Global recognition for community health efforts
Our Community Health Impact Management Program has received global recognition.
IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues, has showcased ExxonMobil PNG's Community Health Impact Management Program in its recently released Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Guide as an example of industry best practice. This also highlighted how the industry can enhance diagnostics and health data collection capacity of government institutions to support workforce and community health.
In addition, ExxonMobils PNG’s community health partnerships were featured at the 2016 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) conference on Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility held in Norway in 2016. SPE is the largest individual-member organisation serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals within the oil and gas industry.
A key component of the health program was the integrated Health Demographic Surveillance System (iHDSS) which monitors the impact of the PNG LNG Project on the health of communities within Project areas. The iHDSS program, developed in partnership with the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR), was developed to improve the country’s data collection and health diagnostics.
The program included working with the University of Papua New Guinea's School of Medicine and Health Services to fund, build and outfit the National Infectious Disease Diagnostic and Research Laboratory and train its staff to World Health Organisation gold standards.
The state of the art facility is managed by PNGIMR and is used to advance important biomedical research in tropical medicine as well as research for infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. The laboratory also supports iHDSS by providing accurate diagnosis of surveillance samples.
The data collected under the iHDSS has helped improve accurate diagnosis of disease at the village level and has also aided provincial and national health authorities to more effectively plan and implement health services.
The successful implementation of the iHDSS in PNG serves as a model not only for Public Private Partnerships in PNG, but for industry globally.
PNGIMR continues to build upon the success of its PNG LNG partnership and aims to expand the iHDSS model to cover PNG-wide through new partnerships, donors and industry partners.