services. This in turn is creating a set of complex development planning challenges for the city.
This paper will discuss urbanisation as one of the most significant …show more content…

However, national policies relating to the issues have not been fully implemented, or even developed in some cases.
Admittedly, there is recognition of urban poverty in the National Urbanisation Policy, the National Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Medium Term Development Strategy of PNG (Storey 2010, p. 11). However, there is limited consensus on what constitutes urban poverty, or how it should be measured. Proposed methods on how it should be tackled has proven inadequate over time, with reality obstructing the expectations set in the plans. While the above strategies have been adopted, a coalition of support for change and implementation has not been built or maintained. Among the critical factors is how the local urban government lacks financial and management capacities to respond to the challenge of urban poverty (UN-HABITAT 2010).
Added to the existing trepidations in this urban melting pot, city and settlement dwellers are also experiencing ethnic clashes and a rapid increase in crime and violence (Storey 2010, p. 8-10). This has resulted from the unplanned growth and expansion of squatter settlements, income disparities, high youth unemployment rates, an erosion of cultural values that assist with conflict resolution, and the abuse of the ‘wantok system,’- people from the same language group helping each other (UN-HABITAT 2007, 2010).
Crime is exacerbated by

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