As part of the ongoing development of the Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (IMES) for Papua New Guinea’s Child Nutrition and Social Protection (CNSP) Project, Synergy recently conducted a series of stakeholder workshops in Port Moresby.
The workshops brought together representatives from the Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG), the National Department of Health, National Department of Health, the Department of Community Development and Religion, the Department of ICT and the World Bank task team to review the system’s design, align implementation priorities, and strengthen coordination across participating institutions.
Representing Synergy during the mission were Senior Project Manager Lia Harutyunyan and Business Development Executive Sergey Gasparyan, who worked closely with project stakeholders to validate business processes and discuss the next stages of implementation.
The Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System is being developed under the guidance and coordination of the Department of Justice and Attorney General to support NextGen, the Government of Papua New Guinea’s coordinated initiative to strengthen social protection and improve child nutrition through the Child Nutrition and Social Protection Project. NextGen brings together government institutions and implementing partners under a unified framework that places children, families, and communities at the center of development.
The CNSP Project consists of three complementary components that work together to improve child wellbeing and strengthen social protection delivery across the country.
The first component, PNG CARES (Community Based Approach to Reduce and End Stunting), expands access to nutrition awareness, growth monitoring, maternal health services, and early childhood support through community-based interventions led by the National Department of Health. It strengthens the health system so that pregnant mothers and young children have access to essential care right in their communities.
The second component, the Child Nutrition Grant, provides conditional cash assistance to families with children during their first one thousand days. The program, implemented by the Department for Community Development and Religion, combines financial support with requirements such as health checkups and counselling to promote improved nutrition and responsible caregiving. Cashless payments are supported through partners including MiBank and Digicel PNG’s CellMoni service, while participating communities also benefit from basic financial literacy and household budgeting training.
The third component focuses on Advocacy, Coordination and Project Management, strengthening collaboration among government institutions, provincial administrations, and communities while supporting public awareness campaigns on nutrition, positive parenting, and the responsible use of social assistance. This component is coordinated by the Department of Justice and Attorney General.
The Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (IMES) will serve as the central platform connecting these three components. By consolidating information from multiple implementing agencies into a single environment, the system will strengthen monitoring and evaluation, improve coordination, and support evidence-based decision making throughout the project. Government institutions and development partners will be able to monitor implementation progress, measure results, and better understand the long-term impact of nutrition and social protection interventions across Papua New Guinea.
The need for such a system is particularly important given the scale and complexity of the initiative. The CNSP Project addresses two significant challenges simultaneously: reducing childhood stunting across one of the world’s most geographically and linguistically diverse countries and establishing the institutional and digital systems required to deliver services reliably to remote and dispersed communities. The IMES platform provides the data and performance visibility needed to ensure that expanding nutrition and cash transfer programs can be effectively monitored and continuously improved.
Speaking about the importance of the initiative, Ken Siminji, Project Manager for CNSP Component 3 at the Department of Justice and Attorney General, highlighted the role of the system in strengthening collaboration across government institutions:
“The Department of Justice and Attorney General is part of three government departments working together to roll out the Child Nutrition and Social Protection Project. It is the first time the government has brought three departments together under one project. It’s also important that it’s an all of government’s approach to tackling important national challenge.”
Stanley Raka, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Justice and Attorney General and Project Director for the CNSP Project, also emphasized the value of having a unified platform for monitoring the project:
“For us, bringing three government agencies together under one project is a big ask. Data and its consistency are not always regularly controlled or maintained. The IMES will be a game changer for us helping to consolidate data captured through different information systems and portals, bringing it together in one centralized system.”
As part of the mission, Synergy also recorded an interview with government counterparts discussing the objectives of the project and the expected impact of the new system. The interviews provide additional insight into how the Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System will support evidence-based decision making and strengthen social protection delivery in Papua New Guinea.
Synergy International Systems, Inc. (“Synergy”) is a software development and consulting tech company built on hard work, dedication, and a commitment to excellence. Founded in 1997, we have worked in more than 80 countries to help organizations and governments to become more data driven. We are a privately held, 170+ person company headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metro area, USA, with a Development and Global Learning Center in Armenia, and offices in the Netherlands and Rwanda. Synergy has achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO 9001:2015 to certify its Information Security and Quality Management Systems (ISMS and QMS).
