Conflict & Resilience | Elections and violence prevention in PNG’s Highlands

Join the Development Intelligence Lab for the first session in Conflict & Resilience, a new series of online conversations on conflict, peace and resilience in the Indo-Pacific.

The series brings together people working in government, programs and research to look at live conflict prevention issues in the region. Each session follows the same format:

1. We identify a timely issue that we all need to understand better.

2. We surface and synthesise the evidence together, including through insights from guest speakers.

3. We discuss and debate what this means for Australian policy and partnerships in the region.

In the first edition, we will focus on Papua New Guinea as it prepares to go to the polls in 2027. In the Highlands, elections have often brought violence, and the grievances it creates last well beyond polling day. Much of the work to prevent this is done by community mediators and peacebuilders, yet they are seldom part of formal election planning. Hela and Southern Highlands are home to PNG’s largest resource project, and election violence there affects both the national economy and trust in PNG’s democratic institutions.

Conciliation Resources will present findings from its new report - Preventing election violence in Papua New Guinea's Highlands - based on 30 interviews in Hela and Southern Highlands provinces. The research looks at how election dynamics shape the work of local peace actors, where the risks are for 2027, and where there are openings to strengthen locally led prevention.

We’ll then open the discussion. What does early, preventative action look like in practice? How can mediators, ward leaders and provincial coordination mechanisms be better supported? And what role can partners like Australia play in the months before campaigning starts?

Speakers:

•          Laura Raicu, Programme Associate, Conciliation Resources

•          Facilitated by Martina Zapf, General Manager, Development Intelligence Lab