The South Pacific POPIN Workshop was held from 3 to 6 April 1995 at Suva, Fiji. Pacific POPIN, a subregional POPIN in Asia-Pacific POPIN, has nine member countries and institutions in that subregion. It is coordinated by the Library of the University of South Pacific at Suva.

The purposes of the Workshop were to: a) review the activities and problems faced by the centres in collecting and disseminating population information, b) plan their future development within the framework of the Asia-Pacific POPIN, taking into consideration the outcome of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and c) to provide training on population information management for representatives of national Pacific-POPIN centres. The Workshop was attended by eight participants representing Pacific island countries and institutions, namely, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papau New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and the South Pacific Commission. Representatives from UNFPA-Fiji and the UNFPA Country Support Team for the South Pacific were also invited for the opening and other relevant sessions in order to ficilitate future collaboration.

The Workshop concluded with 17 recommendations, some of the most important of which are as follows:

1) National POPIN coordinating centres should be established where they are not already in existence and Pacific POPIN should aim at expanding the network in the region to include other ESCAP members, and associate member countries in the Pacific;

2) Seed funding should be made available from UNFPA regional funds for national POPIN activities on a case-by-case basis which will assist in the establishment or the ongoing activities of Pacific POPIN members;

3) The University of the South Pacific in its role as coordinator of Pacific POPIN, should prepare plans and proposals, in coordination with ESCAP, for regional development activities and forward them to UNFPA and/or other regional/international agencies on behalf of the Network in order to secure funds;

4) UNFPA CST experts and population experts of the South Pacific Commission should be utilised by Pacific-POPIN request the team to provide advisory services and practical assistance to the national Pacific-POPIN centres when on mission in the countries concerned;

5) The PIC (Pacific Information Centre) Newsletter should continue to be the medium of communication between all national coordinating centres and the regional centres, while the Asia-Pacific POPIN Bulletin and Southpac News, the newsletter of the UNFPA CST for the South Pacific, be utilised by all national centres Pacific-POPIN to create an awareness of the Network; and

6) The Regional POPIN Coordinator should seek the approval of the University Extension at USP to permit access by the national POPIN coordinator to the e-mail facility available at the USP centres in order to facilitate communication.