Giving back to the communities

Dionisia Tabureguci
Dr Jane Thomason, CEO of JTA International (JTA) has a vision for mining companies operating in the Pacific that someday, most of them would have come on board to be partners in the development of remote communities in which they are working.

As an international consulting and project management firm specialising in the provision and implementation of health services in remote and challenging environments, JTA has garnered experience in assisting not just mining companies in the Asia Pacific region with health care needs for their workers but also other organisations like RAMSI in the Solomon Islands, AusAID, ADB and the World Health Organisation.

Its slogan “World Health—We’re working on it” is not an understatement. The company’s summary of experience on its website http://www.JTA.com.au reveals just how extensive its work in the areas of health in these parts of the world is.

A Health Sector Improvement in Fiji funded by AusAID; an HIV/AID Strategy Development and Public Health Response for OK Tedi Mining Ltd in Papua New Guinea; Advice on Lessons Learned from the Health Sector Response to the 2002 Bali Bombing in Indonesia for the World Health Organisation, as well as its involvement in the Hospital Management and Environmental and Public Health Services in the Solomon Islands for RAMSI are just some of the projects JTA has been involved in.

JTA’s work for mining companies has shown companies they can play a supportive role in the provision of basic healthcare in the rural communities. This stems out of the fact that mining companies often operate in some of the very remote locations of a country, making it the heart of service and infrastructure access not just for themselves but also for locals living in those remote areas. This makes mining companies ideal partners for delivery of essential services by third parties to areas of a country that might have been underserved by a government due to insufficient funds or logistical difficulties.

JTA believes mining companies are also well placed in remote rural communities to be partners in making basic health services available to local communities. In fact, in recent times, JTA has undertaken consultancies for mining clients operating in PNG that involved designing ways through which mining companies can contribute to community health development. For example in 2006, in celebration of World AIDS Day, Harmony Gold sponsored improvements to the Wau Health Centre in the Morobe Province of PNG.

JTA facilitated the health centre’s upgrade, strengthening of health services provided and managed World AIDS Day activities. That same year, Porgera JV contracted JTA to undertake a rapid assessment of the mine’s HIV/AIDS programmes in PNG’s Enga Province. JTA provided Porgera JV with a framework for a “blue chip” response to HIV/AIDS, incorporating management strategies; workplace HIV/AIDS programme; external outreach response; and measuring and monitoring an HIV/AIDS response.

JTA works with mining companies and assists them to extend from focusing primarily on the well being of their workforce to playing a wider role in community health. 

An example of this is JTA’s involvement with OK Tedi Mining Ltd in PNG. OK Tedi has engaged JTA to prepare a proposal for a broader programme of support to health services in the North Fly District of Western Province in PNG.

JTA has also been working with Harmony Gold to develop a Public Private Partnership for Health designed to strengthen and improve health services provided in the Bulolo District of Morobe Province, PNG.

Undertakings like these inspire Thomason’s vision to link JTA’s services and expertise to mining companies that desire to adopt principles of being responsible corporate citizens. Together, it’s a partnership that goes a long way in bringing about benefits to the local communities.

Thomason recently presented a paper at the PNG Australia Business Council Forum in Cairns entitled: Reverse Alchemy—Turning Gold into Health Care in Papua New Guinea.

She concluded: “In PNG, where there is so much mining and resource development and the government is struggling to provide services in many remote rural areas, there is a real opportunity now for the government and resource companies to collaborate to expand services to unserved areas.”