Regional autonomy is designed to increase the welfare of the community with the idea that regional government best understands what must be done in order to increase and improve human resources. The quality of human resources in a community can be a determining factor for the success of development initiatives in a region. Regional governments must be able to properly plan, to implement, and to evaluate regional budget allocations as they have direct impacts on regional gross regional domestic product (GRDP) as well as on measurable community welfare as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). This study examines the relationship between government spending and human development in regional governments of Papua Province, Indonesia as measured by the HDI. A secondary analysis of government data and Human Development Index (HDI) data was conducted using structural equation modelling. The secondary analysis of regional government budget allocations and HDI data suggests that spending with the goal of improving the lives of community members seems to lead to an improvement of HDI. This study is focused on regional governments in one province of Indonesia. While its findings suggest that governments should make supporting human resources a priority if they hope to see improvement in HDI, similar studies should be conducted in other communities in order to see how different cultural or political settings affect the relationship between spending and HDI. This study adds to our understanding of development with its focus on Papua Province, an under-studied area in development research.