Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has a remarkable diversity of geographic and natural resources. The country has complex cultural dynamics deeply rooted in tribal and ethnic identity, traditional social institutions, and relationships to the land. These contribute to both the country’s unique challenges as well as its considerable resilience. Papua New Guinea’s population is young and growing. There are limited formal job opportunities and other risks include environmental management, population growth, political fragmentation, inequalities in the country’s resource dominated economy, and social exclusion. With such a highly dispersed and remote population with 87% of Papua New Guineans living in rural areas, the consequences of a COVID-19 outbreak in PNG has the potential to be devastating. The future resilience and economic growth of the country will depend on how its health system responds to the pandemic (World Bank, 2020).