缅北禁地

Meet?Niakitap Poposan, Operations Analyst in UNDP Papua New Guinea

About Myself:?I come from Manus province which is a tropical island in the far north of mainland PNG, in the Pacific Ocean. The island group is made up of Melanesians and Polynesians and is famous for the emerald green snail, a shell used to make jewelry.

I grew up in Port Moresby, the capital city until I attended University in Lae, the manufacturing capital of PNG, and is also the largest port city. After?graduating in Information Technology, I worked for a mining company and a telecommunication company before joining 缅北禁地Women?in Bougainville in 2010. I then joined UNDP in 2015. My husband is Bougainvillean and we have 3 sons and a daughter ages 19, 15, 8, and 18 months old. Buka has been my home for the last 10 years. I enjoy my work and I think my colleagues will find me friendly and very helpful.

My work at the Peacebuilding Fund in Papua New Guinea:?My work primarily supports the two governments, the National Government and the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) to continue to work together to implement the Bougainville Peace Agreement. The peace agreement is considered one of the most successful Peace Agreements globally, having ended a bloody conflict that claimed up to 20,000 lives, almost 20 years ago.

In my role, I ensure all arrangements are in place to assist regular and frequent dialogue, and that contracts are administered to provide technical inputs as and when required. Also, I support the running of the project office and assist other agencies that are located in the Buka Office - UNDSS, UNFPA, 缅北禁地Women, 缅北禁地DPPA, OHCHR, and IOM; as well as manage a team of 6 people across two offices as well as provide administrative support.

Every day I have something to do which is great. Last year was an extremely?busy time for me and the office. In November 2019 Bougainville held a Referendum on its future political status, where 97.7% of the population voted for independence from Papua New Guinea. To support this, the office was implementing two projects, the Sustaining Peace in Bougainville Project, funded by PBF,?supporting an enabling environment for the referendum by helping the two governments to discuss and reach decisions, create awareness and remove weapons from communities, and the Bougainville Referendum Support Project, BRSP,?funded from voluntary contributions,?to provide direct support to the institution running the referendum, the Bougainville Referendum Commission. The project office delivery in that year increased fourfold, to its highest ever. Working in the operations team, I was running every day. This year the BRSP project has ended, and I am working with the Sustaining Peace Project to support the two governments consult for the agreed consultation to be submitted to the National Parliament for final ratification.

?As a Papua New Guinean/Bougainvillean, I am proud to have been part of this historical event and to have been a contributing force in the success of the referendum process.

Peacebuilding in the time of Coronavirus:?One of the biggest challenges has been the travel restrictions. Peacebuilding in a Melanesian setting requires a lot of face to face interaction. In the past, the office has supported a lot of face to face or direct contact meetings with partners, stakeholders, civil societies, and other local entities within Bougainville and between Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. Because of restrictions on social/physical distancing and overcrowding we have had to be very innovative on how we continue to support our activities. Now, I find myself facilitating teleconferencing between Bougainville and Port Moresby, from ensuring software and hardware is performing to detailed discussions with the satellite internet supplier to ensure optimum connections. I am proud that despite the pandemic the office can continue to assist the two governments in implementing the Peace Agreement.

My?work situation these days:?In the early stages of the pandemic, the National Government and the ABG put in place directives to enforce physical/social distancing, practice good hygiene, and control overcrowding. This resulted in the closure of schools, businesses, government entities, and markets. For many of us who depended heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables, we were greatly affected by the closure of the markets. Unlike other centers in PNG, vegetables are not sold in the supermarkets here so we had to travel along the highway to look for vegetables at one of the informal roadside markets, where supply was more variable and limited – you may have to visit four markets to find the carrots, potatoes, and onions needed for a meal. Another big disruption was the closure of all flights from Port Moresby to Bougainville for two months across April and May.

From a work perspective, I found these restrictions very challenging. With the implementation of the 缅北禁地Business Continuity Plan, in response to the first case of COVID19 in PNG, UNDP Bougainville staff were required to work from home, which is really difficult because many homes in Bougainville are not connected to mains power, therefore it is very difficult to keep phones and laptops charged, also the internet is very inconsistent, with service providers regularly down for days, making access to emails very difficult. Compounded with having a 18-month-old toddler when all that he wants is my attention and wants to sit with me when I’m using the laptop, it was difficult. I was then requested to work from the office.so as to continue my usual productivity.

My daily routine these days:?My usual daily routine would be to get up, start waking up the three older children, as it takes a while to get them out of bed,?and prepare breakfast. My baby is usually up before the older ones so while feeding him, my husband and I have to keep checking on the older kids to make sure they are up, have eaten, and all set for school. And then my husband and I have to get ready to go to work and drop off our daughter to school.

My baby stays home with his aunt who takes care of him when I’m not there. Evenings are my most cherished time when as a family we go for walks or visit a roadside market.

Finding ‘peace’:?We are grateful that the virus has not entered Bougainville and pray it remains this way. I think for me the main thing is to maintain close contact with my family. I would rather be near them then be far away and worry about them most especially my children. The travel restrictions in place have separated many families, all over the world, and I am so lucky that my family is together. Informal roadblocks were set up by communities across Bougainville when an initial fear spread across the island with the arrival of COVID-19 to PNG. To many of us we didn;’t understand what was happening or what this virus entailed.