Betty and Liz

Betty is a public servant, having worked for the Department of National Planning and Monitoring as a Senior Planning and Programming Officer for the Economic Sector. She is committed to driving economic growth in Papua New Guinea by contributing to effective policy formulation across Health, Education and Infrastructure sectors.

Betty is committed to reducing the level of poverty in Papua New Guinea’s rural areas. Through the Women’s Leadership Initiative, she hopes to both develop her leadership skills and analyse how the government, private, and community sectors can combine resources to overcome development and governance issues.

Liz is experienced in leadership and management with a specialisation in governance. She worked in Timor-Leste for 17 years as Team Leader of the Australian Government-funded Governance for Development program; as an Operations Manager in the United Nations Development Program Governance Unit, in particular, the Justice and Parliament Support programs; and in other regulatory and human development roles.

Under her leadership, the Governance for Development program responded to the opportunity of including gender responsive budgeting in the revised program budget structures of Timor-Leste’s state budget. The program was also able to ensure inclusion of gender policies in the Public Service Commission’s 15-year strategic plan. This resulted in gender programs and gender activities being specified across the whole of government.