UNFPA CONSULTATIVE MEETING

From Kathmandu to Suva, between June and August, Mr. Mohammad Nizamuddin, the new Chief of the Asia and the Pacific Division of the United Nations Population Fund, convened a series of consultative meetings with UNFPA Representatives, National Programme Officers, and the three Country Support Teams to discuss programme strategies and operational issues in the light of the Fund's new programme priorities and future directions since the landmark United Nations International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (ICPD-POA) was adopted in Cairo in 1994.

Suva Meeting

For the August 26-30 Suva consultations, besides Mr. Nizamuddin, other UNFPA Headquarters participants were Mr. Jurgen Sacklowski, Director of the Planning and Coordination Division, Ms. Amy C. Munthe-Kaas, Chief of the East and South East Asia Branch (which also includes the South Pacific sub-region), and Mr. O.J. Sikes, Chief of the Education, Communication and Youth Branch, Technical and Evaluation Division. Pacific-based participants included the UNFPA Representative for Papua New Guinea, Ms. Margaret O'Callaghan, the UNFPA Representative for the South Pacific, Ms. Etta Tadesse, the Suva-based UNFPA National Programme Officers, the Director of the Country Support Team (CST) for the South Pacific, Mr. Stephen Chee, and all CST Advisers.

Back Row(l-r): Urmila Singh; Laurie Lewis; Allan Kondo; Jiko Luveni; Salesi Katoanga; William House; Luke Mataiciwa; Stephen Chee Front Row(l-r): Jurgen Sacklowski; Etta Tadesse; Mohammed Nizamuddin; Margaret O'Callaghan; O.J. Sikes; Amy C. Munthe-Kaas

This first trip to Fiji also gave an opportunity for Mr. Nizamuddin and Ms. Munthe-Kaas to meet with partner agencies in the United Nations System and to visit with Ministers and senior government officials for discussions.

In outlining the objectives and agenda for the three-day substantive meeting on 27-29 August, Mr. Nizamuddin stated that the most important reason for the consultation was to ensure a common vision and a common understanding of UNFPA's mission, as well as to promote UNFPA team-building.

The wide-ranging agenda for the in-house discussions included the following topics: UNFPA programme priorities and future directions; the new UNFPA resource allocation scheme; review of CST progress and evolving role of the CST; the revised Technical Support Services Guidelines; the revised procedures for UNFPA Programme Review and Strategy Development (PRSD); gender concerns; collaboration with NGOs; and operationalization of UNFPA's core programme areas, namely reproductive health (including family planning and sexual health), population and development strategies, and advocacy, information, education and communication.

The Pacific Context

Clearly the consultations and frank dialogues on these topics were in the context of the special characteristics of the fifteen Pacific island countries in the UNFPA "parish".

Commenting on the special factors in the Pacific, Mr. Nizamuddin felt that the individual country framework adopted in other geographical regions does not always apply and it might be time to seek more innovative and relevant solutions to Pacific problems, which would include assessing the appropriateness of a sub-regional approach. In some ways the Suva-based CST is well suited to this task.

The major challenge for UNFPA is to develop national capacities; the pursuit of this goal should be the hallmark of the CST. Given the geographical dispersion of the fifteen Pacific island countries currently served by UNFPA, and the infrastructural and human resource constraints to national execution of population activities, the meeting felt that efforts should be channelled into a wide range of technical services that could be provided to enhance capacities, utilising the in-house capability of the CST to conduct sub-regional training courses, provide attachment coaching, etc., as well as the traditional field missions. Many of the solutions were recognized to be long-term to achieve impact.

(L-R): Jurgen Sacklowski; Mohammed Nizamuddin; Stephen Chee; Margaret O'Callaghan

Resource Allocation Scheme

In the discussion on the new UNFPA scheme for resource allocation, the following criteria were outlined:

All countries seeking UNFPA assistance should adhere to the ICPD-POA.

Technical assistance will be provided to all countries requesting it.

Financial assistance will be focused on countries with the lowest level of achievement with regard to the ICPD goals related to access to reproductive health and family planning services; access to education by girls and women; and levels of infant and maternal mortality.

Financial assistance to countries that are close to or have already surpassed ICPD goals will be phased out or limited in scope or amount.

South-South co-operation will be promoted.

Much concern was expressed by field managers over the special vulnerability of the Pacific countries and some anomaly in the classification of countries in the priority listing. It was explained that UNFPA Headquarters had sympathy with the anomalies pointed out, but these were due on the one hand to the inclusion of all LDCs in the Category A status and the exclusion of all other countries with populations less than 150,000 on the other. Since the fourteen countries in the South Pacific Programme, excluding Papua New Guinea, is regarded as a single sub-regional programme, it would be appropriate for programme management to exercise flexibility in determining needs and priorities.

The UNFPA is only one, albeit the leading, actor in the implementation of the ICPD-POA. In the face of resource scarcity, it is essential that programme strategy in the South Pacific, as indeed in all other sub-regions, should look for more cost-effective modalities of delivering assistance in population to the countries, with strengthening national capacity as the central aim, and through closer collaboration with non-governmental organizations, regional institutions, and United Nations agencies