Country Support Activities


COOK ISLANDS

National Awareness/Advocacy Seminar for School Principals
In order to address social problems including teen pregnancy, STDs, alcohol and drug abuse, family communication breakdown, child neglect, etc. the Cook Islands Government embarked on the school population education project, CKI/95/PO1, funded by UNFP A. The project, inter alia, intends to develop teaching and learning materials and train teachers in primary social science, and a new topic, "Life Skills", for the secondary level, in order to develop and promote more positive and responsible att itudes, not only in the students but also in the parents.

Most of the instructional materials have been drafted for trial testing, but because of the sensitive nature of some of the materials, especially those dealing with sex, the project planned an orientation seminar for principals of the schools in the C ook Islands in order to inform them about the project and to gain their support for the trial testing and eventual introduction of the programme. This National Awareness Seminar for Principals on Population and Family Life Skills Issues in Schools was planned for four days during the first term school holidays, 29 April - 2 May 1996.

The Seminar was conducted using a good mixture of presentations, participatory activities, discussions, and group review of draft materials. The principals appreciated very much the experience they gained during the seminar and expressed their intent ion of carrying through their plans for introducing the life skills trials in their schools. In addition, they intend to work with parents in advocacy for the programme in order for the trial testing to be accepted and proceed smoothly.

Some of the secondary school principals have intentions of using the materials at lower levels (Form 4 and below) when the draft materials are intended for Form 5 and 6. They particularly appreciated the approach recommended, especially the possible a ctivities for parents. Mr. Allan K. Kondo, Population Education Adviser was resource person in the workshop.

KIRIBATI

National Population & Development Seminar
A Seminar on Population and Development was convened in Kiribati on 22-24 May 1996 to raise awareness primarily among Parliamentarians and senior officials of the need to integrate population concerns into national planning. The timing of the meeting coincided with the visit of the Parliamentarians to Tarawa from the various outer islands for the sitting of Parliament. Mr. Laurie Lewis, the Adviser on Population Statistics, and Ms. Jiko Luveni, UNFPA Programme Officer, provided technical support to the seminar organisers.


Modern high density government housing, Tarawa

The Seminar achieved its major objective of raising the awareness of politicians and senior public servants of the importance of population issues and the consequential need to integrate population into the national planning process. A second objectiv e of eliciting from this august assembly the need to move towards a national population and development policy was also accomplished, although it must be acknowledged that progress in this direction may still not be easy. The highest level of Government, Church and NGOs represented at the Seminar provided an ideal framework for the formulation of a national programme that mobilises available resources as partners in development.

SOLOMON ISLANDS

In-depth Reviews of RH/FP and PAIEC Sectors
The Solomon Islands is one of the priority countries in the South Pacific Region for UNFPA assistance in view of the low level of social, economic and human development as reflected in its relatively low levels of income per capita, literacy, school enrolment rates and relatively high levels of fertility and mortality as well as increased health risks for mothers and children. The mid-year population estimated 1995 was 367,800.

As part of the preparatory activities for a Programme Review and Strategy Development (PRSD) exercise aimed at developing a coherent framework for the South Pacific Population Programme, the UNFPA initiated action to conduct in-depth analytical review s of the following major sectors: Population and Development Strategies (PDS); Reproductive Health and Family Planning (RH/FP); Gender, Population and Development (GDP); and Population Advocacy, Information, Education and Communication (PAIEC).

The Adviser on Reproductive Health and Family Planning and the Adviser on Population IEC and Labour undertook a joint mission to carry out in-depth reviews of the RH/FP and the PAIEC sectors respectively. The mission met with a large number of offici als both from the government and the NGOs.

TONGA

1996 Population and Housing Census
The CST Adviser on Population Statistics, visited Tonga from 8-15 June to provide technical assistance to the Statistics Department on preparations for the 1996 Population and Housing Census planned for November this year. Discussions were held with a ll staff engaged in census preparations, individually and in small groups. A full day workshop was held to review the draft questionnaire and to discuss enumerator training and data processing.

The 1996 Census schedule is likely to see improvements applied to the measures of migration, fertility, mortality and the labour force. The treatment of migration in Tonga's forthcoming census is crucial since the demography of Tonga is now heavily i nfluenced by the propensity of its people to emigrate, mostly to New Zealand but increasingly to Australia, United States and elsewhere. Accepting that the population census is not well-suited to the measurement of international migration and given the i mportance of such measures to Tonga, the adviser noted that it is crucial that other sources be tapped to enable growth rates to be estimated and monitored.

Population Policy Workshop
An important first National Population Policy Workshop was held on 8-12 July in the capital, Nuku'alofa. Organized by a steering committee with secretariat backstopping by the Central Planning Department, the seminar was funded by UNFPA and AusAID.

The objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness amongst planners and policy-makerson the close interrelationships between population dynamics and national sustainable socio-economic development; to identify major population-related issues and problems; and to advance the process of formulating a national population policy that will be integrated into Tonga's future national development plans.

The workshop attracted over 50 high-level participants from government, NGOs, church groups, academic institutions, and the private sector. Resource persons were drawn from the national participants, the UNFPA CST, the South Pacific Commission, and SPREP. Mr. William House, CST Adviser on Population Policy and Development Strategies, was requested, at the insistence of the Central Planning Department, to act as workshop director, in addition to being principal resource person. Mr. Stephen Chee, CST Director, and Mr. Luke Mataiciwa, UNFPA Programme Management Officer also participated in the workshop.

The programme of the workshop included plenary presentations, question and answer sessions, group discussions, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) exercise, group reports and panel discussions on a wide-ranging agenda of population-related issues.

The workshop clearly had an impact in raising awareness about population-related issues and problems in Tonga, among the participants, and in the country at large, because of the wide coverage by the local media.

The organizers expect that, based on the deliberations and recommendations of the workshop, a draft national population policy will be prepared for consideration by the political leadership.

VANUATU

Sectoral Reviews
A joint mission was undertaken by the CST Adviser on Population and Development Planning and Policy and the Adviser on Population Education to Vanuatu from 4-16 May 1996 to consult with Government and NGO counterparts on national population policy an d programme priorities and carry out in-depth sectoral reviews in their respective areas.

The mission met with over 45 officials from the Government, NGOS and the churches. Prospects for improving the quality of life via sustainable economic growth and human resource development will improve if a comprehensive population and development policy is drafted and implemented in the very near future. The data and information base needs development in some of the key areas necessary to implement and monitor the population programme. Once erected, the proposed Population Secretariat will need financial and technical support to identify the data and information gaps and then to fill them via appropriate small scale surveys. Efforts to reform the ineffective Vital Registrat ion System should be encouraged.

Population advocacy and IEC (PAIEC) activities in Vanuatu are being undertaken mostly by some NGOs, including the Vanuatu Family Health Association, Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, Save the Children Fund Australia, and the Vanuatu Nat ional Council of Women through outreach programmes. While there is much collaboration between the Family Health Section and the NGOs and among the NGOs themselves, there is no national PAIEC strategy. A national population policy should include an PAIEC strategy.

Potentially, the churches could play a very important role in PAIEC, especially through their youth groups, and some advocacy is needed for churches to initiate educational programmes, especially to curb teen pregnancy, which they all acknowledged to be a problem. A non-formal population education programme is important in Vanuatu, as less than 20 percent go on to secondary schooling.


Vanuatu Parliament - symbolic policy of family planning?