Martha Macintyre – Does democracy work in PNG?

Welcome to Episode 82 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Martha Macintyre.

Martha is an anthropologist who initially studied History at The University of Melbourne and then moved on to postgraduate study in Anthropology at The University of Cambridge (UK) and gained her PhD at The Australian National University. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2012.

Martha has undertaken research in Papua New Guinea for over 30 years. Martha has combined anthropological and historical scholarship with practical and policy concerns as an advisor and consultant to the Papua New Guinea government and several multinational corporations. She has particular interest in questions about changes in women’s power, health and well being in the context of rapid social change and has written extensively on gender, human rights and violence against women.

In this episode, Martha and I discuss why healthcare in PNG continues to be inadequate. We also discuss the contribution of anthropology to the international development sector, along with Martha’s hopes and fears for the future of PNG. Martha wrote an article for the Devpolicy blog in April 2019 on the catastrophic failure of health service delivery in PNG, which you can read here.

For more coverage on healthcare in PNG and the Pacific, visit the Devpolicy blog.

We did say we were bringing you coverage of the new aid partnership strategy this week. Unfortunately that interview had to be delayed but we hope to bring it to you next week.

Enjoy the episode,
The GWH Team