ACT NOW! has recently given a presentation on sustainable and responsible development to more than 200 secondary school students at the Moresby Arts Theatre.

The presentation, given by Campaign Coordinator Eddie Tanago, was part of the PRIDE program that aims to influence education, confidence-building and the development of expressive abilities in young people through sessions that stimulate discussion about social issues.

ACT NOW!’s presentation focused on the development model set out in the National Goals and Directive Principles in the Constitution and how this differs from the government’s emphasis on large-scale extractive industries and economic growth.

The Constitutional model is built around integral human development, PNG Ways, caring for the environment and retaining our National Sovereignty. But this vision is being undermined by large-scale resource projects and foreign ownership of land and assets which are the root cause of so many problems the country is facing including violence, crime, lack of basic services, food insecurity and inequality.

The presentation emphasized that if PNG is to chart its own development path and to improve the livelihoods of ordinary people then it needs to go back to the NGDP and implement them faithfully, as prescribed in the Strategy for Responsible and Sustainable Development (StaRS).