Papua New Guinea’s Highlands region has long stood at the intersection of opportunity and volatility. With its rich natural resources, complex social fabric, and deeply embedded tribal structures, the region has historically experienced both economic promise and persistent conflict. It is against this backdrop that the Highlands Joint Programme Phase 2 (HJP2) was launched, with a high-level inception workshop held in Mendi, Southern Highlands, in July 2025.
The workshop, which brought together provincial leaders, civil society actors, and development partners, marked the formal start of a three-year (2025–2027) regional strategy to build peace, address displacement, and strengthen climate resilience across the Highlands. Critically, the second phase of the program expands operations into Enga and Western Highlands, two provinces increasingly impacted by resource-driven disputes, election-related violence, and environmental stress.
The HJP2 is jointly implemented by the United Nations and the Government of Papua New Guinea, with financial support from the Australian Government. Its design reflects a recognition that state fragility in PNG is not a uniform condition, but one that manifests acutely at the subnational level—often in places where customary governance coexists uneasily with formal institutions.
The Mendi workshop produced four key outcomes:
- Identification of geographic and thematic priorities, ensuring interventions are conflict-sensitive and locally relevant
- Drafting of a joint provincial workplan, signalling stronger buy-in from provincial governments
- Strengthened coordination among stakeholders, including security, gender, youth, and displacement actors
- A mapped 3-year implementation timeline, laying the groundwork for accountability and sequencing
In many ways, HJP2 is a response to the limitations of conventional top-down peacebuilding. While national frameworks and donor strategies have long targeted “law and order” reforms, HJP2 signals a shift toward localised governance solutions, grounded in provincial leadership and community engagement. It is a recognition that durable peace in the Highlands will not be brokered in Port Moresby or Canberra, but in places like Tari, Wabag, and Mendi—through inclusive, adaptive processes that reflect the region’s socio-political complexity.
This approach also reflects lessons from Phase 1, which focused on community dialogue, youth engagement, and disaster response in Hela and Southern Highlands. By expanding to new provinces, HJP2 acknowledges that conflict in the Highlands is not static, but shaped by shifting alliances, migration, elections, and resource access. The inclusion of climate resilience as a core thematic pillar also signals a growing awareness that environmental pressures—especially droughts, floods, and land degradation—are not just ecological challenges, but conflict multipliers.
Australia’s financial and diplomatic support for HJP2 is consistent with its broader regional strategy, which increasingly sees development assistance as a tool of strategic engagement in the Pacific. But unlike traditional aid interventions, HJP2 operates through joint governance structures, giving local institutions greater ownership. This reflects a maturing aid relationship—one that balances external support with domestic sovereignty.
Still, challenges remain. Effective implementation will require overcoming bureaucratic bottlenecks, ensuring inclusive participation (particularly for women and marginalised youth), and navigating complex relationships between customary and formal authorities. Furthermore, success will depend not just on planning workshops, but on tangible outcomes in conflict mitigation, service delivery, and trust-building at the community level.
Yet in a country often hamstrung by fragmented development planning and political short-termism, HJP2 offers a template for longer-term, place-based peacebuilding. It is neither revolutionary nor perfect—but it is locally informed, jointly owned, and strategically timed.
If successful, the Highlands Joint Programme could stand as a rare example of what development diplomacy can achieve: not merely delivering projects, but reshaping governance relationships in one of PNG’s most contested regions.