Many of the activities under the NWDP were continued as part of the implementation strategy of the Women’s Policy. But beyond that, the Women’s Policy appears to have been shelved. A Five Year Management Plan (FYMP) for the Women’s Division was developed by a consultant in 1994, setting out an implementation guide. The plan outlines a year-by-year implementation schedule which the department is supposed to follow, strengthening existing administrative structures and culminating in the establishment of a proposed Office of the Status of Women (OSW). The passage of the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local-level Governments in 1995 made the FYMP redundant, because the organic law transferred the major functions of the department to the provinces under a new system of decentralization. The Women’s Policy has yet to be reviewed to incorporate this change, and to include the various international commitments that the government has agreed to, such as the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995). Parliament ratified CEDAW without reservation in 1994, some fifteen years after its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, but there is no new women’s policy in the offing. While resources allocated to the Women’s Division have declined, the Division’s workload has increased as various international organizations step up the pressure on member countries to address gender issues, through, for example, CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, and other international agreements such as the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Women and Development. This was highlighted by an internal review of women’s policy by officers of the Women’s Division in 1999.

Constant reorganization and restructuring has also contributed to the demoralization of staff and consequent inaction. A number of inappropriate appointments to senior management has not improved the situation. No government, with the exception of the first Somare-led government, has paid attention to gender issues in a systematic way. Recognizing women’s disadvantaged position and encouraging them to participate in all forms of public life is one thing; recognizing gender as a development issue is quite another. Some implementation of women’s policies has taken place, but it has been ad hoc. Several provinces, including New Ireland, Oro, Gulf and Sandaun, however, have gone ahead to plan their own provincial women’s policies/plans.

A review of the NWDP in 1988 revealed that the Women’s Division had anticipated that in the second phase of the NWDP, with sufficient training programs for women’s officers and CWOs, provinces would be able to develop their own women’s programs and, after 1992, their own Provincial Women’s Policy modelled on the national one (personal communication, Molly Manuyakasi). Indeed, had the second phase of the NWDP proceeded as envisaged, provincial gender units would have been well placed to accommodate the 1995 provincial and local-level reforms, which transferred functions to provinces and districts.