Liz McKinlay, CEO of Australian Business Volunteers

My journey with Papua New Guinea is deeply intertwined with my family’s history and my own love for the country. My family has a long connection to Papua New Guinea—my father and his brother worked there as part of the building boom in 1966, one as a carpenter and the other as a painter. My mother was the secretary to the head of the Department of Public Works and, in 1967, my parents married in Port Moresby (POM) at Saint Mary’s Cathedral.

They captured many cherished memories in Port Moresby and Mt Hagen, which I now look back on in our albums. A very important part of my history started in Papua New Guinea, and even though my family moved back to Australia in 1970, my connection to the country remains strong.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve been travelling back to Papua New Guinea regularly, reconnecting with old friends and family members like my cousin Bruce, who was the principal of the International School at Ela Beach. These visits have only deepened my love for PNG and fuelled my desire to support its people and culture.

Zarah de la Cruz and participants of the YES program

Liz with Sister Anna, who ran the Catholic Health Service in Western Province

This passion eventually led me to my role as CEO of Australian Business Volunteers (ABV), an organisation dedicated to supporting Papua New Guinea’s small and medium-sized businesses. Under my leadership, ABV has built strong corporate partnerships with BSP Financial Group and Newmont, which fund initiatives like our Your Enterprise Scheme (YES) program. YES aims to nurture local businesses and entrepreneurs through the support of our local staff and database of skilled volunteers. 

One of the things that brings me great joy is the opportunity to continue my family’s connection to Papua New Guinea through ABV’s work. We send volunteers like Zarah de la Cruz to deliver the YES program, and I find her a kindred spirit as she shares a similar passion for supporting small businesses that are the heart of PNG’s economy. With her mother from Port Moresby and her father from Lae, Zarah has a strong personal connection to the country herself.

Zarah is a highly experienced business consultant who joined ABV while looking for a way to give back her expertise. She specialises in business model development, cost management and risk assessment. In late 2023, Zarah went on assignment in Lae, teaching the YES program alongside her volunteer partner Phil, whose background in finance complemented her own business experience.

As many YES Grow participants are in the agricultural industry, Zarah dedicated time to understanding the seasonal cycles of

Liz with cousin, Bruce McKinlay

different crops, including the ideal timing for planting and harvesting. This knowledge is essential to help the businesses she worked with adapt their strategies to account for periods of low yield, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable agricultural business model.

Reuben Yapi, the Chairman of Morobe Primary Provincial Cooperative Association (MPPCA), was one of the participants in the YES Program in Lae. The MPPCA is an association that brings together clusters of villages with smallholder farmers. Each farmer produces until they have a collective amount of around 50 bags of cocoa or coffee, which the association then sells at the markets.

The profits from the sales are evenly distributed among all members to ensure fairness and equity.

Reuben participated in the program to gain skills to train smallholder farmers to enhance their business practices and achieve higher crop yields. 

Reuben shared his thoughts:

The overall training was very good, and the presenters have done a tremendous job. Although English is my second language, Zarah and Phil have done an excellent job. The Business Model Canvas really suits SMEs and retail businesses. We can use this for cooperatives and smallholder farmers’ groups.

Zarah’s dedication to her work is evident in her commitment to staying connected with the businesses after the training. She shares a weekly ‘Monday motivation’ message via WhatsApp to the participants every week.

Her favourite quote she’s shared has been, ‘small steps in the right direction are better than big steps in the wrong direction,’ which guides her approach and inspires the entrepreneurs she mentors. Our work honours the relationship between PNG and AUS with the support of skilled volunteers like Zarah. •