Data critical in decision making for service delivery: Tikil

Western Highlands Deputy Provincial Administrator for Policy and Advisory Services Ashley Tikil says data collection is vital to make relevant decisions about development agendas in the country.

Tikil made these remarks when welcoming the National Economic and Fiscal Commission Cost of Services Study team into the province.

NEFC COSS team led by Principal Policy Analyst and team leader Valentine Sime met with the Western Highlands Provincial Management Team at the Sir Mara House in Hagen yesterday [Monday 7th April 2025].

“The survey and the cost-of-service delivery is very significant and very important component of information that the government needs to make budget and to deliver necessary goods and services to our people,” Tikil said.

The team will be in the province for a week to conduct the study on the cost-of-service delivery in the province.

Tikil said the visit by NEFC the study on service delivery in the province was critical. He said many provinces including Western Highlands, the cost of delivery of basic services to the remote areas is not the same as in the cities and towns.

“Like for the education sector, the schools are established in both remote and urban areas and the amount of money that is being given through the Government’s school fee subsidy schemes is the same,” he said.

“However, the cost of delivery of school materials differs. Basically, the disparities are there. We need to consider these disparities when allocating funding,” he added.

As the Deputy Provincial Administrator who’s also responsible for the programs, Mr. Tikil said, a budget will be allocated to support data collection in Western Highlands.

“For instance, in Western Highlands, we put a lot of costs on Education, Health and social services as well other services,” he said.

“We have the other Highlands provinces flocking into Western Highlands because of law-and-order issues in their provinces.

“We put up with the burden of providing basic services like Health and Education. In most of our schools in the province, 50% of students are from the Western Highlands while the other 50% are from other provinces.

“So, we provide the cost-of-service delivery in education. Therefore, this kind of data is very important as we will provide it to the National Economic and Fiscal Commission through this survey, so that there is evidence for the government to increase our budget to meet our development aspirations. As a province, we need to provide that data,” Tikil iterated.

The deputy administrator encouraged executive managers to provide relevant information required by NEFC team.

“We also created a WhatsApp group for this week. We have to get accurate data to the commission so that this data is used to allocate the right level of funding to the province both the rural and urban centres,” he said.

Mr. Tikil understands that the importance of equal distribution of wealth, goods, and services to the people, especially those living in remote areas, must not be disadvantaged.

He said delivering goods and services in the remote districts and LLGs costs more than the amount allocated.

“I believe the Cost of Services Study will go a long way in bringing the much-needed change in our budgets,” he concluded.