Without exception participants at the workshop agreed, notwithstanding the traditional sociality of conflict, that conflict is a serious impediment to development and that the situation in the Southern Highlands is in urgent need of redress. There is a comprehensive breakdown of law and order, and state service provision has all but ceased. The past 15-20 years have seen public servants move in the first instance to larger centres and more recently to other provinces, where they can secure basic services for their own families.

Why is the situation in the Southern Highlands so poor? One of the recurring observations made by workshop participants was that the problems in SHP do not relate to lack of income as such, but to the distribution and reinvestment of that income. This view is endorsed by Sir Peter Barter. In a press release dated 24 February 2003, he noted that SHP is the richest province ‘because of the flow from the oil and gas projects’ and the poorest province ‘because those resources have been squandered’. The widespread mismanagement and misappropriation of government funds as well as oil and gas royalties has meant that although the Southern Highlands is home to several of Papua New Guinea’s successful resource projects, the majority of Southern Highlanders have gained little benefit from the projects being undertaken in their province. This is a source of ongoing discontent within the province. One often hears Southern Highlanders ask: why is SHP so disadvantaged relative to other parts of Papua New Guinea when it is home to many of the country’s resource projects? In the words of James Marape, a candidate for the Tari Open electorate in 2002:

Clearly, a major source of conflict in the Southern Highlands is inequitable access to state services and to the ‘benefits’ of resource development. Other sources of tension and conflict include ethnic divisions, lack of effective administration and governance, and unrealistic expectations about resource development.