CDA is a locally-grown, non-political NGO that has spent almost twenty years turning tribal conflict into peace agreements, garden plots into coffee income, and marginalised wards into organised, self-reliant communities.
Promote and support community socio‑economic participation, and grow sustainable livelihood activity that improves family quality of life.
Strengthen networks, build capacity and open opportunity for young women and men as agents of change in their own communities.
Enter communities, empower and train them, and guide the formation of community‑based organisations that can sustain themselves.
Community Development Agency (CDA) began as the brainchild of Yanny Smith Guman after more than a decade working alongside NGOs in some of Papua New Guinea’s most remote communities. Registered with the Investment Promotion Authority in 2001, CDA began operating as an NGO in 2005 — first in Gumine District, then, from 2020, across all six districts of Simbu Province.
More than 70% of Papua New Guinea’s population lives rurally, with life outcomes well behind urban centres — a gap CDA’s twenty years of observation trace to weak government presence and a lack of leadership focused on rural development. CDA’s response: enter communities on their own terms, understand how they live, and grow interventions that are actually sustained by the people who receive them.
Project teams and communities set the plan together before any activity begins.
Field activity delivered by project coordinators, officers and community resource officers.
Return to community to check progress, listen, and adjust.
Narrative and budget acquittals prepared at the project management unit level before the cycle repeats.
Tribal fighting causing large-scale destruction to livelihoods and natural resources
Poor health conditions across rural wards
Dysfunctional government and an ineffective leadership system
Over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources
Limited income-generating opportunities and access to resources
Community marginalisation and entrenched poverty
Abuse and misuse of already-limited resources
From coffee gardens to court houses, CDA’s programs sit inside seven sectors — each one searchable below alongside the partners and projects that fund it.
Every funded program CDA has delivered since 2005, drawn straight from CDA’s official partnership records. Filter by sector, search by partner, program or year, then export what you see.
GBV response training, awareness raising, and construction of a Safe House / Centre of Influence for survivor referral and support.
CDA's current flagship program, shifting its coffee work from a charity model to a social business — green-bean processing, roast-and-ground retail coffee, and continued CBO strengthening.
Training and referral pathways addressing gender-based violence and sorcery-accusation-related violence (SARV).
Seed funding toward the Simbu Education Resource Centre (SERC), now under construction.
Gender-rights training, social action analysis and advocacy on gender-based issues.
Climate change mitigation delivered under the UNDP Global Environment Facility.
Supported cultural preservation and revival activity within Simbu communities.
Combined climate-change mitigation with water, sanitation and hygiene delivery.
The largest coffee-industry support project in Gumine and neighbouring districts — reached over 3,000 smallholder farmers with pulpers, nurseries and three wet mills.
Delivered 45 ward development plans, three consolidated LLG plans and a Gumine District political assessment, in collaboration with ANU and DFAT.
Peacebuilding and mediation training that underpinned CDA's later success brokering tribal peace agreements.
An eight-year program spanning food production, small livestock, inland fishing, beekeeping and coffee-based income generation.
Water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure delivered to rural Gumine communities.
Facilitated major community peace agreements that ended long-running tribal conflicts across Gumine District.
Introduced climate-resilient crops — early-maturing sweet potato, drought-resistant cassava — and famine-food cultivation.
CDA's longest-running program — funded three coffee wet mills, CBO strengthening, and early planning for a community development institute.
Continuation of conservation and environmental-awareness work across Gumine communities.
Strengthened CDA's own governance, internal systems and staff capacity as an organisation.
CDA's founding program — early community organising and mobilisation training that shaped how CDA still enters and empowers rural communities today.
Worked with landowners to identify and conserve water sources, and ran community awareness on environmental protection.
Amounts and partnership years are reproduced from CDA’s 2024 Capability Statement & Profile. Several line items in the source ledger record additional funding tranches under the same program; figures shown here are grouped by program for readability and may not resolve to the document’s headline total (K14,452,000) to the kina.
A seven-member Board sets direction; a management and field team — several with 15–18 years at CDA — carries it out. Search by name, role or expertise.
Assistant District Manager
Leading human rights activist
Entrepreneur
Executive Director, CDA
Pastor
Teacher
Member of Parliament
Program management, project implementation, planning, M&E, financial management, project design & documentation
Property management & valuation, land administration, feasibility studies, project management, district administration
Finance, accounts, operations, asset management, human resources
Program planning & management, financial management, mobilising churches & community groups, youth empowerment
Project management, implementation, planning, M&E, project design and coordination
Policy development, tutoring, telecom network engineering, database design & management, systems administration
Accounts, finance, administration
Community development, social work, training and advocacy
Gender-issues trainer, community development trainer and advocate, church trainer
Community organisation work, environment
Empowerment, project implementation and coordination
Teacher, trainer, child trainer, disability empowerment and training
Building design, builder, construction manager
Computer support, graphic artist, web designer
Agriculture, coffee, farming, pastoral work
Property management, project planning, land administration
CDA’s roots are in Gumine District; since 2020 the same model has extended province‑wide.
CDA's founding district and the site of most delivered infrastructure: three coffee wet mills, 45 ward development plans, and the peace agreements that ended conflict across dozens of tribes.
Includes the Kup and Salt Nomane Karamui local-level government areas; coffee development and WASH activity extended here alongside Gumine.
One of Simbu's most recent priority districts for CDA's rural socio-economic development programming.
Brought into CDA's operating footprint as part of the province-wide extension from Gumine.
Home to Doliba and Nomane High Schools, recipients of a library-book donation project developed with SASA and Project Yumi.
Named in CDA's 2020 province-wide extension alongside Simbu's other five districts.
Recent CDA activities, announcements and calls for partnership. Follow the WhatsApp channel, YouTube or Facebook page for photos and video from each activity.
CDA now publishes activity updates, field photography and short video stories on its WhatsApp channel, YouTube channel and Facebook page, so partners, donors and community members can follow the work between formal reports.
CDA's full capability statement — programmes, partners, districts, people and governance policies — is now available online and as a single-file offline copy that can be shared by email or USB with partners working outside network coverage.
The Simbu Education Resource Centre remains CDA's priority infrastructure project. CDA is inviting development partners and donors to co-fund the build and equip an e-library serving students across the six districts.
Activity reports, photos and partnership announcements can be sent to admin@cdapng.org and will be added to this page.
A flat, accountable operating structure sits behind every program above — from the Board down to community resource officers in the field.
Structure shown for CDA’s Rural Socio‑Economic Development (RSED) Program, Phase II.
All programs run on a documented financial operating manual with standard reporting, budget acquittal and evaluation forms. CDA’s books and accounts pass through external audit every six months, with both narrative and financial audit reports prepared internally beforehand.
Since 2005, more than sixteen partners have channelled in excess of K8 million through formal agreements into Gumine and the wider Simbu districts — without a recorded breach of law or policy against government or regulatory bodies.
Sets down the policies, conditions, rights and obligations governing CDA staff.
The basic framework for reaching CDA's financial goals economically and efficiently.
Establishes child rights at every level of the organisation and in the communities CDA serves.
Ensures every stakeholder can raise feedback or complaints and have them properly addressed.
Promotes community socio-economic participation to improve family quality of life.
Establishes gender equality across every level and function of the organisation.
Ensures people with disabilities are included in the delivery of CDA's work.
Promotes equal opportunity for women to participate in and benefit from profitable economic activity.
Improves CDA's overall organisational performance and program delivery quality.
Defines each role's purpose in achieving CDA's organisational goals and objectives.
Improves the organisation's financial management system.
Shows partners and the public what CDA does, and opens a channel for feedback.
Records, sorts, classifies and processes all project and organisational data efficiently — the same principle this site's search is built on.
Twenty years of trusted, on-the-ground delivery gives CDA a running start with new partners — government, donor or private sector.
Co-funding for the Simbu Education Resource Centre (SERC) — a state-of-the-art facility with uninterrupted internet, an e-library and business services for students on alternative education pathways.
Reach CDA’s Executive Director directly — details on the Contact page.
CDA has delivered more than K8 million of programme work through its partners, audited every six months. Use this form to offer funding, propose a co-funded project, or request programme funding details. It reaches the Executive Director’s office directly.
A complete single-file copy of this profile — every program, person, district and policy, with the CDA emblem and photography embedded — can be downloaded from the Offline copy button at the top of the page. It opens in any browser with no internet connection, and can be emailed or copied onto a USB stick for partners in the field. Use Print / PDF to produce a printable version of the whole profile.