The Decentralisation and Citizen Participation Partnership (DCPP) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a complex program working in a complex context, one in which the relationship between cause and effect is hard to predict. The program must take into acount the contested political environment in which it operates and the Government reform and aid efforts that came before it. These two factors – outlined in this brief – have shaped the evolving approach of the program: what it works on and how it works.

Today, defining features of DCPP include:

• An emphasis on an integrated, multilevel approach to governance support.
• Locally defined solutions that suit the district or provincial circumstance.
• Best fit not best practice.
• A need to adapt to short and long-term changes in the political context of the decentralisation policy arena.
• An emphasis on state-citizen relationships.
• A focus on self-reflection and learning.