Attaining the MDGs has become a major priority in Papua’s development vision. The Government Program Rencana Strategis Pembangunan Kampung/RESPEK (or Strategic Village Development Plan) whereby each village in Papua receives a block grant of Rp 100 million to use themselves for community development, has incorporated the MDGs as a reference for the Papua Government to measure this development. In West Papua, efforts to attain the MDGs are reflected in the technical planning of sectoral departments.
Through the capacity building processes, the local stakeholders’ understanding on the importance and substances of multi-stakeholders MDGs monitoring have notably improved. Participatory MDG-related policy review has been conducted to provide recommendation for the development planning.

In West Papua, through PDP, the local stakeholders have improved their skills in natural resources mapping and facilitating community groups in developing sustainable natural resources management.

Seven Pro-poor Planning Officers have been facilitating targeted districts to plan and prepare budgets from sectoral departments related to MDGs for pro-poor orientation in a transparent and performance-orientated way, as well as providing training to kabupaten government officials and technical department staffs.  Five districts have developed development strategic plans at sub-district level.

Also in partnership with BPS-Statistics Indonesia, PDP provides on-going support to the development of a Papua MDG database. Six target districts have also started mainstreaming MDGs into their development plans after receiving training from PDP in transparent and performance-orientated strategic planning.

Twenty-two United Nations Volunteers, 28 civil society organizations and three Senior NGOs who play a capacity building role to the CSOs have been working in the selected villages and sub-districts to increase incomes through livelihoods activities; provide health and education related services to the most marginalized communities; improve local infrastructure to support economic activity and access to services; and promote planning and women’s empowerment to improve community dialogue and development outcomes.
Support has also been given to establish partnerships with local universities such as University of Cendrawasih (Papua) and University of Papua (West Papua) in order to implement a Student Volunteer Scheme.  Under the Student Volunteer programme 40 fresh graduates will be recruited as sub-district facilitators who will transfer their skills and knowledge to the indigenous youth and poor communities, and identify priorities for development while simultaneously learning about indigenous culture.
Eighteen community-based resource centres are being facilitated by local UN Volunteers. These community resource centres are providing access to external information, computer-based learning, libraries and a place where UNDP and other development partners provide basic trainings in areas such as literacy, HIV/AIDS, and livelihoods.

PDP is supporting Bappeda and BP3D in conducting development partners’ coordination meetings and has published five periodical Donor Harmonisation Booklets to support the government in coordinating donor and government programmes and policies. PDP is a partner to other UN agencies active in Papua and West Papua, including UNICEF, ILO, WHO, the World Bank and UNV. PDP has been actively involving in formulation and implementation of the UN Joint Programme in the Papua Highlands (Districts of Jayawijaya and Lanny Jaya). Together with ILO, PDP have conducted joint training on gender and entrepreneurship development for NUNVs and the target beneficiaries.

In 2004, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with central and local governments undertook a needs assessment to develop a deeper understanding of the situation in Papua. The assessment looked at: 1) local government capacities, 2) civil society and community-based organizations’ activities, 3) community conditions and livelihoods needs, 4) the nexus between gender, the environment, governance and public finance.
The Assessment provided a rich picture of local realities in Papua and West Papua, showing a wide gap between urban, rural and remote areas in terms of access to basic services and sustainable livelihoods. Major disparities were also found between the majority indigenous populations - who have poorer access to basic services and welfare, compared to the migrant populations. Existing and potential tensions relating to economic disparities, particularly over access to natural resources, were also identified.
During the last three decades, Papua has experienced significant economic growth. At the same time however, official statistics shows that poverty levels in Papua have increased. BPS data in 2002 showed that the poverty level in Papua (41%) is both significantly higher than the national level (18%) and also nearly twice as high as the BPS estimation for Papua in 1992 (21%). Field survey results confirm this high level of poverty, and also the huge income-welfare gap between people in rural and urban areas. Severe poverty is widespread across Papua.

Achieving the MDGs in Papua and West Papua is proving a major challenge to all stakeholders in the region, where government and civil society capacities must be strengthened to plan and effectively manage implementation of policies and programmes to achieve the MDGs. The Assessment confirmed that there are capable, though constrained, civil society organisations working on basic MDGs-related issues in rural areas in Papua and West Papua. The Assessment also highlighted the poor capacities in data collection, analysis and reporting, policy preparation, planning, programme implementation, and monitoring among local government agencies. This problem runs from the province through to the sub-districts.