Recommendations for improving POPIN project

The evaluation, which was funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), reviewed the project entitled "Improved Processing, Management, Communication and Dissemination of Population Data and Information" (1992-1995), with some reference also to work done previously to 1990.

A summary of Part 2 of the report, which was completed by Professor James Williams of the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, will be provided in the December 1996 issue of the Bulletin. This issue contains the recommendations of H. Authur Vespry, former head of the Library and Regional Documentation Centre of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, who completed Part 1 of the comprehensive report.

This summary is being provided because of the importance of the report's findings to members of Asia-Pacific POPIN.

In general, Mr. Vespry found that the outputs of the project have generally been well-received. Feedback has been sought during informal discussions, and at workshops and meetings and through readership surveys. Suggestions which have appeared sound and feasible have been adopted; modification and improvement have been continuing processes.

He warned against placing too much hope in new technologies becoming a panacea for members of Asia-Pacific POPIN. For example, he reasoned that, if learned print journals have not been hospitable to third-world authors and concerns, it would be unrealistic to hope that the electronic journals which may flourish in cyberspace will be any more hospitable. "It would be indeed unfortunate if any third-world country is led to believe that all the information it needs can be downloaded from Internet sites, and that it thus no longer has to work at accumulating and repackaging its own and its neighbours' information", he stated.

Recommendations to strengthen management and operations of project

• Cooperation and collaboration between POPIN network members should be enhanced. While some members are already self-sufficient, a few are lagging, and there will be new members that will need strengthening and support. Individual members must feel that they have a stake in and a responsibility for the Asia-Pacific POPIN network as such, if it is to attain sustainability and contribute to the strengthening of lagging and new members.

• Consideration should be given to constituting a management board or executive committee composed of national POPIN members; it would set policy for the Network and commit members to the necessary action to carry out its decisions.
• The Network should be structured with a variety of linkages and activities which can have various participating and lead-organizations within a country. This could offset lack of enthusiasm or of resources on the part of national POPINs (national focal points, or NFPs).
• NFPs should be encouraged to delegate some aspects of Network participation as a sign of their growing maturity.

The report contains a number of recommendations related to the Asia-Pacific Population Journal, Asia-Pacific POPIN Bulletin and Population Headliners. Because most of these are of more concern to the secretariat, only those directed at network members are included in this summary.

• ESCAP should continue its efforts to encourage greater participation of members in providing input: although NFPs have volunteered to send information about their activities, e.g. training programmes, meetings etc., for publication in the Bulletin, only a few have done so.
• The invitation to present papers and articles for publication in the Bulletin should be expanded beyond the NFPs, e.g. NGOs and academic institutions.

• In view of the unlikelihood that staffing constraints in the secretariat will ease, more responsibility for management and operations should be given to the Network members.
• Because the ESCAP Population Information and Communication Section has fewer staff than almost any of the Asia-Pacific POPIN network members, it should move towards restricting its activities to management and coordination of the Network and, in a planned way, progressively shift more of the training, the practical technical assistance and the TCDC programmes to the more advanced Network members, to conduct on its behalf.

• In view of the advances in new information technologies, ESCAP should develop, in cooperation with one of the advanced POPIN centres, a training package on the use of scanning technology, LAN, GIS, and access to the Internet. The cooperating centre could then become a training centre for staff of other Asia-Pacific POPIN centres, and it might ultimately develop into an international centre for training in new information technologies.
• Training programmes developed by the more advanced Network members should be made available to other members through collaborative arrangements.

Recommendations for special strategies and interventions to alleviate the gap between the less advanced and the more advanced POPIN centres and networks

Strengthening in-county networks

• Each member country should be encouraged to promote a membership drive to draw in more members.
• The NFPs should be encouraged to expand their in-country networks to include all institutions involved in reproductive health (family planning and MCH-FP) activities.

• Countries that have developed good training facilities and that are willing to host training courses in English should be encouraged to send notification of their training programme schedule to ESCAP for the widest possible dissemination among Network members.
• Asia-Pacific POPIN should encourage and promote training programmes in the strongest Network members for those that are lagging or that are new.

• An internship programme should be developed, whereby competent middle-level personnel from national POPINs would come to Bangkok for 3-12 months to work at ESCAP on POPIN-related topics under the guidance of secretariat staff. They could be paid by their parent organization and would carry out useful projects while serving at the secretariat. Where appropriate the intern could return home through one of the lagging POPIN countries or a new member country, and spend some time in active TCDC work.

• Ways should be sought to provide more visits and help and advice from the secretariat to the lagging Network members, even though it is recognized that the contingent of project personnel has shrunk from a high of eleven professionals in 1975 to only three in 1995. Because the work-load has not decreased commensurately, the staff are stretched to their limits. Although they try to visit some Network members, this has become more and more difficult with the passage of time.

• While TCDC activities have expanded and have proven to be successful, they should be increased and developed further, thereby decreasing the reliance on UNFPA support and moving closer to a self-sustaining POPIN.
• High priority should be given to ensuring that the Network members that have gained self-sufficiency be encouraged and assisted to develop their strong facilities to train and assist the lagging and new institutions.

Recommendations for improving the coordination among the national, regional and global population information networks

Expanding membership

• Thought should be given to establishing non-national membership, perhaps a special "associate membership" could be arranged which would place non-governmental centres in a different status in the Network. At the expense of such institutions, the Network could strengthen them, as necessary, with training etc. Those that are already strong could provide support to other weaker members of the Network, especially in countries where national focal points are lagging.

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