Two decades of walking with rural Simbu communities.
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.
A peaceful, organised and self-reliant community focused on improved, sustainable livelihoods.
Mission
Promote and support community socio‑economic participation, and grow sustainable livelihood activity that improves family quality of life.
Goal
Strengthen networks, build capacity and open opportunity for young women and men as agents of change in their own communities.
Approach
Enter communities, empower and train them, and guide the formation of community‑based organisations that can sustain themselves.
A community-grown NGO, twenty years into rural Simbu.
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.
Registration & identity
- Legal name
- Community Development Agency of Papua New Guinea (PNG) Inc.
- Date of formation
- 15 October 2001
- Registration authority
- Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), PNG
- Registration number
- 5‑1420, under s.7 of the Association Incorporation Act
- Operating as an NGO since
- 2005
- Head office
- Non‑Formal Education Section, Division of Education, Kundiawa 461, Simbu Province
Why CDA exists
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.
A six-week rhythm, repeated for every project
Planning workshop
Project teams and communities set the plan together before any activity begins.
Implementation
Field activity delivered by project coordinators, officers and community resource officers.
Community entry
Return to community to check progress, listen, and adjust.
Reporting & evaluation
Narrative and budget acquittals prepared at the project management unit level before the cycle repeats.
Seven focus areas, one community-first method.
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.
Programs & partners database
Every funded program CDA has delivered since 2005, drawn straight from CDA's official partnership records. Filter by sector or search by partner, program or year.
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.
The people behind CDA
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.
Where we work
CDA's roots are in Gumine District; since 2020 the same model has extended province‑wide.
Structure, board & safeguards
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.
Financial management
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.
General Body & workforce
- General Body members
- 72 (43 men · 29 women) — meets annually to approve plans & budget
- Board of Directors
- 7 members (4 men · 3 women), 2‑year terms
- Regular staff
- 16 (12 men · 4 women)
- Community facilitators / volunteers
- 12 (9 men · 3 women)
- Ward development committees supported
- 450
- Model farmers & health volunteers
- 1,700 model farmers · 40 health volunteers
Documented systems behind every program
Where CDA can plug in next
Twenty years of trusted, on-the-ground delivery gives CDA a running start with new partners — government, donor or private sector.
CDA is ready to…
Going forward
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.
Ready to start a conversation?
Reach CDA's Executive Director directly — details on the Contact page.