Co-operatives as an organisational model for urban women in Papua New Guinea

This participatory action research project was framed as an investigation and intervention into the organisational forms of urban women's groups in the informal settlements surrounding the city of Lae. It was conceived as the next step from a World Bank research consultancy conducted by Melissa Demian and Zuabe Tinning in 2016-2017 on the topic of domestic violence and the broader solutions to this issue sought by urban women.

This research helped women’s groups to register themselves as cooperatives in order to facilitate access to the support of the Office of Cooperative Societies of Papua New Guinea. It also assisted these groups to establish their structures of governance, placing them in contact with organisations internal to the country that support the formation of self-help groups.

The project engagement has included meetings with 8 urban women’s groups of varying size (10-30 members each) and culminated in a workshop with representatives from these groups and Provincial Government officers from the departments of Commerce and Community Development. Project outcomes were also discussed with the Institute of National Affairs and with Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development, both organisations (one national and one international) based in the capital of Port Moresby.

This work was supported by a Scottish Funding Council Global Challenges Research Fund grant in 2019.