[Profile & History][Directors & Management][Board Members][Management & Staff]

Organizational Profile and History
Partners With Melanesians (PWM) is a national “Not for Profit“ NGO operating in Papua New Guinea . It is registered with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) in 1993 as an Association under Association Incorporation Act. (Certificate of Incorporation attached as Annex B)

Partners With Melanesians (PWM) started as an idea by staff and students of the language and literature Departments at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1985.

Since then, there have been numerous developments within the organization as well as events outside of the organization that have shaped the history of the organization.

Initially it was set up to support groups and communities who were involved in education and development initiatives in rural communities of PNG. As time progressed, PWM started work on the Managalas Plateau of the Oro Province in what has come to be one of the best models of community mobilizing and community development work around conservation in the country.

With initial financial support coming from various sources including MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank, Biodiversity Conservation Network, and work around Consensus Building was started in the late 80's. As the project evolved to include more and more zones (finally covering the whole Afore District), the need for a long-term commitment from donor Partners was realized when the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation (RFN) entered into this partnership in 1997.

Since then, various other partners have joined in this project including the Government of PNG through the Targeted Community Development Programme (TCDP) and Community Aid Abroad (CAA) of Australia.

After fifteen years, it was felt strongly that there was a need to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization in meeting its goals and re-looking at its objectives to better meet the needs of its target clientele, an evaluation was proposed which would then be followed by a workshop to look at all aspects of the organization.

In September 2000, a major evaluation of the Managalas Conservation Area Support Project (also called the Managalas Sustainable Development Project) was carried out by a group of independent evaluators and was funded by RFN. It was followed by a Strategic Planning Workshop funded by CCA, in 2001

In 2003 the PNG Forest Authority and PWM began to discuss the acquisition of land in Afore to use as a base of operations, as PWM had no office to maintain their presence in the region. In 2004 the PNG Forest Authority gave PWM land and a house to use as office space. Afore LLG also gave PWM two houses to renovate.

Between 2004 and 2005 PWM also became involved in advocacy work for road repairs between Oro Bay and Afore. PWM lobbied regarding the conditions of the road to the World Bank, in order to encourage them to fund repairs.

Another Strategic Planning Workshop was held in June 2006 to address PWM's intentions to exit work on the Managalas Plateau and hand over control of the conservation project to the Managalas Development Foundation, an organization that was incorporated in 2001. PWM intends to exit the area and begin working in new areas in the next several years. There are four proposed project sites; three near the current Managalas project and one in the Enga Province . <Back to top>

PWM Board of Directors and Management

PWM is governed by a Board of Directors, which consists of 2 female and 5 male, representing various stakeholders and communities where the projects are located. The Board provides overall policy directions to the organization.

PWM Management and Staff An Executive Director with a team of senior staff manages the organization. The Executive Director has full responsibility for the overall administrative and management direction for the organization. The Executive Director is also responsible to ensure that networking, liaison and dialogue is continuously maintained with Government, partner NGOs both local and international, donor agencies and other stakeholders.

The projects and programme activities for PWM at various field sites is overseen by the Programme Manager who is responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring as well as liaison with stakeholders at the project level. PWM has a permanent staff of 12, and all project implementation is conducted jointly with the CBO partners on the Managalas Plateau. <Bact to top>